About Top Stay Guide
Independent hotel reviews for Central & Eastern Europe
Who writes this
My name is Elena Kovacs. I grew up in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, moved to Budapest at 22 to study Tourism Management, and ended up spending the next eight years moving between Central European cities — Prague, Vienna, Krakow, Ljubljana, Bucharest — reviewing hotels along the way.
I started Top Stay Guide because I was tired of travel sites that recommend the same five luxury properties in every city, or list hotels they've never actually researched. Every recommendation here is based on the kind of due diligence I'd do myself before booking: verified guest data from Booking.com and TripAdvisor, filtered through my own knowledge of these destinations and what actually matters in each city.
What we cover
Our focus is Central and Eastern Europe — specifically the cities that don't get the same depth of coverage as Paris or Rome. Budapest, Prague, Krakow, Ljubljana, Tallinn, Bratislava, Bucharest, Vienna's hidden-gem side streets. We cover every price range, from well-located budget picks to boutique five-stars worth the splurge.
How hotels are selected
Every hotel featured on Top Stay Guide meets the same criteria before it earns a recommendation:
- Booking.com score of 7.5 or above with a minimum of 50 verified guest reviews
- Strong recent trend — the last six months of reviews carry more weight than overall averages
- Location quality — walkability, proximity to the things that actually matter in that city, and access to public transport
- Honest value assessment — the price-to-quality ratio at the time of publication, not just the lowest price
- Flexible cancellation — we only feature hotels with reasonable cancellation policies on at least some rate options
No hotel pays to be featured. No tourism board has ever influenced a pick. If a hotel no longer meets the criteria, it gets removed — not buried.
Affiliate disclosure
Top Stay Guide participates in the Booking.com affiliate programme. When you click a link and complete a booking, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This is how the site stays ad-free and independent.
Affiliate status never determines which hotels we recommend. A hotel cannot pay, partner, or negotiate its way into a guide.
Reader tips & corrections
Stayed somewhere we've recommended? Found outdated information? I read every email personally. If something is wrong, I want to fix it — corrections go live within 48 hours. Reach out at contact@topstayguide.com.