There is something wrong with this hostel but it’s hard to point the finger at what is wrong.
Service
Upon arriving the staff were very helpful in leading us the 5 minute walk up the road to a different street to enter a strange residential building to a room inside an apartment that was apart of the apparent hostel. We immediately realised that this was the wrong room and not what we booked, we booked a ‘Deluxe double with an en-suite’ what we got was a twin bed room in a shared apartment. After the return walk back to the hostel ‘reception’ which is a long walk down a dark alley behind a gate to a hippie living room we were met with resistance and unhelpfulness whilst being left standing there to listen to a conversation (probably not about our situation) for 10 minutes or more to be told the manager wouldn’t do anything. (After a quick review check we realised that everyone gets told the same thing, that it was a mistake, it never happened before blah blah blah 💩) Instead of trying to get answers or a change (threatened to be moved to an even worse room) we decided to leave the reception and go for dinner. We checked online the reviews and saw the horrific stories of the bed bug situation, but more interestingly, others who had been through the exact same situation as us. They are booking out rooms in such a way to maximise their profit, it’s as if there doesn’t exist some of the room types they describe, leaving the guests in a position to stay or leave at the last moment. This practice is dangerous and unfair and warrants the one star rating they have received.
Room
As I said before, it wasn’t what we booked, what I can say about the room we were put in was that it was a singular room divided in to 2 floors leaving you inadequate headspace to stand up in either (if your tall). The room was extremely basically furnished but it had most things you needed. Unfortunately all storage objects in the rooms, draws and closet, were crammed full of random items that belong to a second hand sale. We needed around 6 keys just to access the apartment and room... 🔑🔑🔑🔑🔑🔑
Cleanliness
After reading more than a few reviews about the bed bugs situation we unwillingly returned back to the apartment after our dinner and stripped every piece of textile away and search for any Signs of bugs, although we didn’t find any live bugs, there were 1 or 2 dead bugs, we did unveil a filthy and stained mattress. Other than that the linen was clean, if not worn and tired as was the rest of the apartment. We had decided at that point we were possibly lucky in this situation that we did not receive a room in the main part of the hostel, wherever that actually was.
Location
The location is very poor, we only chose this location as it was close to a temporary FlixBus station on the outskirts of the city. I definitely do not recommend booking the hostel for its location other than that purpose. It was a 30 minute walk to the edge of the inner city and over 50 minute walk to the Danube. This walk to the inner city is poorly lit and my companion expressed some concern about the route to and from the hostel. There is regular bus transport in and out of the city and stops near the hostel which I would recommend taking.
Price
We completely overpaid for the room, we received what we could of booked for 20€ even though we paid 28€ for the deluxe en-suite. (I know this sounds cheap, but I have previously stayed in an apartment in the center of the city for 26€ a night.
We made this decision to purposefully book an en-suite as we just felt more comfortable that way, especially with our early departure. When confronting the staff about this situation they refused to refund any part of our booking, they told us that we basically had gotten lucky with this room, which leaves me only second guessing the other outcome.
Conclusion
Don’t stay here, there is something funny going on, the staff are unfriendly and there is a definite junkie vibe going on. We chose to stay with a local business as we do not want to contribute to a growing Airbnb problem in Budapest but I feel as if this business was doing far more harm to the residents of Budapest then the Airbnb system does. This business is buying up properties and apartments in the area and allowing them to fall in disrepair to cram in duped tourists to somewhat squat like conditions.