Hotel President Budapest, Affiliated by Meliá

My family and I stayed here for 5 nights and overall we really enjoyed it. The hotel was very central and everything we wanted to do and see and eat was within a 45 minute walk which was great cuz we love to walk over public transport. The room was huge, the beds were comfortable and the shower was great. (My wife wanted a bath but I forgot to ask lol) there was a safe and mini fridge with a selection of drinks and snacks, but also enough room to buy your own from the shop round the corner. (Shout out Bian Market!) The breakfast was amazing all you would expect from a 4 star hotel continental meats/pastrys/yogurt/fruit etc and hot breakfast eggs, bacon, mushroom tomatoes etc and a mini pancake machine that my son loved. The rooftop bar has some amazing views and the bar is inside a big heated bubble and seating with blankets outside aswell. Only a couple disappointments I feel I should mention for families booking. One being that there was no mention that the pool was closed on the website and this was a reason I had booked the hotel as my son is 11, so check before you book! But the jacuzzi, plunge pool and saunas were working so we still loved it. The second was the TV, the only English speaking channels were sky news, BBC and CNN. (English channels were advertised but I expected more than the news) they had Nickelodeon which I love but it was mostly SpongeBob and comedy Central in the evenings which was in German! Lucky the WiFi worked great. Overall the location, price and room were great but the hotel feels very dated, could definitely do with some love and care and a coat of paint but the staff were awesome and very helpful. I'm sure it was a 4 star 20 years ago but not at the moment! 3.5/5

If I could give this hotel a 3.5/5 I would. There's nothing inherently wrong with it - our room appeared clean, it wasn't noisy or in a bad area - but it certainly doesn't deserve a 4 star rating. The hotel is clearly outdated, at one point it might have been really nice but that was at least 10-15 years ago and now it's just a lower middle range hotel pretending to be nice - weird decor in the lobby, strange pictures in the hallways, a basic breakfast in the basement. If we had been staying in Budapest longer we probably would have checked out early and stayed somewhere else (there are several other hotels nearby with similar cost and better product) but it was a fine place to lay your head for the night for a few days. Overall I don't have anything bad to say about the staff or the service we received but I think seeing "4 star hotel" is extremely misleading and could lead to disappointment and should be acknowledged.