My company organised the El Greco for my first stay in Bucharest, due to its proximity to our office. At first glance it is a beautiful old building, nicely refurbished, in a quiet area; the rooms are spacious, and the amenities appropriate. Nevertheless I changed the hotel for my next visit (to the Hotel Marshal, just under 100 m away), as I found some aspects unsatisfactory:

- No shower curtains - the bathroom is left flooded after having a shower.
- The air purifier in the bathroom - which unfortunately could not be removed - left an unwelcome 60s public toilet perfume smell on everythinig.
- The room cannot be darkened completely - the curtains are about 20 cm away from the window and not full height, letting light in from the break of dawn.
- The breakfast buffet was apparently only re-filled once a week - every day there was less to be had.
- The hotel garden restaurant has live music every Tuesday and Thursday - which unfortunately can also be "enjoyed" in the rooms.
- As already reported by other guests, the staff was indeed not overly interested in the guests.

I did not use neither luggage storage nor taxi service, so cannot comment on the corresponding complaints; I had no problems with my booking or payments.

In summary, while it looks nice, the hotel is overall not up to the image it tries to create - the service lags behind the design.

Now, this experience I must rate as the worst hotel experience I ever had.
And I do sleep in hotels a lot.
I was booked here by a colleague. Price was about 90 Euro.

But first to be complete, all aspects of the hotel:
Location was okay, quiet, very central within walking distance to Piata Unirii and Hotel Intercontinental.
But placed in a local side street that even locals seemed not to be able to find it. Nice building from the outside.

Nice outside terrace/lobby for dining and drinking, occasionally with live local music.
Staff in general spoke english, but never smiled, generally behaved uninterested in what was going on in the hotel.

Breakfast was probably average for the country, but I only dared to try the coffee and some fruit.
The other food did not look so happy to me.

Rooms were of good size, old furniture, but anything dropped to the floor had fibres stuck to it, looking like long dog hair.
But it seemed that it was just the old carpet loosing its consistence.
Internet connection for business purpose was available in the room.

Now to the many little and one big catastrophy that we had to endure.
We arrived early and wanted to deposit our luggage. "Ok no problem, we lock them away."
Upon return, we see that the luggage had just been stacked outside in the parking lot at the back of the hotel.
So much about locked and guarded. Thank God it was not raining.

The room of one person in our travel group had a major sewage failure. It got flooded with something grey and gooey. It took four hours to get it solved, but the best solution (moving the guest quickly to another room) was simply declined. We knew there were other rooms free at the time, but staff claimed it was not possible.

Now the major problem:
Staff seemed to earn a share of their income through the taxis they order for the guests. We noticed rather quickly during our three-day-stay that everytime we ordered a taxi through the reception, we got ripped off big time. Big Time.
In one case 60 Euro for a trip which was 9 Euro on the return trip.
And it was only on the trips away from the hotel, not back to it.

So we got suspicious and organised ourselves a taxi out in the street near the hotel. No rip-off this time.
I am only talking about the official yellow taxis here of course.

Then came the big explanation: we sat in the outside terrace for a beer and saw a taxi stopping, the driver went past the terrace to the lobby. he came back soon after with other guests. A few seconds after that he was follwoed by a hurried receptionist.
They talked for a few seconds softly, and...the driver handed over something which I would swear was a few bills !
Wonder what these guests had to pay for their trip.

It was our last night anyway. We decided to stay, but never to return again. Wouldnt have staid for more than that night.

btw, the hotel ordered an airport pickup for 100Lei (30 Euro). We paid 60 Lei on the return trip.....

You´ve been warned !

I booked a night at El Greco hotel in Bucharest at the end of may. Some minor problems: phone didn't work and the furniture looked pretty old. But these minor problems were forgotten, because the staff was very helpful ( they arranged a car to wait for me at the airport) and the food was wonderful. Breakfast was included. I enjoyed my short visit at this hotel and I will go back next time when I'll visit Bucharest.