Sense Hotel Sofia, a Member of Design Hotels

The downstairs restaurant was fantastic and ended up being a highlight, and breakfast was excellent, though the service felt a bit chaotic. The hotel itself is beautiful and the staff were friendly, but the internet barely worked throughout our stay. I had to pay for expensive data just to take calls, which isn’t what I’d expect at a decent hotel. It left me feeling they overlook small but important details.

The location is great, and the staff were good. It’s a quiet hotel with a nice view, especially at breakfast. The rooms are roomy enough, dry and peaceful, with a good bed. The pillows weren’t great, though, and for a five-star place the bathroom sink felt too small and not ideal. I’d come back.

We picked this hotel because we expected a five-star standard and needed rest before my child’s World Championship. She’s a competitive gymnast who has trained for years to represent the USA team. Instead, smoke filled our original room overnight. My 10-year-old was smelling cigarettes until 10 am, then had a headache and couldn’t eat the next day, which affected her preparation physically and mentally for an event she’d worked toward for years. At first reception tried to help, but we didn’t like the room they suggested. They said there were no rooms, and we stayed in the smoky room until 10 am. After I contacted Expedia, the hotel somehow found us another room. There, the air-conditioning didn’t work, so the room was cold. We asked for help turning it on, and staff brought a heater. I even asked for a thermometer because the front desk kept arguing with me and I felt I had to prove it. There were no managers available to address the problems. The front desk said the manager wasn’t available, and Expedia couldn’t reach one either. The hotel is supposed to be smoke-free, so the smoke getting into our room and the failure of the smoke detectors were unacceptable. Between that, the broken air-conditioning and lack of on-site management, it didn’t meet five-star standards. I changed my rating from 3 to 1. I wouldn’t recommend it and will never come back.

The staff were great, and the rooms had comfortable beds, plenty of lighting choices, and decks with city views. There’s also a rooftop restaurant with a gorgeous view. A few things got annoying, though. The gym was closed for renovation, luckily there are amazing parks nearby. Music from the club stayed loud until 1 am on a couple of the days I was there, even two floors below. The elevator is quirky too: someone was inside when I called it and didn’t know how to get out. Bring your room key, press the floor lights firmly because they’re the buttons, and use your key to select your floor.