We did not stay there but enjoyed excellent meals at very reasonable prices in their 2nd level restaurant.
And a very very friendly competent service.

Passing by we saw some youth groups moving in and a recption team obviously not for stress loaden situations.

This place is terrible. I was booked in here by our local agents but they had a tie in with the place. Advised me it is a four star .Yeah right! I wouldn't give it a star full stop! The rooms are austere , basic , prison like. The location is admittedly downtown but quite honestly I wouldn't want to be down there anyway. The smell in the corridors suggested a lot of water leaked at some time. The doors were made of hardboard? The locks looked like they could be picked by the average local ...I din't even ask about food service. Avoid like the plague. If you are a budget traveller, please save a little more before travelling and stay some where else , not this heap which needs tearing down and replacing with anything else...

I asked a friend in Romania to make a reservation for me to a hotel in Bucharest. Hotel Ambasador seemed a good choice because of its low rate (about $50) and its central location.

When we got there (March 2002), they told us they had thought we were Romanians at the time of the reservation. When they realized we were not, they made us pay the "foreigner rate" which was almost double. Since it was very cold, late, and since we had too much luggage to toy around with, we decided to stay there anyway. The receptionist kept making sarcastic remarks about being glad that the damn rich foreigners have to pay more (I was a student at the time).

Operating the elevators required a touch of magic we did not posses. The room was very small. The furniture was old but not stylish; the beds were uncomfortable and the covers looked very worn out. The bathroom was primitive. The heating system was on high and not adjustable. The windows had broken handles and it took me ten minutes to open one.

There was a very annoying continuous whistle-like noise coming from the next building. Except for that noise, it was quiet though. They had very few customers.

The bottom line: unless you want to make a movie about communist era state-run shacks, stay away.

We found out later that there were better alternatives further away from downtown. If you really need accomodation downtwon Bucharest and are on a budget, google for apartments. We rented a one-bedroom apartment, payed $30/night, and had more space and better service than at the hotel.