Five Star Hotels with Less Than Stellar Services.

Last week our website was contacted by a group of Frenchmen who earlier visited Budapest for the bachelor party of a friend of theirs. The reason they contacted us for was a crime that unfortunately is too common nowadays, to which they fell victim in a famous hotel downtown.

Here is their story:

A long time before the trip to Budapest, the group sent an email to the erotic club considered to be the best and trendiest of the capital, located in the centre, so that they can party there. They arranged everything and were getting ready for the bash when one of them started chatting to the receptionist of the hotel, mentioning what their plans were for the rest of the evening. The receptionist was very friendly and asked them whether they would like to have the party with much more beautiful girls for a lot less money, because he could arrange that. The members of the group got curious and as the night got closer and they have had a few drinks, they went back to the receptionist. The hotel employee showed them a catalogue full of girls and said that any of the girls they liked could be sent up to their hotel room. The group said they wanted to party and they wouldn't want to change their plans. Then the receptionist called one of the taxi drivers of the hotel, together with whom they managed to convince those poor Frenchmen that they would take them to a much better place, boasting that they could be trusted as they knew the city well and the place they initially wanted to go was very expensive anyway and the girls were not beautiful.

So eventually they managed to talk the boys out of going to their initial destination and they left with the taxi driver and a colleague of his. They arrived to a nightclub where they were much welcomed, even though the girls weren't as beautiful as promised. Anyway, once there, they stayed for a while and everyone ordered a beer, when 6 girls sat down among them. They told them to go away as they weren't going to stay, but the girls refused to stand up. A bigger problem was that soon the drinks of the girls arrived too, obviously not ordered by the boys. They immediately sensed trouble so they asked for the bill wanting to leave. A bill of EUR 600 arrived. There haven't been many surprises so far in this story and not many are to follow: of course the drinks of the girls were also added to the bill and the drinks of the boys cost as much as EUR 60 each, saying that since there is no entrance fee, this is how much the first drink costs, which is not up for discussion since it is also stated on the drink list. Eventually the group was let go following a considerable amount of arguing, threatening to call the police and paying half of the billed amount, which is still exorbitant for 6 beers, but they paid it anyway, not wanting to ruin the evening completely.

Having discussed what happened they arrived to the conclusion that they had to check the original club out, because they did not want their foolishness and the receptionist and driver of the hotel to ruin their plans and call off the party they came for in the first place. Arriving to the bar they told its manager what had just happened to them, who immediately started shaking his head telling them that they made the worst possible decision when they listened to the receptionist. He explained to them that the employees of the 4-5 star hotels of Budapest are the most corrupt and the managers of the hotels should be ashamed of themselves, but instead they let such criminals roam free and rip off tourists. The receptionist and the taxi driver get about € 70 from these dark dens for each client tricked into going there, so for them telling a few lies is not an issue just to get the victims delivered. This is what happened in this case as well, and the most depressing part is that hotel managers know all about it and they have been allowing such disgusting and outrageous shenanigans to keep happening for many years, turning a blind eye, who knows why...

At the end of this story we would like to make it clear that all we are doing here is drawing the attention of tourists visiting Hungary to a phenomenon and we don't say all big hotels take part in these corrupt organisations. But it is in the interest of our readers that we state that this is a recurring problem, so they should never ask guidance of this kind from any hotel employees and especially not from taxi drivers, because they could easily end up like our French friends.

The reason why we left the names out (even though we could have included them) is that we don't want to come across as propaganda either pro or contra, because that's not what we're here for. However, we are devoted to protecting the interests of our readers and that is why all we have to say from this forum to the management of every hotel in Budapest is that they should take a good look around among their employees, because similar news have already done enough damage to the reputation of the otherwise high standard and honest hotel and restaurant industry of Hungary.

Should you have a related story, please, tell us!

Write your story:

Name:
Comment:
Verification code:

Share this page!