(CNN) -- A visa, toothpaste, spare underwear. All essentials for a decent vacation. But what about something less substantial -- a pleasant welcome when you arrive? After all, the friendliness of the people you meet often determines whether your memories of a place are fond or foul. Now welcomes have been rated. The apartment-rental website HouseTrip.com (which operates on a similar model to Airbnb) has crunched the numbers on 130,000 of its users' European city reviews. And the city most often given a five-star rating across the seasons for its all-round cheeriness was that capital of grand boulevards and paprika-scented restaurants, Budapest.
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Budapest most welcoming city overall, says rental website
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Paris nicest in springtime and Berlin friendliest in winter
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Lisbon's especially welcoming if you're (traveling with) a pet
Apart from @placeholder in the springtime -- the song seems to have it right -- those results often defy expectations.
And in wintry @placeholder it's hard to think of anything else but your shoes freezing to the sidewalk.