Although it is high-Summer in Europe and most people are enjoying their well deserved holidays, there are others who work hard to make sure that those holidays become the wonderful event everyone was hoping for. Our visit to Budapest this time around was only 5 days and it combined business with a little relaxation. It also gave me a chance to re-visit the Airport Hotel Budapest which we had recommended to our readers in the past. My previous stays at the hotel were mainly in the business season and I was looking forward to seeing how they were coping with the mad holiday rush.
We arrived pretty late on a Friday evening but the ladies at the reception were crisp and friendly in spite of the late hour. Not that I expected anything less! Everything was also squeaky clean as if this was early morning rather than the evening after what must have been a busy day. You may wonder why I mention cleanliness but take the trouble and go to any of the hotel reservation sites and read the customer comments. Complaints about the LACK of cleanliness abound. Obviously, many a house around the world tries to save on the cleaning bill. But this is not something Airport Hotel Budapest is doing and they deserve to be noted for this.
Five days means five breakfasts and I am always looking forward to breakfasts in Budapest. The breakfast menu tends to offer also fare that I remember from our childhood and which is not available even for gold in the rest of the world. Airport Hotel Budapest offers a complimentary US style breakfast and it has everything any guest could ever want. They also include my childhood favorites!
Saturday morning 7.30 am. Arriving in the dining room I noticed that, contrary to custom, a few things were not exactly as they should have been. Glasses for the orange juice and cups for the coffee were conspicuous by their absence, the soft drink machine was serving water and no juice and the coffee machine served some kind of liquid half-way between a latte and a long coffee. The food was also a bit on the short side. The restaurant crew was labouring frantically to get things back on track and our complaints about the juice and the coffee were noted with an expression you would expect from a waiter on the sinking Titanic being told the coffee was cold…
We learned later that a flight cancellation the night before had unexpectedly filled the hotel to capacity while one of the groups already there had this propensity of considering the free breakfast as being material for a free lunch and a free dinner also, filling their bags before departure just to be sure… A combination that would send the restaurant of even the biggest house into a tail spin.
Such things happen and I was not particularly upset by it. What I wanted to see how the crew managed the crisis since this is after all the measure of their professionalism. In the end, they succeeded with flying colors.
That the restaurant manager was on the scene almost immediately was a commendable thing in itself and the way he kept to the background, allowing his people to handle things, was the sign of a good skipper. It was obvious that not all of his crew had the same amount of experience in dealing with old grumblers like myself but hey, you have to learn somewhere and in no time at all the initial communications shortcomings were a thing of the past.
This restaurant is special also in being a 24 hour operation. You can come at any odd hour of the day or night and chose from the full menu containing a nice selection of local and international dishes. We did avail ourselves to this facility on Sunday and both the food and the service was impeccable.
What has always fascinated me about this hotel is the special sphere they manage to create. You arrive in a house that has every trait and amenity of a big chain hotel yet it feels like you are entering a family owned and operated hotel run in the best traditions of hostelry. I am not sure what the exact ingredients are and the décor, layout, friendly furniture surely contributes. But the most important element is their people. The receptionists with their welcoming smiles, the waiters and waitresses eager to make your stay’s culinary part also unforgettable, the technicians and last but not least the managers who have selected and trained them all… the indispensable ingredients that make a hotel into a great hotel.
We will be back!