The Botel Marina, one of Bratislava's two hotels-on-a-boat, features cramped, though nautically charming, quarters.

The atmosphere at Pension Vilo is more relaxed than your average pension, and the overall effect is reminiscent of a home stay.

Upstairs from the rather swank Restaurant Carabic is the very simple Pension Carabic.

The Ibis Bratislava Centrum's 120 rooms are perfectly nice, and the location (just outside Bratislava's bewitching Staré Mesto) is fab.

A Jewish "penzion" located just outside of the Old Town, Chez David has eight clean and simple rooms.

Slovak construction company Doprastav operates this large, imposing dormitory-style hotel with 30 room "sets."

Across the street from the Presidential Palace and a short walk from the heart of Staré Mesto, Downtown Backpacker's Hostel is a small hotel-hostel hybrid.

The 31-room Botel Gracia's dated modernist style is so exquisite that we feel the need to beg the management never to renovate.

Old City is an adequate, tourist-class hotel, with 15 rooms perched off Michalska in Staré Mesto.

Pension Gremium is a tiny five-room pension located two floors above the Gremium Restaurant and Bar in the heart of Staré Mesto.

Spend a few minutes at the Arcus and that all-important truism is made abundantly clear: It's the management, so often, that makes the hotel.