Hotel de France

This is a budget hotel and despite some of the reviews on here, I can't complain. The room was a decent size. It had a firm double bed, two bedside tables, two electric fans, a telephone, a sofa, a desk and a TV. The bathroom was a good size and the water was hot. Above all, it was clean, albeit the decor was a little outdated. The hotel is just a stone's throw from the main Eurostar railway station Brussels Midi-Zuid. The centre of Brussels is just a short walk or tram ride away and there are local bars nearby. There is a sex shop nearby and what looks like a gay sauna but I wouldn't call the area particularly seedy. Cosmopolitan. The staff were helpful and I had a pleasant couple of nights here. I'd happily stay again.

I'll start with the good. The room was clean, organized, and comfortable. That is, for the 4 hours in total that we were there. When it was convenient, the workers understood English perfectly. When we wanted to leave the hotel (not asking for a penny in return) to trade for a hotel in a safer area (after receiving several uncomfortable catcalls in the immediate area) the workers simply did not understand what we want, constantly saying "no money back, no money back". Eventually, we packed our bags, went to the front counter, handed in the key and said "receipt" in French, and were on our way. For a one-night stay in between train or bus rides, at this price, why not? But for any stay of more than a few hours, would definitely not recommend.

I stayed here for a week while I was in town for work. The hotel is in a pretty seedy looking location with adult shops, etc nearby and unsightly piles of garbage along the street in front was very off-putting but after 2 days flying to get to Brussels I was too tired to think about a last minute change and went through the front doors. No problems checking in and getting to my room to catch up on some sleep. My room was quite large, having a double and a single bed and was relatively clean and comfortable. The TV was tiny, as some have mentioned but worked ok, at least I had BBC to watch during my stay. Can't recall any other English channels. The bathroom was adequate, ok water pressure for showers and decently hot. WiFi was free and worked fine in the room. You can get a breakfast for 5 Euro but as I preferred to find breakfast outside the hotel I can't comment on the quality. There is a fair bit of road noise from the main street outside, particularly the constant noise of police and ambulance sirens which seems to afflict this part of Brussels. Cold air came in near the windows but the heating seemed to cope to beat it back. Staff weren't overly friendly but did help out finding an adapter for me to recharge my laptop. I got used to the area after a while and found some decent restaurants nearby. Also quite an easy 15-20 minute walk to the centre and about 10 mins to the Brussels Midi train station. My reviews give hotels the benefit of the doubt and begin with 5 stars. For this hotel I take off 1 star for lack of in-room coffee and/or tea making, which is nice if you are planning to do a lot of work in the the room. I take off another star for the dreadful shower curtain that grossly sticks to you during a shower and absolutely cannot be avoided in the narrow bath unless you want to flood the bathroom. This should be replaced by a simple glass panel.

The only advantage of the hotel is its great location close to the city attractions and plenty of eating options and markets nearby. It is a low budget no frills hotel and not recommended for someone with issues with creaky beds and leaky showers.

excellent value for money, close to areas of interest ,friendly helpful staff would stay here again,service excellent and cleanliness of room spot on, offers great value for price ,spacious rooms and slept well

We saw this hotel here in tripadvisor and it looked good for our journey, we stay two nights. We made a reservation online in their website using a credit card (mistake) and we paid in cash at arrival, we only use the hotel for sleep and we left very early both days we were there, we checked out and went to another country. Like 12 hours later our bank notified us that the hotel charged us 150 euros on our credit card, we tried to contact them inmediatly and daily during the week after and they only said they dont speak english or spanish (when they spoke both languages while we were there). The same day we sended an email and they only answered with some pdf documents with names and check-ins of other persons that where there in same days that we, then we replyed that those people wasn't us and they answer with some pictures of a messed room (that was not ours) and we tried to explain a lot of times but they refuse to talk with us because it allegedly did not speak English or Spanish (when they do), so they just tooked 150 euros from our card, we had to cancel the card and we lost our money.

As a Flemish speaking Belgian I stayed over at this hotel. The receptionist did not speak Flemish. Moreover, when I first phoned I was told that the rate was 50 Euro, but on arrival they tried to charge me 60 Euro, and on top of that they advertise for around 36 Euro on bookingsites. The room was really small, the TV was as tiny as it gets, the room was dirty with empty crisp packets on the floor, the only little window opened onto a wall about 1m away, no fresh air at all, and the neighbourhood is also not really safe. I should have booked at the Ibis which is only a few meters from there.

Looks terrible outside, but is good average inside. Clean beds and bath! Friendly staff, good location... Easy to walk to Manneken and Market Square. Easy to walk to Midi Trainstation. Room good size for two aduts and two children!

A bit a worn down place. If you need a bed to sleep this is it. If you expect more: better go somewhere else. Breakfast was basic but good... The service poor and our room overlooked some kind of technical area, so there was no daylight.