Even before we arrived, the staff at the Hotel Palazzo Zichy made us feel welcomed with their swift and helpful responses to the three emails I sent. You can get here very cheaply from the airport using a bus, the underground - second oldest in Europe - and a map.
The hotel is situated in an interesting area with some lovely, lively small bars and cafes. It is also within walking distance to almost all the main central sites. The staff have incredible language skills and seem to give advice in all the major European languages. There is also free coffee/ tea/bottled water and snacks available until 17.00 in the bar and the breakfast buffet is so large and varied that I ate something different on each of my four mornings. We had arranged a winter package through the hotel which included a three hour guided tour, an hour boat trip along the Danube (Take this at night - the city is beautifully lit, the boat had a bar - a truly romantic highlight) and a three course meal at Museum Cafe, an atmospheric and traditional restaurant. The tour, which we took on our first morning, gave us an intelligent insight into the history, geography and politics of Budapest and also a taster of places we wanted to explore at our leisure. As the only people on the tour we were lucky to get a very personalised service and again our guide was excellent.
The room was warm and comfortable. I loved the walk-in wardrobe area and decorated glass door to the bathroom. We were provided with extra pillows and an ironing board within minutes of ringing the front desk. The building is a beautiful one, the graceful modern interior has been very well designed and furnished imaginitively. We will be staying here again. Budapest is one of the most beautiful capitals in the world and the friendliness of the Hungarians we met make us want to return as soon as possible.

Reservation:

Made by Hotel Website, no problems with it.



Check in Experience:

We have arrived early afternoon:

-2 receptionists present.

-Sentence ‘Welcome to the hotel’ – provided

- Handled in polite and warm way in less than 5 min.

- Eye to eye contact with the guest.

-Clear information about the hotel facilities and the area were presented.



Stay:

- Small room located on the 1st floor,

- No welcoming letter in the room with my name on it.

- No dust present

- Housekeeping was a bit lazy with Iron delivery (over 15 min waiting time)

- Comfortable bed.

- No coffee machine, no instant tea in the room although the guest are allowed till 5 pm to get a free tea or coffee for free next to the reception. Here I would like to mention, that free coffee facilities should be available 24/7 or tea/coffee trays should be present in the rooms.

- No separate bar or restaurant, the lobby works for Bar, Restaurant and Lobby.

- Reception missed one wake up call.

- Guest is visible for the reception staff, and in general personnel says ‘hello’ to you on the corridor or at the stairs.

- No room service available 24 hours.

- No pillow menu.

- Feedback card in the room presented.

- Full English Breakfast served till 10.30 am , staff could be a bit more friendly, especially guy called Mate, he had very rude attitude. On the other hand I would like to show my appreciation to guy named Laszlo (also works in breakfast room), he was very pleasant and polite.

Check out Experience:

- Handled in less than 5 min

- Question ‘how was your stay’ – provided.

- Offered help with transport to the airport

Overview;

Nice little hotel with generally pleasant staff, requires some minor adjustments.

Suggestions:

- More English speaking channels (not only rooms).

- Provide tea/coffee trays in rooms or make the free tea/coffee launch available 24/7.

- Provide additional English language training for staff.

- Also receptionist provided me with directions to city center, which were terribly wrong, I found on my own, that there is a different road available, which is almost 3 times shorter and gets you to city center just in about 15 min.

I travelled to Budapest on 8th Jnauary 2013 as part of my Girlfriends birthday celebrations. Right form the off the staff were extremley polite and very helpful. The food the service and the hospitality were fantastic.

What really sealed the deal was on the morning of my girlfriends birthday i placed cards in the room on returning later that day from sight seeing (in a very beautiful city) the staff had placed a birthday card for Anne and complementRY bowl of fruit MIGHT NOT SEEM MUCH BUT THEY DIDNT HAVE TO DO THIS.

on the whole has a great stay and would reccomend this hotel as a base

Our family just finished a two night stay at Zichy. The rooms and bathrooms were spotless, and breakfast was tasty and tastefull. Most important, the hotel staff went out of their way to be helpful. Highly recommended.