Please take some time to rate Hotel Vendome hotel in BRUSSELS (Belgium) and add your review about it. Your comments will be moderated by our editorial team before going live.
What other customers are thinking about this hotel : This is a lovely old hotel, which has been modernized somewhat successfully. The public spaces, including a grand staircase, are quite attractive. A number of the rooms have been turned into suites, which can accommodate large groups. Basically, because of the high ceilings, they were able to install lofts to accomplish this. The look is bizarre -- something like a cruise ship -- but it affords two bathrooms and plenty of room, for a decent price. The location is all right, halfway between the train station and the beach. The hotel offers onsite parking, at 11 euros a night, by cramming cars into its courtyard. At first, it does not look like it will be possible to retrieve the car in any reasonable amount of time, but somehow it works.
We stayed at the Hotel Vendome two nights prior to a cruise 23-25 August. The hotel is in a good part of the city about five blocks from the Promenade des Anglais and a 10 minute walk to the main bus station (Gare Routiere).
We took the Airport Bus 98 with all our luggage. If I had it to do over again I would take the expensive taxi since the bus is very crowded. If you do take the bus, make sure you have a detailed city street map and you get off at Lycee Gare Routiere stop.
We booked through Minotel and used Minotel vouchers. We bought them from the Minotel USA representative and saved quite a bit of money (USD139 per night double). I believe the hotel was charging EUR140 per night double. Check-in was very, very easy. We just handed the nice lady the vouchers - she didn't even ask for a credit card imprint. However, she did not offer to have someone help with the luggage. The elevator was European sized (petite) so we had to make two trips up to room 407.
The room had a fair sized bathroom with shower/tub combination and a shower curtain. It had plenty of hot water and good water pressure.
The room itself was TINY ... maybe 50% larger than the bathroom. Since we had four bags, there wasn't much room for anything else. The miniature TV was mounted on the wall - the kind you would expect in a low-quality public hospital. The air conditioner did keep the room cool and it was nice to be able to get fresh air by opening the French balcony. There was a minibar with water and beer for inflated prices. The closet was also very, very small.
The night clerk provided us with ice and opened the bottle of wine we bought at a mini-mart a block away.
The front desk was eager to help. We wanted to go to St. Paul de Vence and the reception gave us the bus schedule. Unfortunately it was outdated with incorrect times. This meant an additional wait at the station. Once we got to St. Paul de Vence we had a great time and I would highly recommend a visit.
Housekeeping did a thorough job. I had read in an earlier review that the bed linens aren't changed during your stay. We solved that problem by stripping the beds and placing the linens in the tub with the used towels. When we returned from sightseeing we found fresh linens on the bed.
The breakfast room is too small for the number of guests but we found a small outdoor covered terrace off the lobby and enjoyed our breakfast there.
The hotel is close to the Cours Saleya with its morning flower/vegetable market and its evening outdoor restaurants. We bought a dozen roses for only EUR7 and they lasted all week in the cabin on our cruise.
We would consider staying at this hotel again if they had a larger room available.
