Hunguest Hotel Bál Resort

I will try to stick to the facts for this review. In general, I always aim to find the positives in any situation but really struggle when thinking of my family's stay at this hotel. It seems Hungary, outside Budapest, is not a friendly place so some of the issues we experienced may not be exclusive to Hunguest BAL. Finding and checking into the hotel was a breeze. However over the course of our stay the following occurred; - Severe electrical storm on the second night which led to a loss of electricity twice and fire alarms twice. I have a younger son who was a bit traumatised and it was a guest on the same floor that told us what to do. No tannoy announcement, phone call or explanation the next morning - We stayed in our rooms for 5 nights and I would have expected the rooms to be cleaned every other day at the minimum. My sons are young so left food crumbs that were not cleaned over 5 nights. The glasses in our room were not changed over 5 nights. So in the end I had to wash them in the bathroom. However, the cleaning staff did notice the two bottles of water taken from the mini bar so that was something - I observed cleaners spending a grand total of 1 minute in each of the two rooms we booked - The room key for one of our rooms was wrong and I had to go down to reception 3 times before it was finally corrected. The receptionist could not have been more hostile. Turns out they had given me the wrong room key. At no point did a member of staff offer to go with me to the room to check the key and when their error finally came to light I did not receive an apology. - They have a pool table that I used regularly without being told it was chargeable for guests. By now I was very annoyed at the service so they removed that from my final bill. Overall, Hunguest BAL reflects the hostile attitude of the area. I have travelled around different parts of the world and the Balaton area is the most hostile and unwelcoming place I've ever been to. The hotel reflects this hostility and is the most unwelcoming place I have ever stayed at. The staff were very unfriendly, hostile and not engaging. Needless to say it is very unlikely I would return to Balaton and definitely would not stay at Hunguest. All the issues I had could easily have been avoided. I felt like Hunguest were paying me to stay rather than the other way round. In the future Hunguest and Balaton should put up a sign saying foreigners are not welcome. That way travelers like myself would know and avoid.

The hotel was closed for years due to full renovation and opened again in June 2022. We have come to test it. The new style and decor is really nice but this is still the same building so the renovation had limitations.... We paid extra to get a room with view. We got a room on the 8th floor, last one in the corridor. It is small, very small. A bed to lay down and some place to put your luggage. That's it, no more. No balcony, no place to put beach towels and wet swimware. The decor is nice, view is nice, but with a column in the middle. Bed is comfortable, but pillows are too hard. The main road and railway is below, with the window open it is loud. And the airco is loud. So in the morning, we were boiling. Tv is very slow. No warm water to shower, only lukewarm,the bathroom really stinks. No tea/coffee making option in the room. There is a small fridge but empty. Wellness area looks nice, but saunas and sauna area actually dirty. No water to drink in the sauna area. Many people bring bikes but there is no dedicated area for bikes. The hotel has an own beach closeby. The beach is nice, but changing rooms are from the socialist era...too few and very bad condition. Dinner is very nice: good quality and variety. But allergens are not listed anywhere. Nice sitting areas inside and outside, nice garden with small playground partially compensate for the size of the room. Would I come back again? Not sure, have mixed feelings. The size of the the room is disappointing and not suitable for a longer stay. Train and traffic is disturbing.