Holiday Inn Prague Airport

...a review of the the Holiday Inn at Prague airport.


If you are visiting Prague I don't advise you to stay at the airport, there's no reason to. It's 15 minutes by bus 100 or 119 to the metro (I forget exactly which bus goes to which metro line) and you can surely find a more interesting place to stay in the city. If for some reason you need to be at the airport then there are two hotels I've used in recent months and this is one ...
.../> Well, the hotel is at the airport, almost. It's a bit of a walk. If you're arriving at the airport and are staying at the hotel, give them a call and they'll pick you up. It's only a couple of minutes by road. There's a courtesy phone right by the arrivals door in the international terminal. They'll also take you to the airport if needed when you check out.


If arriving to the hotel from Prague, the airport busses stop right ... more

Continuing my current trend of hotel reviews that lack the useful addition of photos I bring you a review of the the Holiday Inn at Prague airport.

If you are visiting Prague I don't advise you to stay at the airport, there's no reason to. It's 15 minutes by bus 100 or 119 to the metro (I forget exactly which bus goes to which metro line) and you can surely find a more interesting place to stay in the city. If for some reason you need to be at the airport then there are two hotels I've used in recent months and this is one of them.

Location

Well, the hotel is at the airport, almost. It's a bit of a walk. If you're arriving at the airport and are staying at the hotel, give them a call and they'll pick you up. It's only a couple of minutes by road. There's a courtesy phone right by the arrivals door in the international terminal. They'll also take you to the airport if needed when you check out.

If arriving to the hotel from Prague, the airport busses stop right outside, I mean RIGHT outside the doorstep of the hotel. The bus stop to go TO Prague is just around the corner.

There are no shops nearby, so if you want some supplies for your stay stock up at the airport, if it's during the day you can save some money by stopping at the Billa supermarket in the shopping centre opposite the terminals (where the Courtyard Marriott hotel is located - future review).

First Impressions

When you arrive at the hotel you'll see it's a modern but uninspiring building from the outside. Grey in colour you get the feeling it looked good as a model on the architects desk, but against a grey sky it really looks kind of dull.

The grey theme continues in the lobby, but it's not too depressing. The staff are friendly and check in/check out is fast in my experience. This may just be because the hotel is never full, not sure. There has usually been two staff in the evening and three in the morning.

To the right of reception is a restaurant that closes at 22:30 and a bar. I haven't eaten at the restaurant but I assume it also provides breakfast at some point in the morning.

Next to reception is something of an atrium with the stairs to all floors and two lifts to whisk you to your room.

The Room

The rooms are really larger and lighter than I had initially expected. The furniture is fitted into the room, light colours and a basic feel, no doors on the wardrobe for instance. The dominant colour is white, white walls, white bedding, and pale cream carpet.

Standard rooms have a large bed with a duvet and plenty of space to put your alarm clock or bottle of water behind or beside you. Twin rooms are available also, some apparently with two king beds, some with two singles. I would think the twin king has something of a price premium but for a family might work out cheaper than two rooms.

The large desk space has a TV. I only saw Czech channels on there, but then I didn't look very hard. Probably there's an English news channel in there somewhere. There's all the usual pay movies and stuff.

If you've got some luggage or lots of clothes, there's more than enough space to dump suitcases and hang their contents.

One thing that was missing for me was an ethernet cable for the free internet. If you have brought your laptop along but not packed an ethernet cable then just ask at reception and they'll provide one for free (at least they did for me). The internet was a good speed too.

There is a minibar and as there is no convenience store nearby you may end up using it if you're not prepared. A 330ml drink is about 60Kc, more than you want to pay really. There's a couple of chocolate bars in there too.

No tea and coffee facilities in the room which is a bit of a downer for me.

Bathroom

The bathroom is bigger than it needs to be, containing a sink, toilet, shower and although there's not space to swing a cat or park your car it feels a bit empty. Maybe they could have included a bath to use the space. It was clean and two large towels and two small towels were provided.

There was a small basket of toileteries, nothing striking, the usual shampoo, shower gel and soap. Plenty for two people, probably for more in fact.

Summary

There's not a huge amount to say about the hotel, everything was modern and clean and met expectations. The distance from the airport, whilst short, does make it my second choice hotel, but it is sometimes cheaper than the Courtyard Marriott and when this is the case you may want to save a little money as it's not much hassle to wait for the hotel pickup.

The free internet is a strong selling point for me, it can be very expensive in a lot of hotels and to have it for nothing always improves my chances of staying somewhere.

In terms of cost I've seen rooms here in the region of £60-£70. If you're a Priority Club member it can often be reserved for as little as 5000 points, which is a real bargain, but you'll need a few hotel stays to get a free night of course!
 

...less