I stayed in Brussels for one night -- celebrating my wedding anniversary! -- and I very much enjoyed my stay in the Be Manos hotel.
The hotel is very sleek and elegant; it feels like the sort of place someone who is much hipper than me stays at, and it was a fun ambience. The staff all spoke excellent English, and were friendly and helpful.
The hotel is very close to the (south) train station; if you're traveling from Paris or to the Netherlands on the fast train (as we were), this is the station you'll be coming through. You can walk from the station to the hotel in 5 - 10 minutes. If you're not very mobile or dragging large luggage, you can also take a free hotel shuttle. It was easy to arrange for the ride back to the train station -- though if you don't have cell phone access to call the front desk, it would be hard to arrange for a pick up.
We arrived quite early, at around 9:30 AM, and were assuming we would stash our luggage and come back at around 3:00 PM to check in, but were pleasantly surprised to learn that they had a room ready for us. (Funny story: I had noted on my reservation that it was our 5th wedding anniversary. The clerk accidentally wrote down 50th, and they seemed very puzzled when I said my name; they were expecting a much older couple!)
If you're a sour beer lover, you'll be happy to learn that Be Manos is located an easy walk away from Cantillon Brewery, home of world-renowned lambics. (Check it out for sure!) Other reviewers talk about this part of town as a "bad neighborhood." It's not the gleaming tourist center, but it didn't feel unsafe at all, and we walked back to this area from the city center at around 9:00 or 9:30 PM.
Our room came with an excellent free breakfast buffet for two. The breakfast was great, and had lots of options (including many that traveling Americans would feel at home with; nothing was too exotic.) The rooms don't always include this; if our room hadn't, we probably wouldn't have sprung for the fee of around 20 euros per person.
I booked months in advance (I tend to plan trips very early!), and the cost for booking directly with the hotel was about the same as you pay on any discount booking website. Booking directly with the hotel gave us the free breakfast while the booking websites didn't, so I recommend checking out the hotel's website first. read more