I have to admit that we didnt enjoy our trip to Brussels, other than to say we were happy we went there once in our life. The hotel is just one part of it, but the city as a whole doesnt have much to see or do, and its really pretty dirty. If you are considering a trip to Belgium, consider spending less or no time in Brussels and heading to Brugge or another great city (there are so many to choose from!).

As for the hotel, we were arriving late to Brussels by train (10pm-ish)- which I had emailed the hotel about that day to remind them and make sure it wouldnt be a problem. We were staying with them 2 nights, in mid-march. When we arrived, the woman was snotty and told us 'we were late'. That was also the extent of her english, she explained how to work the door and almost everything else in French and we couldnt understand a word (which she knew). The only english she spoke was that we were "late", and "what time did we want breakfast?".

The rooms are tiny, in very bad need of new furniture (imagine a run down hostel, which is how my sisters described it. Our room had a hole in the wall), and no elevator (esp do not stay here if you have a lot of luggage! the stairs up to the rooms are windy and very steep). As another reviewer mentioned and I ignored because this hotel was written up by a couple guide books (lonely planet and fodors, I think?), it is VERY noisy. The street is popular into the late night because of a bar next door and the manequin pis, and we had loud conversations floating up to our room both nights until at least 3 am (plus one very happy guy that decided to sing at the top of his lungs our first night).

The pluses of this hotel were that it's pretty cheap- our double was 79 euros, and my siblings triple room was 95 euros (was 2 single beds and a roll-away, with about 1 foot of walking space!). Breakfast is included, which they bring to your room (where you have no space to eat, except on your bed) and includes a roll, a croissant, tea or coffee, and a packet of both butter and jam. The overall feel of the room is that it's dirty, but I thought the bathroom seemed clean (although our shower water would clog up).

Overall, there must be better places to stay than this in Brussels, for the same price. Given the situation, I would actually recommend a hostel over this hotel, as that is the feeling you get from staying there and the hostel will be cheaper.

Hotel Amigo was just a couple blocks away and looked much nicer, but probably more expensive. The location in brussels is pretty central and good.

I am sad to say that I wouldn’t recommend this place. Sad, because it has certainly several positive points. It is very well situated, 20 meters across the street is the Manneken Pis. The staff is friendly, although a bit chaotic, see below. The room I had (N°1) was not very large, but very clean. The bathroom was perfectly OK, with a shower and the water pressure was good. There is satellite TV with many european channels, including BBC News and Euronews.
The biggest drawback is NOISE. The windows are not soundproof and there is a lot of street noise: mostly people passing by, but also an occasional car or motorcycle or ambulance. At 7 am, there were construction works starting on each of the three mornings I stayed. There were also the garbage truck and the street cleaning truck. There is some interior noise too: I could hear other guests climbing the stairs, etc. which in itself was not so bothering given the size of the hotel, but added to the street noise made it all unbearable.
Also, the windows do not have shutters. The curtains could not make the room totally dark.
La Vielle Lanterne doesn’t have a breakfast room, so breakfast is brought to the room. I always asked for a breakfast at 8 o’clock: the first morning it arrived at a quarter past 8, the next morning at 8:25. Then I complained and breakfast was brought on time the last morning.
The staff was attentive, asking me if everything was OK, but of course they couldn’t do anything about the noise.