Rijckendael Hotel And Restaurant - Brussels, Belgium 

The hotel itself is clean and the rooms are comfortable. The reception staff are helpful, but are noticeably absent a lot. The Bar is poor by Belgium standards...only having two varieties of Beer in !? The main reason i chose the hotel is because of it's "award winning" restaurant as i'm here on business and don't want to travel far in the evenings. It is very well decorated and spotlessly clean, that is where my praise ends. The waiting staff are slow and miserable. On one occasion I asked for help with the menu as it was in Flemish only for the waiter to say (in perfect English) "ok i'll give you more time to choose" and he just walked off to continue doing nothing by the bar. On another occasion i was just given part of the menu, not asked what i would like to drink and then just left to watch the waiter slowly serve other guests amidst his doing nothing until I just got up and left. The food is ok, but basic and it certainly doesn't justify the prices (or any award). In short the Hotel is ok, but make sure you have a car to go out to eat as the restaurant is abysmal. I've given it a terrible rating because the standard of hotels in Belgium is generally very high in comparison.

I stayed 3 weeks at the ALFA Rijckendael Hotel in Brussels. Rates are okay. Rooms do not have A/C.I did not catch an error on the hotel bill when I checked out on July 5,2003, but when I got back to the States and was turning in my expense report, I noticed I had been double billed on two separate occasions for laundry service and the bar tab. (234.02 Euro).I started requesting credit for this error on Monday, July 8. I have sent numerous faxes, made many phone calls, and sent bundles of emails. To date (August 5, 2003) this situation has not been resolved and the charges still are mine to be paid.Finally, my family was calling from the States at approximately 5:00 - 5:30 a.m. each morning. Seldom ever did they get an answer. The phone would ring and ring but no one would answer. This happened every day during the first week of my stay. After my wife complained to an afternoon attendant this got some better but still had problems receiving calls.