Riga Suites Antwerp

If you’re after a lively neighbourhood, I’d recommend this hotel. It’s right in central Antwerp, with plenty of restaurants and bars around, and the rooms are clean and well maintained. The front desk manager gave us a really warm welcome. One thing to keep in mind: on weekends, rooms at the front can pick up noise from the street and bars. It didn’t bother me, but it could disturb a light sleeper.

That said, this could have been an isolated incident, and I don’t want to make the whole place sound bad. We were eventually offered an Airbnb apartment farther away, which we accepted, but cleanliness was a problem there too. In the original room, the bathroom fixtures were visibly dirty and smeared. At the apartment, the bins hadn’t been emptied and the toilet clearly hadn’t been cleaned. We booked through Booking to give a smaller property a chance, also with future trips in mind. The location was excellent, and the room was spacious and suited us well. But right beside our room was a technical room with something clearly broken. The noise was so loud, like a jackhammer, that sleeping was impossible. Getting in touch with the operator took effort. They replied only after we followed up through Booking. Other rooms seemed to be available on Booking, but nobody offered to move us, and the emergency number went unanswered. The stay was disappointing. We’ll choose another place next time and unfortunately can’t recommend this hotel.

The rooms are spacious, nicely renovated and pretty, which makes the lack of service a real shame. The hotel was recently sold and switched to digital-only, with no reception or service at all. During our stay, nobody cleaned the room or brought fresh cups, glasses or towels, and there was no replacement coffee or tea. Even basic things like a hairdryer were missing. The only messages we got from the hotel were three email reminders to leave by checkout. It’s noisy too. The hotel sits at the edge of the party area, and we could hear loud music, motorbikes and people shouting in the street all night.

The room itself was nice, and when we left, the manager was accommodating and understood our frustrations about how the hotel had changed from what we expected when booking. Still, based on our stay, we wouldn’t recommend the new setup or consider it a premium or even medium-priced hotel. Best to look elsewhere. We stayed at hotel riga in early February, and learned during the visit that ownership had recently changed and many processes were no longer in place. The hotel seemed to be shifting to remote service, but there was no one at reception for our three nights. Check-in was a problem because we were delayed and the online listing gave a specific closing time. Luckily a staff member was still there when we arrived. The hotel phone and Booking system had both gone unanswered. At one point our room wasn’t cleaned and we didn’t get fresh towels. With nobody working at reception or elsewhere in the hotel, we had to ask at the restaurant next door for help while the transition away from 'hotel ownership' was still underway. The bar and restaurant listed when we booked had both been sold and were no longer part of the hotel.