Hotel Unicornis in Eger

This is a small hotel in a very good location in the heart of the historic city of Eger. However, there are some issues that require attention and that in my mind do not make this a 3* hotel. The rooms are of varied quality, level 1 and 2 are more spacious and airy, levels 3 and 4 are basically attic rooms with no real windows and are rather poky. The hotel was advertised as having some wellness facilities, but these are now closed greatly reducing the attractiveness of staying here, at least for us. Rooms have air conditioning, refrigerator and wifi but otherwise the furniture and equipment are rather basic. It is the general level of hospitality and attention that leave a bit to be desired. In our room, the following problems occurred – (1) the bedside lamp did not work, (2) the cleaning was desultory, there were black hairs around the bathroom floor, (3) the shower was blocked, (4) there was no soap in the soap dispensers at either the basin, or in the shower. Further, the TV was the size of a laptop screen and practically impossible to watch from the beds. The hotel insists on everyone leaving at 10 am, right after breakfast, and this is really unreasonable. Having worked in the hotel business myself, it is obvious that cleaning cannot possibly start the same time in every room, and so the hosts should really show some flexibility in allowing some variations in check-out time, especially when it is so early. In other hotels we stayed in in Hungary hosts were happy to accommodate such request at no cost or inconvenience to themselves, and one would expect such gesture in a hotel focusing on hospitality.

This hotel is in an excellent position near the town centre, and the rooms are reasonably well furnished and comfortable. However, the quality of management, service and guest relations are terrible, truly reminiscent of Basil Fawlty’s attitude to his guests in Fawlty Towers. We experienced a variety of unacceptable behaviours from the owner who is a remarkably surly and unfriendly person for a hotel operator. The hotel advertised air conditioning, and as our room was cold, we asked about the remote control, only to be informed that it has been removed from all rooms. Checkout is a very unfriendly 10 am (immediately after breakfast is over). When we asked about a later checkout, we were refused, even though it is obviously that chambermaids cannot possibly start cleaning all rooms sharp at 10 am. Indeed, there was no sign of any cleaning when we left… We asked for a room on the 2nd floor to avoid the attic area, and confirmed this via email before arriving – yet we were given an attic room on arrival, and the owner was really reluctant to change it even though he confirmed our request previously. There is a small wellness area, but the jacuzzi is too cold to be used, one of the showers was broken and the steam room out of action.