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A very clean hotel with antique furniture in public areas. Bar very comfortable and friendly. Lovely lounge with stone fireplace. I always use budget hotels as we spend most of our time sightseeing. However, my priority is cleanliness, comfort, Van Belle met these, the most comfortable bed I have had in any hotel, sheets & towels very clean and good quality. Breakfast very enjoyable good selection!Only own side the area! However, free hurtle bus available at night and bus top facing Hotel No 46 In to centre.All in all pleasant stay.

As I know this hotel works since 1905 ... I did not expect high luxury .... and I was right.Anyway, staff was great, not v far from city center.I would not go there for a 2nd time, but it was a good experience, as I was there with a friend, so we were all day traveling and we just came back to the hotel for sleep.PS: I was there in 2008

The Van Belle hotel is inexpensive (thus furniture old and could use new rugs) and clean with a good breakfast (not the best though). If you are tight on budget this will prove to work just fine. But beware that the neighbourhood is not nice and if not used to seeing different nationalities (imaging people from the Taken movie) this area may frighten you a bit (specially in the case of girls). However, I must point out that the metro is 5 blocks away and it takes to the center in matter of a few minutes. We've never really had any problem and we stayed 7 days. We would not like to stay again though because of the area.

Our worst experience in our all live come from that hotel.Very scared area my car has been scractch for no reason. The hotel is hold. People not friendly at all. Dont go there, you will loose confident in human quality of life.I found nothing positive in the experience. Nothing at all. By the way the owner really needs a shower.

The Van Belle is one of Brussels' oldest hotels, having been in operation since 1905. They have a photo on display taken in 1934 and apart from the removal of the kerbside gas pump outside its garage (which is where the front door is now) it looks very much the same! I say this as a slight warning: inside parts are full of narrow corridors with stairs in odd places. However if you are able bodied, that should be no problem, and you get to stay in a slightly more characterful hotel than some.The room was clean but small; it had a separate toilet and shower room on either side of the entrance, as a novel way of fitting them into a constrained space. Plumbing was a little noisy, but lacked the bad odour in some of Brussels' older hotels. Breakfast was good, and included in the price, with a choice of four breads (no pastries, though), two eggs, cheese, processed meats (no ham), juice, coffee, yoghurt, etc. Fruit was very limited.My main criticism was a short term issue: they are for next few months building an underground car park and this meant I was woken up (despite being on the top floor of my bit) by the noise of construction work at 7am. It's also annoying to have to pay extra for internet access, although not uncommon in Brussels.Several people have commented on the neighbourhood, which is rather run down and a little edgy at night. I'd agree, but reasonably experienced and careful travellers should not find it a problem and inside the hotel it feels safe enough. If you want to see the real working Brussels, walk a couple of blocks North to the Canal de Charleroi, an area of abattoirs and very shady looking businesses exporting used cars to Africa. But don't go there by night! For a more touristic experience the Musee du Gueze (beer) is a very short walk away and offers a brewery visit like no others, anywhere in the world, as the beer relies on natural fermentation in open vats.It's a short walk from Clemenceau metro station, and an easy walk from Midi/Sud for Eurostar, and a simple enough walk to get to the Grand Place if you know Brussels or have a decent map.