I checked in today after a long trip from Sydney via Dubai. The room I was given was next to the elevator, facing the main road, but that's okay for me as I'm hearing impaired so noises don't bother me much. What I didn't like was the smell of tobacco smoke. I'd asked for and thought I'd booked a non-smoking room but this room has a definite mild to moderate tobacco smell about it (I considered giving it just two stars because of this). Anyway, there's enough space in the room, good cupboard storage and the bed seems comfy enough. They don't have in-room tea or coffee, but there's a machine that's free for guests to use down in the lobby/dining area. So you have to be presentable for when you want to grab a coffee late at night! I needed an iron to press some travel-crumpled clothes, and they promptly sent one and a mini ironing board up to the room, so the service is ok. The in-room safe was locked in the open position and couldn't be used when I arrived, but they sent a maintenance guy up quickly to fix that as well. There are no toiletries to speak of in the bathroom. Just a wall-mounted liquid soap dispenser in the hand basin area and the shower. I don't like these things, never did, and no shampoo or conditioner. No clock in the room either (but I always travel with a battery-powered one). The WiFi is free for guests, but a little slow for my purposes. Seems to work okay but I've had some dropouts and long waits.
There's a tram stop at the door, or you can walk to Louise Metro station in about 7 mins. Otherwise there's not much else around the hotel to look at. I did find an "Carrefour Express" mini-supermarket less than 100 m down the road so I was able to buy some things. Brussels centre would be around half an hour's walk or more from here, but I'll probably take the Metro if I can figure out how the ticketing works. The Royal Palace is also about a 20 min walk, judging from the map and my little midnight excursion to the Louise metro station (jetlag gives me weird waking hours). The best thing about the hotel is the staff. They're cheerfully helpful and take the time to deal with any issue or questions promptly. read more