Boutique Budapest

Budapest is home to grand, sweeping architecture redolent of its Hapsburg history, but it is also now a flourishing and creative city where big isn’t necessarily beautiful and is definitely not cool. Its hotel industry, however, has taken a while to catch up with this trend, but fortunately for a newer generation of business traveller, the past two years have seen the rise of a smaller breed of hotel, where the emphasis is on innovation, design and a more personal level of service.

The latest evidence of this trend is the brand new Lanchid 19, Budapest’s first design hotel, whose small but exquisite facade stands out from a row of modest terraced houses below the castle on the Buda side of the Danube (see box for full review). Already a popular meeting place for Budapest’s creative industries, the Lanchid 19 has attracted a great deal of international interest since its opening in August, and its Hungarian owners are hoping that its combination of panoramic views and cutting-edge design will find favour with visitors who have grown out of traditional chain hotels.

Sonzja Demeter, sales manager of the Lanchid 19, says: “We are targeting business travellers who come to Budapest for a few days and don’t want ten bellboys running after them when they arrive, who like a calm atmosphere, and want to be inspired by a bit of architecture and design.”

The theory that business travellers are starting to look for something different is given weight by the success of Hotel Zara, a boutique four-star property situated towards the south of District V. Since its opening in August last year, this elegant yet cosy hotel has seen occupancy rates of around 80 per cent, an achievement which sales manager Szilvia Oravecz attributes to the personal level of service made possible by the Zara’s smaller size.

“Business travellers are bored with standardised hotel chains and they’re looking for something more unique,” she says. “We are focusing on atmosphere and service – we want to make ourselves different from the large hotels where the service is impersonal.”

The Zara has teamed up with a local radio channel to organise regular parties for its guests, and claims to be the only hotel in Budapest to produce its own CD of lounge and jazz music. Inspired by the Zara’s success, its Jordanian owner now has plans to expand the brand and open at least two more four-star hotels in District V, although plans for a more avant-garde property have for the time being been shelved.

Zara’s claim to be the first boutique hotel in Budapest, however, is disputed by the Best Western Hotel Parlament, a beautiful, Spanish-designed 65-room property which opened in March 2006 in a former 19th-century apartment house near the Parliament building. The hotel’s success is partly attributable to its excellent location, but also, as with Hotel Zara, to its innovative attitude to service. As Szilvia Oravecz, the hotel’s sales manager, puts it: “People don’t want to spend their nights and days in hotel factories. They like to come to hotels like this, where the service is more personal and there are smiling faces at reception.”

The Parlament’s Italian owner is also planning to build on his success. Renovation work has already started on a small but elegant 19th-century palace on Lorinc Pap Ter, a beautiful square in District VIII. Due to open at the beginning of 2009, the new four-star plus property will have 80 rooms and, it is hoped, will be part of the World Hotels grouping.

Another recent arrival in the boutique market is Atrium, an agressively funky four-star property in the city’s still run-down but rapidly developing District VIII. While the other boutique properties mark their owners’ first ventures into the hotel market, Atrium is the product of one of Budapest’s most prolific hotel chains and one of its biggest success stories of recent years.

The Mellow Mood group is owned by two Jordanian entrepreneurs who have lived in Hungary for 20 years, and who started in the hospitality industry a decade ago with a couple of youth hostels. From these humble beginnings, they’ve expanded rapidly and now have nine three-star properties, all in central Budapest, as well as the four-star Europa Hotels and Congress Centre, and Atrium, the first representative of the group’s new Fashion Hotels brand.

Mellow Mood’s sights are now set firmly on the upper end of the market. Two more Fashion Hotels are in the pipeline: the Buda Castle, a set of 24 luxury serviced apartments, is due to open on Uri Street next year, to be followed in 2009 by an as-yet-unnamed property on Nador Street in District V, which will follow the Atrium model and comprise 112 rooms, a large conference suite and fitness facilities.

Next year will also see the opening of Mellow Mood’s most ambitious project to date, the five-star Klotild Palace. This famous landmark at the foot of the Erzsebet Bridge will house 102 rooms and 32 apartments, and will be the second hotel in the world to bear the branding of Paris’s famous Buddha Bar (Prague’s Buddha Bar hotel is due to open earlier next year).

That there is a market for smaller luxury properties is evidenced by the enduring popularity of the Andrassy Hotel. Housed in a 1930s Bauhaus-style mansion on Andrassy Avenue, this five-star offshoot of French chain Mamaison has been a favourite with high-end business travellers since its opening in 2001, and by the end of the year will have completed a complete refurbishment of its 70 rooms.

Eric Montagnon, the Andrassy’s sales manager, says: “We have swapped the original French provençal style for a more modern decor with more muted tones but a luxurious feeling. The feedback from our regular guests has so far been very positive – they liked the old rooms but say that this is more trendy.”

The bar has also been raised in the larger four-star market, with the opening of the new generation Novotel Danube by one of Budapest’s biggest players, Accor, at the end of last year. The 175-room property, on the Buda side of the river, has all the high-tech bells and whistles you’d expect, like bluetooth printers, a Mac corner and free wifi, as well as stunning views across the river to the Parliament.

All of this adds up to excellent news for business travellers who are looking for a life less ordinary. As Best Western Parlament’s Reka Patakfalvi explains: “Budapest is trying to attract a new breed of leisure tourists, and business travellers are reaping the rewards.”

Booking