Hotel Ustel - Brussels, Belgium 

I just arrived back to the states from my stay in Europe where I stayed at Hotel Ustel for two nights. I feel inclined to review this hotel in the hopes it will help someone else with their decision. I have never written a hotel review before but I couldn't let this slide. I wish I would have done more research on this hotel before booking through the website I used (GTA Hotels) as their only reviews raved about the hotel. As a single woman travelling in Brussels I have to say I feared for my safety by staying here. The area is EXTREMELY shady to say the least. It is only a 5 min walk to the station but those 5 minutes are not fun. You will encounter desolate streets with questionable characters hanging around. The hotel itself was awful. I was given a room next to the elevator which was really noisy (old elevator which sounded like it was on its last leg). The room was not clean. The floors had not been vacummed, the bedspread was dingy and old, the curtains were half fallen off. When I pulled the bedspread back, I found hairs on the pillows which told me they had likely not been changed from the previous customer. I slept with a t-shirt over my pillow and walked with socks on. I would have left in a heartbeat had I not already paid for two nights. Furthermore one of the nights coincided with a big event in Brussels therefore was not able to find a better hotel. I HIGHLY recommend you do not stay here. The staff was more concerned with their phone calls and smoking then with helping you. I recommend spending a little extra and staying in the center of the city which will provide you safety and security, not to mention other ammenities.

We went to spend a couple of days recently in Brussells and stayed in the Ustel hotel. The lobby is clean and presentable but you cannot check in until 3pm and we arrived after an early flight at 10am and so had to waste our first day walking around to waste sometime. The room was really basic - no kettle facitlites etc..Fine for somewhere to put your head down. The hotel is a 10 minute walk from the main centre but you have to walk through (in my opinion) quite a run down part of the city, which is quite intimidating when you are new to a city. There is a restaurant attached to the hotel but this was never open (we arrived on wed and it didn't open until fri - our last night) - so there was no where close to pop down to to get a bite to eat or even a drink at a bar. We were quite thirsty one night and they literally had no facilities to cater for this (even when I asked) and so I had to go out to a newspaper shop to get a drink etc..... The staff weren't really helpful either .. they would anser the phone whilst you were enquiring about something and if they couldn't help you they weren't very good at offering you alternative answers - it was the belgium version of "computer says no!" The only good things is that the hotel is close to the train station but my advice is to get something more central - or go to Bruge as that was beautiful!