LATROUPE Grand Place Hostel in Brussels

Unfortunately, our experience at this property was deeply disappointing. Upon arrival, we were unable to access the key box, and it took a long phone call to receive new instructions—only to find that those were also incorrect. We eventually gained entry by relying on someone else to let us into the building.

Several basic amenities were missing or not functioning: the lift was out of order, the TV didn’t work, and there was no hairdryer or iron in the apartment. Despite multiple requests, no one followed up or resolved these issues during our stay.

What’s most concerning, however, is that an ex-employee gained access to the property while we were sleeping and stole valuable personal belongings, including passports, driving licences, cash, and cards. This was a distressing violation of our safety and privacy. While the police handled the situation with professionalism and care, the response from the accommodation provider was alarmingly inadequate.

The location of the property is excellent, but customer service was poor, and there appeared to be little regard for guest care or safety. I don’t take leaving negative reviews lightly, but I believe future guests deserve to be aware and exercise caution.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!! IT IS A SCAM! YOU WILL GET ROBBED OR WORSE!

this is probably the first awful review i'm giving and this is to smartflats at grand place 1.

if you read all the other reviews that give it a 1/5, that's because you need to avoid this place at all costs.

we had to battle airbnb to get reimbursed.

we had someone come in and steal credit cards and rummage through our stuff. they basically look out for any tourists that are leaving the place.

this is due to them just having a key pad which anyone who's stayed there previously can just type in and get inside your place.

the pictures look like there are doors and tv's and all that stuff, but it's actually false. there were no doors in the bedrooms, it was pretty filthy and there were markings everywhere.

what's sad is that it keeps happening and it's still listed and there's a police station across the street!

it's such a scam and i advise anyone to please avoid this place at all costs.

we had to leave to go to an ibis where we knew we would be safe and that there are locks in the doors.

AVOID IT.

AVOID , MISOLD AND CONSTANT LIES WITH NO SUPPORT TO HELP DURING THE STAY.

I’m messaging this over 4 months later as I wanted to make sure my review wasn’t based on emotions.

However, please avoid booking with this company at all costs. I booked an apartment in Belgium with them specifically paying for a 3 bedroom apartment which turned out to be unlike the images on booking.com and actually only 2 bedrooms.
I was told that the booking room they provide is not always correct but why do they list 2 beds cheaper than 3 beds. They were clearly trying to cover their tracks.

Not only this their property was damaged with microwave broken, dirty floors and the table near tv that kept falling.

I had barely any communication from them even stating we would pick up with booking.com as they were not responding to us. Booking.com gave us a refund but as they had my card on file Smartflats then took money from my account without giving me any notification or speaking to me about the situation. This was a serious breach. The company has been blacklisted by my bank now.

Any security deposit you put down please be aware. They say they don’t have your card details on file (see attached) but if they don’t they how were they about to charge my card additional amounts outside of a security deposit. Very odd as you can see in my bank transactions. (Clearly proving booking.com refunded me , they charged me and then a dispute happening.) also they charged me more than booking.com

Upon checkout I wanted to speak to manager who we couldn’t because he was hiding away so they made another woman speak to us to try to resolve the situation stating they would give a 40% discount. I mentioned for the lack of communication and issues it caused with the number of people staying they should give a 50% discount specifically so it is fair and that we could part ways.

Unfortunately, they didn’t see this as something they could do and would not let me speak to the manager!

I had to then raise a dispute with my bank which took about 2 months but closed in my favour. They clearly lied about what they could offer and did not want to resolve the issue.
Luckily my bank closed this in my favour as they had no lack of true reasoning for the way they missold us.

I’m sure they’ll come up with a false response but I’ve come with receipts. (@smartflats im sure you will agree but we did try our best to settle.)

Ide also like to note they need better guest relations officers because William at front desk was extremely rude and had no lack of understanding of where smartflats had gone wrong stating ‘but you still stayed at the property’ which they would have known about if they had checked the countless times we emailed for an update to help move us. Sorry but where were we going to go if we came from London to Brussels?
A massive inconvenience as everyone knows prices hike for alternative hotels closer to your booking date.
We needed Smartflats to give us a three bed to accommodate the people staying in the falsely advertised apartment.

Not to also mention where we were told to pick up keys from originally was not where we ended up picking keys up from. We had to walk 20 mins to another office. They only told us very late on the day. ( see attached). Then we were told actually our keys were here so we had to come all the way back! Waste of time honestly.

DO NOT BOOK THIS PLACE ! SCAMMERS

AVOID!! These apartments are unsafe, the apartments are accessed by codes on the doors which the cleaners, receptionists and tech teams all know. One night somebody entered our apartment and stole money and designer sunglasses. There is no way to lock the door from the inside so we felt very unsafe whilst sleeping at night.
The apartment with terrace was unclean, the floor looked like it had never been hoovered and the furniture was covered in stains. The shower leaked and flooded the bathroom when used. We stayed for 4 days and asked for fresh towels on the second day (we had to use them to dry the bathroom floor) but they did not replace towels for the duration of our stay.
The lift did not work (no surprise when looking at other reviews), the receptionist blatantly lied to us on check-in saying that it would be fixed the next day. It was broken for the duration of our stay.
Our friends who stayed in another of the apartments were covered in bed bug bites.

Avoid at all cost. Horrible experience. You arrive, the appartment you booked is dirty and not ready. So they give you another apartment with one less room and therefore less beds. And it seems normal to them that you have to sleep in precarious conditions, all together.
In addition, several appliances were not working, there was water leakage, etc.
Quite unbelievable and disrespectful. In exchange, they only thing they offer is 15% the NEXT booking. Are you for real?

DO NOT RENT HERE!!!!! The worst experience of my life. We arrived and the two-floors apartment had a broken stairs, it was missing a step so we could not access the upper floor where the bathrooms and bedrooms were. The refrigerator and the heating were not working. They never gave us a solution, we communicated twice by phone without a response, by WhatsApp chat without a response or solution, neither Hank nor Caroline, nor Frederick nor Salohy S., nor Gillian who responded gave us a solution. We paid for an apartment that we could not use and they never gave us a solution, they left 5 clients stranded without a place to sleep when they provide a hospitality service and they did not comply with the basics of access to a bed. DO NOT RENT HERE!!!!! DO NOT RENT HERE!!!!! DO NOT RENT HERE!!!!! PLEASE MAKE YOU A FAVOUR AND DO NOT RENT HERE IF YOU WANT A NICE PLACE TO STAY IN!!!!!!

Avoid this flat! Not worth the money, it’s expensive for what it offers. Go to Urban Yard hotel, they offer same rate and it’s way better than this. No wifi, no tv, room extremely cold and because of the location you’ll hear everything outside, right at the famous Brussels square, which is nice but not when you want to sleep before or after a long flight. I lost my money here

Smartflats is possible the biggest scam in Brussels.
We booked our "hotel" VIA booking which we received an email with "Check in instructions", stating that we could pick up our keys at their reception. Their reception was non existent, we tried calling and emailing a number times with each time being put on hold or told that we need to deal with booking. After hours of trying to get a hold of them we had to book another hotel. The next day we finally got in touch with somebody via telephone after loads of waiting, again, to be informed that our hotel was under maintenance and that there is nothing they could do about it. So far we have been debited of 700+ euros and still have not been refunded.
Whatever you do, do not book with these scam artists.

AVOID THE TWO BEDROOM OPTION.

Not sure if this applies to every room in this flat, but definitely avoid the two-story two-bedroom option. First will start with the relatively short list of pros, and then list the cons:

PROS:
- Central location, with easy walkability to major landmarks, bars, restaurants, etc (though there is a con to this)
- Large space

CONS:
- Location. It is located next to two casinos on a busy street.
- Noise. Because it is next to so many things, you will hear drunk people at 3-5am EVERY night, yelling and screaming. Sound proofing is very poor.
- Disrepair. There were knife stab marks on the walls, the toilet set was broken in half and almost came off of the toilet, the shower head was completely leaking. The built in fridge broke so there is a small separate mini fridge.
- Water. Hot water is an issue. It runs half cold and half hot.
- Smell. It smells like a smoker used to live in the house, but honestly it is probably from the casino and the outside air seeping in.
- Dangerous stairs. The stairs to go up almost seem to be a safety hazard, creaking and bending (hard to describe here, but it is a spiral staircase with little support), walking up and down felt like a dangerous obstacle
- Customer service. While polite, basically does nothing. Seems like a large corporation that doesn’t care about this particular property.

In the end - not worth it. Would not stay here again, and at any Smartflats property for that matter if this is how they handle their flats.