Juhász Gyula - Szántó András: Hotels - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

Opened in the eighties in the Inner City and Buda, these three- and five-star hotels reflect the influence of contemporary western trends in their design, and with their various amenities they provide the most up-to-date services. (Hotel MERCÜRE KORONA - No. 14 Kecskeméti utca, district V; Hotel LIGET - No. 106 Dózsa György út, district VI; Hotel NOVOTEL - No. 63-67 Alkotás utca, district XII; Hotel MERCÜRE BÜDA - No. 41-43 Krisztina körút, district I).

The Hotel Novotel

With the fresh stirring of initiative in the middle of the decade, the state’s firm monopoly over the hotel industry was broken, and the private sphere, relying on its hefty capital, came to life. Medium-category hotels were the result of these early efforts (IBIS Centre - No. 6 Ráday utca, district IX; Hotel ORION - No. 13 Döbrentei utca, district I; Hotel VIKTÓRIA - No. 11 Bem rakpart, district I; Hotel WALZER - No. 110 Németvölgyi út, district XII).

For years, both Hungarian tourists and middle-class visitors from East-European countries had a hard time finding reasonably priced accommodation providing decent amenities. The workers’ hostels, party residences and training centres for workers’ militiamen that went

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