We arranged our accommodation at the train station after we got off the train from Vienna. We had a small budget, so we asked the lady for something that would cost the three of us no more than US$20/night. We had stayed in a hostel in Vienna with a shared bathroom for the floor and assumed that we would get similar lodgings in Budapest.
The lady rang the Ringling, and she got us a room with a private bathroom for $60/night, so we were happy. We took a bus three stops from the train station, and we were there. The hotel was quite big, and our room was also pretty big. They already had put in the third bed for us, so we didn''t have to deal with that. We prepaid at the railway station, so we were all set. We were surprised to find that we had a TV and that it had cable. This was the only room we got during our whole stay in Eastern Europe that had a TV.
The room was very clean, and we were very pleased. When we checked out, we didn''t have a bill, so everything worked out quite well for us. Buses stopped outside the hotel every 5 - 10 minutes, so we never had long to wait.
Apparently the Ringlings know how to run a hotel as well as they know how to run a circus!