Stayed for one night in a standard room. Although basic was comfortable.
A little noisy in the morning with people opening / closing doors and what sounded like a school playground behind.
Staff were friendly and helpful. I asked directions to an internet cafe and they offered me use of their computer - they refused payment for service.
Its only 5 mins walk to Vitosha boulvd so very convenient for shopping etc.
Check out was fast and problem free - asked if I'd availed of mini bar and took my word that I hadn't.
I will stay here next time I am in Sofia.

i booked hotel central through sofiahotels.com (beware! you arrange excursions and they forget to pick you up, you pay for late check-out and hotel just doesn't care!...). we had an extremely small standard twin, with micro-bathroom attached (beware! the shower, although with curtain has no 'box' therefore you inundate the floor anyway) and with very bland A/C. luckily we were on the back side: we heard comments from other guests stating that the noise from the traffic coming from the gloomy and dilapidated boulevard where the hotel is located was unbearable at night. the hotel has an unpleasant elevator system that gets you in between floors instead of at your own floor, therefore you have to carry your own baggage for several steps up or down depending on where you leave. furthermore, the same elevator does not get you to the basement where the breakfast buffet is located (why not to put it in the ground floor restaurant?). a whole step down is needed each morning: this implies the fact that i certainly don't recommend this hotel to elderly or handicapped people. the breakfast buffet in itself however is good and varied. the hotel is overall clean and furnished with a modern touch and rather central, being at a 10mins. walk from the very center. the deceiving part comes with the customer service: it varies between 'eastern-block-cold' (no greetings, bored behavior, not looking at you) and inconsistent (i asked where i could buy a bus ticket on a saturday morning. i was told that being saturday everything was closed: at 50 meters (!!!) from the hotel door however i discovered a large city transport company office where i bought all the tickets i needed). the worst part was my check-out: i paid through my travel agent for a late check-out at 05.30PM. i came back that day at 03.00PM to relax and have my last bags ready, but i was told by an extremely unpleasant young female receptionist called TSVETI, that i had to leave the room within 04.00PM. i let her know that i double checked the evening before with a colleague of hers that my late check-out at 05.30PM was ok. she said that she did not care what the other receptionist said, i protested, but there was nothing to do. she said the maximum available was 04.30PM and she even dared to call me in the room at that time reminding me that i ought to leave the room immediately. i found this just horrible and it spoiled all my stay at hotel central. for this reason, for the overall bad customer service delivered, for the greyish and rambling boulevard where the hotel is located, for the uncomfortable elevator, for the hostile, incoherent, unfriendly behavior of the receptionist ms TSVETI, i woul NOT recommend hotel central to anyone, unless masochistic.

This was my first trip behind the old Iron Curtain, so I had no idea what to expect. In the event, with one minor exception, the Hotel Central turned out to be a real find.

Location-wise, the name says it all. You're two minutes' walk from Sveta Nedelya church, and about 20 or so from the train and bus station. While the area itself looks a bit drab (it's a main road, after all), from Sveta Nedelya onwards the city really reveals its attractions quite well.
The rooms are fantastic, and even have cable TV. Unusually, you don't get the ubiquitous CNN, but instead get al-Jazeera's English service, which makes for an interesting time. There even seems to be room service, although I didn't try it out.
Staff are very helpful indeed. I needed to buy cough medicine during my stay and don't speak a word of Bulgarian, so one very kind woman wrote out the requirements (generally that it could be taken across borders without any trouble) on a bit of paper to give to a non-Anglophone chemist.
The breakfasts are also fantastic, as there's a genuine range of cooked food as well as the standard bread, jam and cheese that you expect on a Continental breakfast.

The only drawback is that, being on a main road, the rooms can get rather noisy at night, and the curtains don't seem to block all of the light from the advertising hoardings across the road. My first night there seemed to coincide with a group of young people showing off their custom cars, although the second night was a lot quieter.

Still, were I to find myself in Sofia again sometime, I could certainly see myself going back to the Central.

We booked this hotel as a base for a citybreak on the strength of it having four stars and spa/sauna etc facilities.

On our arrival we found it was actually only a THREE star hotel. We were directed to a twin room that had been cunningly installed in a broom cupboard, we had booked a double and upon discussion with reception were moved in to an apartment. Brilliant we thought, what a great place, and set off to explore. We returned to the hotel for a few drinks at ten pm only to find the bar had been closed early because the staff couldn't be bothered that night.

Next morning we went to breakfast to find it was run with the same "so what" attitude and apparently it's the local way to have scrambled eggs and sausages left to get stone cold.

We again spoke to reception and were allowed to keep the apartment at a discounted rate for the rest of our stay in lieu of an apology. OK they're trying we thought.

My partner enquired about having her hair done in the on-site salon only to be told it was fully booked until the following week. We asked about the sauna to be told there was no-one in to run it that day, try later. And there would be a fee for using it.

We again asked reception for help only to be told it was all run privately and was nothing to do with them. As to the fee, it was our fault for misinterpretting the website and thinking the facilities were provided for the use of guests!! Giving up on this we went out for the rest of the day.

When we returned we found the maid couldn't be bothered with our room and again we found ourselves back at reception...

DAY 2. Almost no breakfast left and what was there was cold again. But it didn't really matter because there wasn't anything much to eat off or with anyway. We passed and went out instead.

The maid did change the towels and make the bed but that was it.

Bar closed at 11.

DAY 3. More of the same plus the added bonus of the internet facillities for the guests use were out of action. They did however direct me to a sweaty internet cafe 30mins away. Although I only wanted to quickly check-in on our flights the manager couldn't let me use his working pc...

We enquired about the airport transfer they offer on the website to be told this meant they would call us a taxi, it would cost about 10lev...

LAST DAY. A warm breakfast at last! We spoke to the manager about the quality and niggles of our stay but the restaurant was nothing to do with him. We said about the bar but that was part of the restuarant and was nothing to do with him. We said about the cleaning but that was nothing to do with him. As was the internet and the transfer and the facilites and the website and so on...

It has the potential to be a lovely little hotel and is in a great location but other than bunging us a bit of discount they did nothing to sort out our issues or even offered an apology. It put a bit of damper on an otherwise great stay.