De Valkenrots

!!! THIS HOTEL HAS A BED BUG INFESTATION PLEASE BE CAREFUL !!! This hotel is a disgrace. DO NOT STAY HERE. Not now and not in the near future. As you can see from other reviews: they do not take health concerns such as bed bugs seriously. There was bed bugs in our room, which we told to multiple members of staff. We were not taken seriously and not offered any sort of compensation or solution. It was basically: leave or stay in the bed bug-infested room. This hotel clearly has an issue they are not dealing with (please also look at the other reviews). The staff treated us horrendously and denied to offer us any help. We did not get a refund because of our non-refundable booking. You would hope that a bed bug-infestation is an exception to this policy, but apparently the hotel management is happy to put their guests at risk. Despite multiple reports, they have not addressed the issue and the hotel has a current and active infestation of bed bugs. They pretend to care in response to negative reviews, but our experience has been anything but positive. We were not met with a single sliver of empathy from staff and were not offered any help. Instead: we first had to sleep on the floor of our room, and then were told to wait and wait until the manager could provide a response (which she/he did not do, instead opting to only respond to our rep from Hotels.com and not us ). This hotel is an absolute mess. Please reconsider staying here if you value your own health and sanity.

Two major flaws, unfortunately: 1. The rooms facing the square are unfortunately not sufficiently sound insulated. You'd hear the garbage trucks & the pavements being pressure washed a dawn, and loud music and bar noises in the evening. Three star chains with rooms facing airport runways do a better job installing triple/quadruple glazing. Somewhat disappointed to see that nobody at Sofitel thought about this. Eventually changed rooms and settled for a smaller one with a rather underwhelming inner courtyard view just to be able to sleep. 2. There, I had to find out that the AC cannot be switched off. No matter the setting you chose, air just keeps blasting. Not a bug, but a feature apparently - as told when I inquired. Everything else was perfect, but those two building planning shortcomings would make me chose a different hotel for my next trip in Brussels.

A nice, central hotel in Brussels with a beautiful garden and a helpful staff.