The Dolce is one of these hot and cold hotels. I have stayed here about 4-5 nights per year for the last 4 years. There are lots of things great and lots of things that are pretty bad. You know the three most important important things in real estate right? Those are the three worst things about the Dolce: location, location, location. The next worst thing is price. But beyond that, there's a lot to like. Huh? Lemme explain.
La Hulpe is the kind of town you go because you have to. It's a tiny village with a handful of important businesses located nearby. Otherwise it is unremarkable. The Dolce is a former IBM research park that has been converted into a hotel and conference centre. It's a couple miles up the road from SWIFT and also branded "Delloite University", so you can guess the clientele.
The rooms are spacious, really nicely appointed, and totally configured for business travellers. There are irons, ample electric connections, free WiFi (that doesn't have a stupid click-here-to-connect) and nice bathrobes/slippers in the rooms.
The hotel property is huge. You need a car to get from reception to the main road. It is literally 1.2km from the front door of the hotel to the main road, and then it's several km to get to anything interesting. The property boasts some lovely hiking trails and it's a fabulous place to just get away. So if isolation sounds good to you, you're in the right place. You'll be taking a taxi (unless you drive your own car) and that adds €30-50 each way to anything you want to do away from the hotel.
I love how big the hotel is. There are lots of places to get out, relax, sit down and be alone in your thoughts. But that's really all there is to do here. When I'm in the mood for that, it's great. I bring cigars and pipes and I walk and smoke.
Food here is outrageous. Not only is it expensive, but the quality is just so-so. The dinner buffet was nearly €40, and as a vegetarian, appalling for that price. "Pasta with olive oil" was just swimming in a pool of olive oil. The "sauteed beans" were boiled 12 seconds short of being complete mush. Cheeses were lovely, and some other cold vegetarian options were not so bad. But paying €40 for it is absurd.
I prefer the bar food for dinner. For literally half the price of the overpriced, underwhelming buffet, I can get a veggie burger and fries and a couple beers. Of course, that's €18 for a veggie burger. And, while it's tasty and filling, it is veggie burger worth €8, not €18.
I am amused by the prices on the web site, too. They advertised a standard room rate at one price, warning that the buffet breakfast is an addiitional (and also outrageous) €23. But the "bed and breakfast" rate, which includes the buffet, was an additional €30 per night. I'm not sure who falls for that, but it makes no sense to me. The breakfast foods are good quality, and nicely appointed, but hardly worth that kind of extra money.
The Dolce is a beautiful example of macroeconomics working at a micro scale here. Competition drives down prices and increases quality. It's good for the consumer. The Dolce has no innate competition. You simply cannot get any food from anywhere else (no deliveries, no takeaways, nothing) without getting in a taxi or a car and spending some time and money. So a lack of competition leads to uncompetitive offerings, like mediocre food at outrageous prices.
I only stay here if I am here for 3 days or less. If I'm in the area for longer, I get a cheaper hotel in Brussels, walk to fine restaurants, and take a taxi to/from La Hulpe each day. If you're driving, it's a bit different. But I'm not driving. read more