Short Term Apartment Rentals--Beware APARTRENT Kft.

Short term apartment rentals can be an economical way to stay in Budapest for a week or more, especially if you are a family size group.  There are lots of sites you can check out with pictures and descriptions.  Make sure the location is convenient to public transportation or free parking if you have a car.

We made internet and phone arrangements to rent a flat from Apartrent Kft. for a month this fall, and we would never rent from them again. We called when we arrived at the airport, and they told us to meet them at the address of the flat, but when we arrived and unloaded our luggage on the sidewalk, they informed us that the flat had no hot water or heat for at least a week, and they said they had just found out that morning despite the fact that it was a regularly scheduled building repair.  (The link in this paragraph is not given as a recommendation, but to show you which site this management group operates.)

Things started out OK--they paid for a taxi to take us to what they told us was a nicer flat, but when we arrived, the flat had a large moldy area in the bathroom and was not especially clean.  At that point, they said we must give them our credit card information for the entire month's rent, and we did this without thinking it through.  Later we called our credit card company and put a block on the card--a great inconvenience to us, but one that we feel saved us from paying for an unacceptable flat.

The next day Apartrent Kft. showed us another flat with worn out furnishings in an inconvenient location for us, saying we could stay there for one week and then we would have to move to another flat.  When we asked to see other flats, they said they would charge us 10 euros for each flat they showed us to pay for their time and trouble!!

We spent the next day frantically looking for a flat, and found one from a reputable management group. Apartrent Kft. insisted we pay them more than the 70 euro deposit we'd already paid to make up for their time and the 'nicer' moldy flat were we'd spent two nights, but we didn't pay them anything extra.  We felt they actually owed us money.

There is a mind set that some Hungarians have that Americans are made of money and willingly pay whatever is asked of them.  They have no concept of customer service and reputation/return customers.  We've run into a few of these.  But there are also some great Hungarians who are fair and honest.  We've run into these as well.  Just make sure you check things out and know what you are paying for.  I also recommend only paying for a week at a time if you stay longer than a week.