Short-Term Budapest Accommodation: How to Book Online

Our short term apartments in Budapest are available to book online from 2 to 30 nights.

Before reserving your accommodation online through our website you will need to know the dates of your stay and the number of guests in your party. You will also need to have a credit or debit card, or a PayPal account.

Either browse our apartments on the Apartments page and select accommodation that suits your requirements and shows as available for 'Short Term' (look for the "Yes" in the listings next to where it says "Short Term"). Click on the photo or name of any apartments that interest you to read the apartments' details pages.

Or you can use our search panel (to the right) to very quickly find accommodation that both matches your requirements and that is available for your dates.

The search panel will only return a list of accommodation that is available for your dates and free for you to book online. This list will also show you the total cost of each apartment for your dates and number of guests.

To book one of the available apartments from the search results page and directly enter the online booking procedure for that apartment, simply click on the 'Book Now' link next to the apartment's price.

If you click on the photo or name of an apartment on the search results page you will be able to read the details of that apartment without directly entering the online booking procedure. Use the Back button in your browser to return to the search results page.

From an apartment's details page, clicking on the 'Book now' button at the top of an apartment's description will allow you to check the calendar for that apartment to see which dates it is available, you can also proceed to book the apartment online from the same page.

in some cases, and only for stays of more than 14 nights and less than 30 nights, in addition to the standard 10th, 20th and 30th nights being free, some (but not all) owners are willing to negotiate lower rates. You can either continue to book the apartment online and contact us via the comments field or contact us separately to ask if any discounts are available. We will liaise directly with the owner on your behalf and, if the owner is open to negotiation and agrees a lower price we will adjust the cash balance accordingly so your overall booking cost matches the agreed discounted price. Alternatively, you can contact us before you book online, which unfortunately runs the risk of someone else booking the apartment through our website's online booking system while the negotiations are taking place.

The Online Booking Process

You will be asked to confirm your booking details and dates, and you will be shown a break-down of the cost of your booking. You will then need to provide your contact information for your reservation.

Once this information is confirmed you will be taken to a highly secure payment server operated by PayPal. If you have a PayPal account (optional), you can log in to the account and pay your deposit. Alternatively, and as long as the card is not registered to an existing PayPal account, you can pay for your deposit using a very wide range of credit and debit cards without needing to create or log in to a PayPal account.

Please note that these deposits are non-refundable, and a 4% online processing fee is added to the deposit amount being paid. All of this information is clearly outlined in the pricing information shown prior to submitting your booking for payment processing.

IMPORTANT! we at Budapest Lets really value and appreciate your business, and we want to do everything possible to make sure our standards and service are the best they can be and we are always looking to improve our services. In order to do this we would very much like to ask you to provide us with your feedback after your stay with us in Budapest. For our guests who found us using TripAdvisor and/or our new partner, FlipKey, you will receive a message through the FlipKey Guest Review System asking you to rate us. Good or bad, your honest review and rating will help us to provide both you and our other guests a better service in the future.

If you DO NOT want to be contacted by us or FlipKey/TripAdvisor for your review, please indicate this either in the comments box when you place your booking, or by contacting our bookings administrator (Steve) at admin@budapestlets.com. You can always change your mind at a later date, simply contact Steve and inform him of your wishes.

What Happens Next?

When you submit your booking information for payment processing, the online booking system will 'freeze' the apartment for the dates you've selected. The apartment will remain 'frozen' until you either, cancel your booking by clicking on the 'Cancel' button, successfully make the online payment for your deposit, or if 24 hours has lapsed since you started the online booking procedure and no deposit payment has been received by us.

If you have pressed the 'Cancel' button or not made your payment within 24 hours, the apartment will be automatically 'released' (unfrozen) and will be made available for someone else to book it.

Please note, if you close your browser before completing the booking the apartment will remain 'frozen' for the 24 hours or until you contact Steve and ask him to manually release it so you can try again. In most cases, as long as your browser has not been closed, you might be able to return to the booking within the 24 hours and resume with your online deposit payment, this depends on your browser and it's security settings.

If your deposit payment is made successfully the apartment will be confirmed as booked by you. You will be sent to a Thank-You page where you will be able to view and print your booking confirmation. The booking confirmation will also be sent to you at the email address you provided on the booking form, so please make sure that email address is correct when entering your details!

Your booking confirmation contains the details of your booking and outlines how much you have paid online for your deposit, fees charged, and the remaining balance to pay in cash on your arrival at the apartment.

If you lose your booking confirmation or it does not arrive please email Steve.

Our short-term lettings manager, Eszter, will contact you (usually within 24-72 hours) to introduce herself and acknowledge that your booking has been received and confirmed. Eszter will also provide you with more details on transportation options and costs, arrival arrangements, key handover, apartment orientation, contact numbers and email addresses, and will provide answers to any questions you entered in the comments box on the booking form.

To help Eszter and her team to arrange any transportation and/or make sure someone from Eszter's team is at the apartment at the right time to meet you, Eszter will require your flight or train details and times. Please make sure to keep Eszter uptodate if these details change prior to your arrival.

Long-Term Budapest Accommodation Rentals: How To Book

Our long term accommodation in Budapest is usually available to rent from 1 month to 12 months (or longer).

Due to the rental rates on the long term apartments, we DO NOT process rent collection online, therefore the long term apartments cannot be booked online using the website booking system.

To see which apartments are listed for long term rental click on the Long Term Apartments link on the Apartments page.

By clicking on each apartment's photo or name you will be able to read more information, see photos, flooplans, clicking on the 'Location' link will bring up the location map, and clicking on the 'Long Term' button will display pricing information, 12 month availability calendar and an enquiry form.

By filling in and submitting this enquiry form your enquiry will be sent to us and will be specifically linked to that apartment.

Alternatively, click on the Contact link at the bottom of any page on the website and send us your enquiry via the general enquiry form.

When making an enquiry please make sure to tell us how many guests will be staying, your exact dates (arrival and departure), price range, preferred district or local amenities (eg. close to CEU), and any other relevant information (the more information you give us the faster we will be able to match you up to the best available accommodation for your needs and budget).

What Happens Next?

Once we have all your details we will check the availability of any long term accommodation that meets your requirements, and where possible we will negotiate a price with the owner on your behalf (not all owners are open to this and some apartments strictly adhere to the pricing advertised on the site). The negotiations will include whether energy and house bills are included in the rental price or not.

Our long-term rentals manager, Gordon, will liaise with you and the apartment owner, and will answer any questions you may have.

In some cases a refundable deposit may be required. Depending on the circumstances this deposit can either be paid to our office in Budapest (see About Us page), or sometimes it can be paid and subsequently refunded via PayPal accounts and credit/debit cards. Paying and refunding deposits via PayPal and credit/debit cards incurs processing fees and PayPal may make an additional charge to you to reclaim your deposit after we have refunded it to you.

Once your rental is agreed and confirmed between the 3 parties, yourself (the tenant), Budapest Lets (the manager) and the owner (the landlord), the apartment will be blocked out for you on the website by our bookings administrator (Steve) to prevent anyone else from booking it.

Our long-term rentals manager will then make all the arrangements with you to confirm arrival and departure dates, tenancy agreements, signing over of keys, apartment orientation, facilities and locality etc.

If an agreement has been made to pay a refundable deposit via PayPal (including credit/debit card processing), Steve will invoice you for the deposit plus the processing fee. Once this deposit is received by Budapest Lets Steve will send you a confirmation of payment received and Gordon will confirm your rental with you.

At the end of the rental and upon Steve receiving instructions to do so, the refundable deposit will be refunded by Steve via the same email address that was used when making the payment, less any deductions as outlined in the conditions set out in the tenancy agreement and agreed between yourself, Gordon and the apartment owner.

What If The Apartment You Want Is Showing As Unavailable?

The apartments can display 1 of 3 states on their respective reservation calendars; 'available', 'booking-in-progress' and 'booked'.

The dates on the calendars relate to 'nights'. For example, an apartment shaded for 2^nd March means that that apartment is booked for the night of the 2^nd March, so if the 3^rd March is unshaded (available) it means a guest is in there on the night of 2^nd March but is departing on the morning of the 3^rd March, so the night of the 3^rd March is available to be booked.

If an apartment is available to book / rent it will show as clear or unshaded for the night(s) in question.

If an apartment is in the process of being booked or is already booked it will show as unavailable (shaded) for the night(s) in question.

If an apartment was showing as available (unshaded) for your nights when you start to book it through the website's online booking system, but the apartment then says it's booked and stops you from making your deposit payment, then it might be that someone else has also booked the apartment at the same time as you and for the same or overlapping dates but they got to the payment stage and submitted their payment before you. In these very rare cases we apply a 'first-come-first-served' policy.

Alternatively (and more commonly), situations sometimes arise where a booking is interrupted mid-flow and before a payment is successfully made online, eg. you navigated to another page or your browser crashed or was closed before completing the booking. In these cases, as mentioned in the 'How To Book Online' section above, if the browser has not been closed then it might be possible to resume your booking by returning to the same apartment and clicking on the 'Book now' button and re-entering the exact same dates. If the possibility is there to resume your booking then a message will be shown asking you if you want to continue.

If this message does not show and you see a message saying the apartment is unavailable for your dates, then you will need to contact Steve at admin@budapestlets.com. As long as someone else has not booked the apartment in the interim then Steve will be able to release the apartment for you and you will be able to re-attempt your booking.