Best Western City Hotel Moran, Prague

A hotel in Prague city centre, located on a corner, a building pleasant in terms of its exterior art nouveau appearance.

I have visited Prague more than 8 times in the past 3 years as the city is in my opinion very pleasant, has some interesting sight seeing venues and also boasts a tourist friendly cost of living. I have stayed at hostels as well as some 3 star accommodations in the past. My brother and I visited Prague in Mid January 2011, to have a nice break from home. It also gave me the chance to stock up on some less expensive tobacco from the Tesco supermarket near Wencezlas Square.

We looked at booking a hotel in Prague within a £50 a night spending limit per room and this appeared a good value stay. We paid just £35ish a night direct through the Best Western Prague Moran hotel website. I thought this was a really good price to pay. During our stay we saw the price per room at over 100 Euros per night for a double room. So this makes booking months in advance much more cheaply.

The location of the hotel is very good as it is situated in Prague 1 which is the main centre of Prague. The hotel is located quite close to Wencezlas Square and Charles Bridge. The time needed to walk to Wencezlas Square from experience was about 10-15 minutes. The location was also helped by transport links which was on tram links and also near Karlovo Namesti metro station. The time taken to get from the airport was around 45 minutes, which we took from Prague Ruznye airport to the hotel which included just one bus ride and a short metro line journey.

Best Western City Hotel Moran

Upon entry to the hotel we noticed a hotel that was nice and quite bold in appearance located on a road in the New Town of Prague. Our first impressions told me that this was not the most disabled access friendly hotel which was due to the narrow doors but it seemed a nice, presentable and clean hotel from the inside. We gave our booking details and were quickly given a room numbered key card. We stayed in a room situated on the 4th floor which had a nice city view of some cathedrals and some other interesting views of the local area. The receptionists were professional, polite and friendly. We were also given a map of Prague which helped us navigate our way around some of this most interesting city. The tiles of the reception area walkway were white marbled tiles, and to the left of the entrance area was a similarly decorated breakfast area. Our room included breakfast which was an American style buffet breakfast which was much better in quality compared to other hotel breakfasts I have experienced in other Prague hotels. The hotel also had a lift for guests to get to their rooms which also helped. The whole hotel is completely non smoking.

The Bedroom

Upon entering with our room key card, we could turn on the lights to the room, and we noticed the shower/bathroom nicely decorated and the room was of good sized as well. The carpets were green coloured and similar to the Hotel Olsanka. There were two beds in the room, both single sized and the room appeared to be well presented. There was also a nice television screen on a desk which also had a kettle along with a nice selection of teas and coffees. Inside the shower/bathroom were two bath towels as well as two hand towels. I liked the presentation and tidiness of the bedroom and this made our stay ever more pleasant. Also I could keep up with latest news in the evening and listen to a few music television tracks. There was a good selection of television channels, which helped us pass the evening well. The room also had a compact, perhaps old fashioned wooden chair which was situated near the television table.

The bed mattresses and the pillows were slightly basic yet clean. I would have liked to have a more padded mattress and pillow to the ones provided, but still I managed to sleep well during our stay in Prague. I was slightly disappointed by the street lighting and noise from the local trams that were moving from nearby roads. This disappointment was only slight as the quality of the room was really good. I found that the room overall had everything we needed for a nice comfortable stay. The room had a nice view of the local area where we could see a few cathedrals and big yet pleasant looking buildings. The walls were beige white which was fairly plain but the decorations were finished to a high standard indeed. There was no cause for complaints on this count either.

The shower bathroom area was nicely decorated in nice wall tiles and there was a nice luxury sink, and a good quality loo as well. The size of the bath was good, and also within the middle part of the bath, was a nice quality shower head. To the left of the sink area was a hair dryer, and to the right of the sink, were samples of shower gel and soap. To the right of this, a towel rack which saw two towels also draped across a silver chrome rail. The quality of the shower room was in my opinion was quality. This made our stay even more pleasant, as even the water was nice and warm and the controls on the shower/bath taps were easy to move around and control.

The Service

The check in was efficient and polite, I asked the receptionist if we could use the internet computer which was situated in a slightly enclosed area, close to the breakfast section and I was able to surf the Internet. I was told that as we were guests we could use the computer free of charge. Secondly at breakfast time, I was asked for my room number, and received a friendly smile by another kitchen/breakfast assistant. I had no problems with the room or any part of the hotel to have cause for complaint as I had a nice breakfast, and the room was clean and tidy. During the morning of each of our stays the room was cleaned and tidied to the standard of when we first had arrived in the room.

The hotel overall, had a receptionist at the front desk at all times, there were only few times when I had entered and exited the front door of the hotel to find no manned reception. Furthermore, I had asked for additional sachets of tea and coffee during times of my visit, and we received an adequate supply. I was pleased that we could request the cleaning and tidying of our room from a label placed on the bedroom door on the outside. The cleanliness of the hotel rooms and throughout the hotel was excellent. I was also pleased with the quality of the decor throughout the room. The shower/bath area was finished to a high standard. We were also pleased that each day we were provided with fresh clean towels after we requested the rooms be cleaned and tidied.

Regarding the food, there were no evening dinner meals, although we found cheap restaurants nearby, and the breakfast was included in the price, which we found to form a really good value stay in Prague. The breakfast provided by the hotel was effectively a full English breakfast. There were scrambled eggs, bacon, and a Czech or German small sausage pieces. There was bread, croissants, over 4 different types of fruit juices. Also there were 4 types of cereals, yogurt, milk, slices of ham and cheese, as well as coffee, and a good selection of teas. The service at the breakfast was excellent in that the self service area was clean, presentable and fully stocked, and readily replenished. I liked that there were hotel staff supervising matters, and they managed the breakfast area well, and took away plates from the guest’s tables. Overall there must have been about 30 tables in the breakfast area and from my experience the area was not overcrowded with guests. The breakfast quality was really good and plentiful. I felt no need to rush out to go to a coffee shop as well as other cafes during the morning and felt less need for food through the early stages of the day.

Overall

For the money we paid to see stay 4 days in this excellent city we found what we believed to be an absolute bargain. The breakfast was good quality and plentiful. The service we received was also good. The location was excellent. I would have no hesitation in returning to Prague and this hotel again in the future. I would highly recommend staying at the Best Western Hotel Moran. The only factor that let the room stay down was the slightly bright street lights, and in comparison to the completely dark rooms at the Hotel Apollon also in Prague, my most recent stay was not as good. I found the beds to be fairly basic, yet comfortable, but the morning food and the facilities at the hotel were better. We paid £105 for 3 nights which works out to approximately £35 for each night including breakfast which is a bargain. The quality and quantity of the breakfast provided by the hotel saved us valuable currency in not needing to go to as many coffee shops as well as snack based cafes during the morning and through the early afternoon time.

Extra Information

For reference purposes close to the hotel on the same road was a good value Chinese restaurant which we found the food appetising and well worth the visit. Also there were plenty of food shops and one in particular where I discovered a shop selling Oral B toothbrushes. I managed to buy 10 of these.

Also in the hotel was a small mini market area which had essential items such as Mineral water, chocolate and wine stocks, but the prices were far higher compared to the nearby food market shops so we avoided buying from the hotel.

The booking website used was http://www.bestwestern.com/

Highly recommended