Civis Grand Hotel Aranybika, Debreczin

This was a surprisingly disappointing hotel, given the tariff and the supposed 4-star rating. We had booked one of the 4-star rooms, which overlook the dining room and main hall, and found it pretty basic, though spacious, with hard beds and sparse, old furniture. Elsewhere, this would have been classed as 2-star. Food quality was low and unappetising, and we had to take our meals elsewhere. However, there is an Italian restaurant nearby, the Toro Doro, associated with the hotel, where food is good and modestly priced. The hotel itself is pleasantly sited in the main square in Debrecen, and public transport (in particular the tram system) is regular and cheap. Our biggest problem was noise, and not just the 5am street cleaning vehicles whose drone penetrates the rather poor window soundproofing. We had been told on making our booking that the hotel did not allow functions to go past 11.30pm "to avoid disturbing our guests". This proved seriously misleading. A few days after our arrival, a wedding party took place in the dining room, below the bedrooms. By 1am the noise was deafening, and so loud it was causing the door to buzz in its frame with the incessant disco thumping. Repeated calls to the management assured us that it would finish "soon". By 3.30am it was still going on, and impossible to sleep through, and we went downstairs to the reception desk, along with a number of other guests, to complain, where we found, curiously, that the Duty Manager was "unavailable", either in person or by telephone, and the staff suddenly began to have difficulty with their previously excellent English. It was obvious that this party was still not stopping "soon", and we had to be decanted in to the cheaper 3-star wing, with peeling paint and broken stair-rods, to escape the din. I could not, with a clear conscience, recommend the Aranybika Hotel.

Compared to other facilities, it's very expensive. Good service. Many program organized in the hotel. Like sport events, trande shows, exhibitions.