Danubius Hotel Helia

I would not use this hotel again. I brought my partner for her 40th birthday and I was hugely disappointed. Positives are the bed was big and comfortable, we had a river view with balcony which I couldn’t fault. The room had been refurbished and was done to a modern standard and the food is tasty in the restaurant. Now onto the negatives, the floors were filthy, we had to put footwear on after the shower due to the dirt on the bottom of our feet. The air con didn’t work which was a problem in 35oc and we paid for a superior room! One night we couldn’t get any electricity so we had to call the maintenance team at 23:00 and the cleaner took one of our key cards meaning we only had one key between us. The worst part of the hotel is the customer service, they are abrupt, dismissive and make you feel like you are very unwelcome. One night we ordered a meal, they missed part of our order, when I asked about the rest of my food the waiter said sorry and brought the rest of the order 25 mins later! €80 later I hate my meal in two parts and wasn’t given any apology or and discount, instead I was charged a 12% service charge…What service? I’d already eaten the rest of my meal so I wasn’t hungry for the rest of it. The same waiter dropped a try of drinks, he threw his arms in the air and stormed off, leaving someone else to pick up the drinks and broken glass. Every time we asked the staff for anything we were given abrupt answers and made to feel we were a nuisance. One example was asking for some ice for my water bottle, I was abruptly told you can get ice from the bar but the bar is closed and he just carried on with what he was doing. It’s became laughable how rude the team were. I am not one for complaining but I do not expect to feel unwelcome in a four star hotel. We had a great weekend at the Grand Prix which but this hotel took the shine off the whole experience, much better hotels to choose from than this one, look elsewhere and spend your money at a hotel who understand how to look after their customers. If you have a hire car, it is €12 per night to park which I think is reasonable so this is just for your information.

I want to start off by clearly stating that the hotel did end up giving a full refund as requested but do feel like I still need to write a review so other travellers know what they are getting into and make an educated decision to choose to stay at this hotel.

- When we arrived our room was extremely hot, I thought the air-conditioning would start soon an cool down the room. For the remainder of the night the temperature stayed at 28-29 degrees Celsius (lowest we managed to get it was 27). That temperature was impossible to sleep in. I've travelled in some extremely hot climates and was shocked that Budapest in March is where it would be unbearable
- When we made the front desk aware she was extremely dismissive and pretty much the reason that I'm still so agitated to write this review
- After breakfast we went again to the front desk explaining it was unbearable and she again with a terrible attitude told us she would send someone up
- After no sleep we decided to head out for a couple of hours so they had time to sort it. After we came back it was still extremely hot and had not been 'fixed'
- We went down again to the receptionist who said there was nothing she could do and had been 'fixed'
- We were then told by another staff member that this was central heating and couldn't actually 'fix anything' because the cooling hadn't been turned on and the thermometers in the room don't work/don't control anything other than track the current temperature

We then did get a full refund when we requested to talk to the manager but think some training is needed by your reception staff who kept being so rude. I also don't see the point of putting a control panel in the room for the temperature when it literally does nothing??

Other things to note:
- Room was really nice but again why have a temperature control panel in a newly renovated room where is does literally nothing
- Breakfast was really good
- Check-in night receptionist was lovely and gave a great first impression
- A little outside the city but we walked in fine and very close to public transport which was great in Budapest

Thanks for giving us a full refund, it was the right thing to do but please train your staff to be more customer centric and allow rooms to dictate their own temperature.

Hotel is easy to reach and does have a parking (600f per hour)
The Lobby is nice and the staff at the reception are very friendly and helpful (Peter).

The rooms (renovated) are nice but small.

The gym is a bit older but ok.

The spa is disappointing: open for public (not a issue in general) but no one seems to care about the rules and therefore in the sauna (“dry one”) it shows 70% (!) Humidity (!!!!!!) in the afternoon.
A Sauna should have 5-10% and in a Hotel I would not care if it’s 30%..
In the steam room is it very noisy (already commented a year ago) and there is no relaxing zone which does not help to relax..

The biggest disappointment was when I tried to make the guard aware of it.. He does not care at all - and shows me that.. not professional and not very motivating to come again.

Update one week after my First Review:

Spa still same (no training happend even if she wrote that as a aswer)
Room everyday cold because the staff switches off the power - have to shower in the cold and wait to heat up the room again !
Heater in the bathroom is not working too.
But they take the towel away every day even if i do not place it on the floor.

Expected more..

overall scoring is low because renovation starts everyday around 7 am which means you can’t sleep because you can hear hammers, drillers and everything else which is exactly what is written in elevator that this will happen dueing the daytime ! telephone in room does not work, tv is turing off when you’re watching channels in hd and service does not give you any water so every time you have to go to reception ! all in all, within current renovations it’s not recommended place !