Sofia Hotel Balkan a Luxury Collection Hotel

"Excellent location!!! Too bad about the room cleanliness... to say the least, poor!! Under the bed there was even a Coca-Cola can!!! Floor dirty even after the morning cleaning done after three in the afternoon!!! Watch out for the electrical panel, it definitely needs to be fixed. Breakfast is mostly savory but all in all average. Definitely not a 5-star hotel."

"I stayed at the Sofia Balkan Palace for a family weekend. While the property boasts an unbeatable location in the city center, the overall experience was highly disappointing, riddled with inexcusable service failures for a hotel that claims 5 stars. ​Below are the critical points encountered during the stay: ​Parking and Traffic: The hotel does not have its own parking lot. In front of the entrance, there is only an uncovered paid lot (€30 per day) managed in a non-transparent way: payment is required exclusively in cash and no receipt or invoice is issued, leaving strong doubts about the actual authorization of the management. ​Reception and Check-in: The check-in process proved slow and inadequate for a property of this caliber. There was only one person at the reception, with a cold attitude and lacking the slightest professional warmth one would expect upon arrival. ​Rooms and Cleaning: The room was large and spacious, but showed clear signs of wear and age. What is completely unacceptable is the housekeeping management: upon our return, we even found the room door left ajar. The towels were not replaced and the beds were made in a sloppy manner. Although I sent a formal complaint to the concierge via email during the evening, I received no response or acknowledgment. ​Breakfast Service: The management of the breakfast buffet was perhaps the most critical aspect of the stay. A line of about 15 minutes just to enter the dining room is unacceptable for a 5-star hotel, especially considering that the property has ample unused space that could be allocated to this service. The dining room staff was slow to tidy up and prepare tables for new guests, and was also visibly unprepared and rude in handling basic requests. ​Handling of requests and dining: At 9:30 in the morning, the pancakes were already gone, and when we asked for a refill, the response was a blunt and dismissive "no, they're out." Even more serious was the incident regarding the request for some warm milk for my daughter: after a 5-minute wait with no result, when I followed up, the waiter walked away, responding in a completely uncaring manner that they didn't have any. Only after I personally spoke to the dining room manager was milk served to us, which turned out to be rancid (so much so that I had to invite the manager himself to taste it). ​Check-out: The classic ritual question at check-out ("Did everything go well?") proved to be a mere formality. It would have been enough to check the email sent to the concierge the previous evening to understand the issues with our stay. ​In summary: If the absolute priority is a central location, the property can be considered. For everything else — service, cleanliness, dining, and customer attention — the price-quality ratio is completely unjustified. I highly recommend looking elsewhere."

"We wanted to have a drink at the hotel bar No one came over to give us the menu, the two people who were there didn't even look, they were talking, and going back and forth... After a good while I got up myself to get the menu... in the end they took our order but since they took so long to bring what we had ordered we decided to get up and leave! That is not the service you expect from a 5-star hotel! We lost almost an hour and left without having anything."