Stay Report: Hilton Budapest Executive Room Featuring Executive Lounge
The Hilton Budapest is famous for its unique location in the Buda Castle District, a UNESCO world heritage site. However, during the time of my stay, the property was under renovation and its building was covered with decorative facade. This was the information on their website regarding the renovation plan:
"To add additional comfort and style, a part of the hotel will undergo renovations until 31 March 2018. Daily operations and hotel services will not be affected.
We kindly inform our guests that from 25 November 2017 until the end of March 2018 the ICON Restaurant will undergo renovations. During this period à la carte dining will be available in the hotel's Corvina Room or in the Lobby Café & Bar."
An email was first sent to the hotel informing them how I was looking forward to my stay with them and hoping for an out-of-the-ordinary upgrade to be honoured. In return, they replied with a standard email with information on how unique the hotel was and listed all the paying upgrade options, fair enough.
During my taxi ride from the airport to the hotel,(Uber is banned in Hungary) somehow I accidentally get into a "fake" taxi as he the same yellow colour body as all the others, however the driver insisted me taking out cash on the way at an ATM instead of using the POS machine. In the end I paid him 15 000 Hungarian forints, which was an equivalent of near 50 Euros. To be fair, it was quiet a long distance to the hotel, but in a country like Hungary, it surely seemed a bit over-priced.
Check In:
I arrived at the hotel after mid night where there was only one male receptionist working then. He was courteous and well-informed on handling the process, when asked again for a possible suite upgrade, he suggested that I was already upgraded to the executive room; I politely insisted on checking the possibility again where he responded by informing me that 93% of the hotel rooms was booked. I complied and thanked for his effort.
One small hiccup here was in order to go to my executive room, I haded to go through their executive lounge which when first tried, the card reader failed to recognise my room key, I had no choice but going down to the reception again, he apologised for the matter and fixed it right away, I took it as karma for demanding too much?
The hallway was beautifully designed and decorative pieces were scattered in an organised manner.
Welcome Amenities
Two bottles of complementary mineral water, and as a welcome gift, a box of chocolate.
Some general information with the wifi login, restaurant recommendations and last but not least, a welcome letter signed by their general manager.
The Room
I was amazed by the subtle and refined design with the use of those opulent black lacquer wooden material furnishing. The room is of fitting size and au fait with typical guest needs.
The bed was of immense size with some of the most comfortable and sophisticated bedding material I've ever slept on. The indigo leather walling also give away an elegant taste.
Next to the night stand, the chaise longue in dark blue matched with light blue backrests has also put the corner in a flattering touch.
The bay window with those mirror walling enabled spatial extension of the room, together with curtains which are uneven, presenting more layers to the end of your sight.
With a multifunctional TV cabinet which amenities like tea sets, water kettle and mini-bar are all neatly packed together, they still managed to have it beautifully conveyed, although you can only find the tea sets by opening from the side of the cabinet.
Bathroom
Ignore my paws from the mirror, the bathroom is also fashionably deigned with both a shower and a bathtub, with sufficient lighting and standard Hilton amenities, it looked adequate at first.
Until I laid my eyes upon the toilet seat, a pile of dust spread evenly across the back on the toilet cover which not only was it visible, but also disturbing to look at. I never get to address the issue with them due to how late it was and how tiresome I was to picking bones from an egg in their perspective.
Unfortunately, this was a huge turn down for me, when a hotel failed to invested time and energy into the details of everyday cleaning, it has lost the position of calling themselves worthy of 5 star recognition.
Room Amenities
With two set of robes but only one pair of flip flops.
The mini bar was well-stoked with a fair amount of selection of beverages ranging from soft drinks to liquor and to snacks.
They even offered a small freezer space inside the mini bar, as a mini-er freezer.
Tea and coffee sets with water kettle.
Breakfast
After a well-rested sleep on the comfortable bed, I first headed down to the lobby for breakfast where everything was in poor shape, they had a decent selection of breakfast offering, but everything they use form plates to tables to the juice containers are of low quality, the tables and chairs are all foldable and the juice containers are made of plastic.
Maybe it was due to the fact they were renovating, but the entire breakfast area looked like a huge meeting room where guests and waiters are running around(literally) and everything was there temporarily, so I didn't exactly had the best experience when having breakfast there.
After breakfast, I headed to the lounge to check out their offerings, a much nicer presentation of less varieties was offered in the executive lounge, you can consider it as a typical continental European breakfast.
Bread and pastries in the executive lounge.
Salad and fruit bar.
Detail of their breakfast offerings.
Fresh squeezed juice where only concentrated juice was offered in the lobby.
Executive Lounge
This Hilton property has one of the most gorgeous executive lounge I've seen, I was extremely impressed with their two floor tall shelf with those interesting decorative pieces, although all of those book-alike bundles are all just empty papers.
Comfortable seating arrangements.
An elegant semi-private cabinet.
The receptionist desk in the lounge.
Seating area across the window which has an mesmerising view in the day time.
In the middle of the lounge, a decorative light well with a majestic art piece.
Seating area in the lounge.
Snacks and drink serving area.
Business centre and magazine stands.
Bottom Line
This Hilton property is definitely the ideal choice when visiting Budapest, although they seems to be uptight about upgrading more than one category for Hilton's royalty members, but I would recommend coming back again when their renovation is finished, I am sure it would be a plesant stay experience.
Although I am not sure if this is about the service industry norms in Hungary, but every person I've met is trying to squeeze euros out of me. (Their economy must be really shattered back then.)
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