Elit Hotel

The room had bugs on the bed, a dirty floor, a stained couch with cigarette burns, and hair across the bathroom floor. Both the shower handle and hairdryer were broken. There’s no reception, manager or other staff, just a cleaning lady who doesn’t speak English. The only person to contact is a man on WhatsApp, and he wasn’t really helpful. We hadn’t been given clear instructions before arriving, and once we got there, we couldn’t open the entrance door. I was left outside in the cold with two elderly people until the WhatsApp man answered. This can’t be considered a three-star hotel. It barely qualifies as a hotel at all. Don’t stay here.

There was no Wi-Fi, room access code, staff or cleaning service, nothing. It’s an old, abandoned building in what felt like a no-go zone. Budapest itself is the best city in Europe, but this area is easily its worst part. We ended up going to the nearby Bristol building instead, and it was much better.

I couldn’t sleep properly on any of the four nights I booked. The room has very poor soundproofing: street noise goes on endlessly, and you can clearly hear people opening doors, talking and walking in the corridor. The AC also made both my partner and me sick. It felt like it hadn’t been cleaned in decades, so we turned it off to avoid getting worse. But then the room was too warm, and opening the window wasn’t an option because it was so loud outside we could barely hear each other speak. After a full day walking around crowds of tourists, I just wanted a decent room where I could relax in peace. This room was no better than being outside. I contacted customer service after the first sleepless night and asked if they could move me to somewhere a little quieter. They said there was nothing they could do. I got the feeling that once they’d taken our money and knew we couldn’t get it back, they no longer cared about our stay. Their replies were full of AI-style diplomatic lines like “we are contacting...” and “we are trying to resolve this...”, but no solution ever came from all that trying. Even when I checked out, they were still saying they’d check availability and get back to me. The worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in. Thanks for the wonderful service.

They sent me all the details before I arrived, and communicating through WhatsApp or email was fine. The room was clean, although the windows really needed washing. It also looked much larger in the booking.com photos than it was in person. I chose it for the expected size, which I needed for my plans, and the room wasn’t suitable, so that was disappointing and threw my plans off. Right after arriving, I messaged to ask how to adjust the AC temperature. I got an automatic reply saying someone would get back to me shortly, but nobody ever did.