K&K Central, Prague

I visited Prague for the first time in June 2009 and I did some good research into finding a nice hotel for my holiday there. I wanted a hotel in a good location that wasn't too expensive and provided breakfast. The K+K Hotels immediately struck me, and there are actually 2 K+K hotels in Prague, the K+K Fenix and the K+K Central, the latter being the one I ended up choosing as my hotel due to the better reviews on Tripadvisor.


...Hotels group was founded in 1961 by brothers Josef and Helmut Koller and the hotel group is entirely family owned. The K+K Hotels are all stylish with an and of a high quality and they have hotels in many European cities including London, Paris, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest, Prague and Bucharest.


== Booking ==
I didn't book directly with the hotel, but through Expedia.co.uk, the hotel does do some great deals ... more

I visited Prague for the first time in June 2009 and I did some good research into finding a nice hotel for my holiday there. I wanted a hotel in a good location that wasn't too expensive and provided breakfast. The K+K Hotels immediately struck me, and there are actually 2 K+K hotels in Prague, the K+K Fenix and the K+K Central, the latter being the one I ended up choosing as my hotel due to the better reviews on Tripadvisor.

About K+K Hotels

The K+K Hotels group was founded in 1961 by brothers Josef and Helmut Koller and the hotel group is entirely family owned. The K+K Hotels are all stylish with an and of a high quality and they have hotels in many European cities including London, Paris, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest, Prague and Bucharest.

Booking

I didn't book directly with the hotel, but through Expedia.co.uk, the hotel does do some great deals and these were reflected through Expedia anyway. The deal we had was a saving when booking 3 nights or more. Usually the cost per night for a standard double non-smoking room is £113.22 (prices correct when booking in Spring 2009) however as we were staying for 3 nights this price came down to £79.25 per night. This great price included breakfast and for a 4 star hotel in a city this was a good deal! So the total cost of our stay of 3 nights came to £259.14, much cheaper for us than our previous stays in Paris and London. You can book directly with the K+K hotel website (simply search for K+K Hotels in Google!), and I would recommend having a look here too as they have lots of deals and packages to look at.

Arrival & Check In

We had booked a shuttle service to reach our hotel and it took around 20-25 minutes to reach our hotel from the airport which isn't so bad considering the airport seems to be on the very outskirts of Prague. The hotel is situated down a street very near the Powder Tower and the outside of the hotel looked very pleasant and gave off great first impressions. As you go in through the glass doors you will enter a large lobby with high ceilings and a lovely decor. I'm not too sure of the check-in time as I believe we arrived after 3pm anyway. A lady greeted us at Reception and confirmed our booking and I had to present a credit or debit card (incase you use anything from the mini bar!) and fill in a short form with my details including my passport number and the names of the people staying in my room with me. We were handed a small card which detailed my name (although rather amusingly on this I was a MR. Gemma) my room number and my arrival and departure date (incase you forget?? ;) ) and of course the room key. The room key itself is a large chunk of plastic with a green circle on it and I was told to hand this key into reception each time we left the hotel. The staff at this hotel do speak English and this was very helpful considering we weren't very good at speaking Czech!
As I turned around a man was already picking up our 2 suitcases and leading us towards the lifts, he stopped and pointed out the 2 computers in the lobby with internet access which are free to use. I should point out these are often in use by guests and following advise on Tripadvisor we found 2 other computers tucked away which weren't often being used! To find these simply go down the steps towards the big glass conference room, walk left around the conference room and you will see a sign on the wall pointing towards a room at the back saying 'Business Centre/Internet Corner.' In this quiet room there were 2 computers and a printer, people obviously weren't aware of these and there was only once we went down to find people already on the computers, compared to the 2 in the lobby which were always taken! The man then showed us the bar area, where the breakfast area was and pointed out where to go for the gym/spa. We used the normal lifts to go to our room but I did notice the ornate lift which looked really nice!
We were led to our room and he demonstrated how to use the door key, there is a lock below the door with a green circle on, and you simply pressed the green circle on your room key against this for it to unlock.

The Hotel Room

We had booked a double, non-smoking room and I have heard of people getting a room with 2 singles pushed together however I was glad to notice our room did have an actual double bed in it, which proved to be very comfortable. The room itself was very spacious, more noticeable then the hotel room we once had in Paris which was very small! The windows stretch across one whole side of the room so there was plenty of light in the room. Unfortunately our view was of the inside courtyard side of the hotel and so you could only see hotel rooms opposite but this didn't bother us at all. There is an LCD TV half way down the wall facing the TV and it had the usual Sky News, BBC News World and a couple of HBO channels in English, and other channels from other countries were listed on the TV channels card.
There was a small table and chair, and then a large desk which had a chair, mirror, phone etc. There was a lamp and a kettle on this desk and we used these sockets as our own when we needed them. There was a mini bar, of course the prices were expensive, however there was complimentary tea, coffee and milk which was replenished daily.
There was a very small hallway just inside the door and here was a large, sliding mirrored door wardrobe with a safe and a few drawers in and some hangers. On the top shelf there was a spare pillow. Next to the wardrobe was the door to the bathroom. The bathroom itself was quite small but was quite the average size for a hotel really. It had a bath with shower over it and a large sink and counter area. There was also a few shelves so there was plenty of storage space. It was very clean and modern, and of course you had the standard complimentary toiletries, replenished daily and lots of clean towels. When we used the shower there was always plenty of hot water and we never had a problem in that area.
We recieved maid serivice each day when we were out, and we always came back to a nicely made bed and clean bathroom with fresh towels. They even tidied my shoes up nicely against the wall! Each time we encountered any of the staff in the halls they were always had a smile on their face and said hello.
On an evening we often had a drink in the bar area before going to bed and the staff here were always polite and friendly too. There was usually only one man attending the bar as it's not very busy, but the bar area had comfy chairs and served food until 10pm. Prices were a litle expensive but we didn't mind too much as it was nice to relax in this area.

Surrounding Area

If you turn left when you leave the hotel you will immediately see the Powder Tower. The Old Town Square is only a 5-10 minute walk from here and there's lots of shop and restaurants nearby. Charles Bridge is another 10-15 minute walk from Old Town Square (it can take longer as you will inevitably get lost finding the bridge from the Square!) so this hotel is in a very good location. Our whole trip we didn't use any transport (minus the Funicular railway up Petrin Hill!) as we liked to walk everywhere, despite the rain, even right up to the castle! This was quite a walk away so people might prefer to get a tram, but we never found a need for this. I do highly recommend wearing comfortable shoes around Prague though as there's lots of cobbled streets, and it was quite funny to watch women in high heels trying to stumble around the streets!

Breakfast

Breakfast is servied from 6am till 11am Monday-Thursday and I believe 7am till 12pm on Friday-Sunday. Breakfast was the best I have ever had in a hotel to date! The breakfast area was lovely, it was above the conference room suspended in the big grand room at the back of the hotel (you could read more information on what this room was on some information panels on the wall) and there was plenty of tables and a buffet stand in the centre of the room. Staff were on hand to pour coffee or bring you tea, and I was pleased to have my Earl Grey tea each morning! Breakfast had everything you could imagine, there were small pieces of bacon and sausages, gorgeous scrambled eggs (and on one morning there was some soft boiled eggs as well, but I imagine these ran out on the other 2 mornings), mushrooms and tomato's. For toast there was a selection of white and brown bread and 2 toasters on the table for you to make your own. There were plenty of buns and pastries to choose from, a selection of cheese and meats (bring British I just can't understand why anyone wants cooked meats for breakfast, nevermind a cheese board!) and cereals with fresh cold milk. There was fresh fruit (including gorgeous pieces of pineapple and fruit cocktails), dried fruit and yogurt, and a wide selection of butter, margarine and other spreads. Lastly, you could even have a glass of champagne fresh from a bottle in an ice bucket! This was always replaced with another bottle once it was empty too, a nice touch. I was very impressed with the breakfast as it was a great way to start your day, and it was a lovely atmosphere, it certainly makes a lovely change from the basements you can eat in in other hotels!

Checking Out

You don't have to check out from the hotel until 12pm which was perfect timing for us as we were being picked up then! It was very easy to do, we simply handed in our key and confirmed we hadn't taken anything from the mini bar since room service the day before. There was plenty of comfy sofa's and chairs to sit on whilst waiting on the lobby area.

Summary

I was very impressed with this hotel, the building was so nicely decorated and the staff were so friendly and polite. The room was spacious and very comfortable and I would not hesitate to return to this hotel. It was certainly well worth the money and the breakfast was wonderful, even more so as it's included in the price of your stay!
The hotel was nicely located for us, not bang in the middle of a tourist packed area, but not too far away from the Old Town Square at all. I certainly recommend this hotel if you are going to visit Prague, which by the way, is a beautiful city which I also recommend visiting!  

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