BrightlyBob
May 10, 10, 1:29 pm
This hotel is the subject of a thread on the main forum but as yet no-ones reviewed it here, and since this is meant to be a short-cut, well...
We arrived at 10.30pm. Due to our late hour of arrival I booked a private airport transfer, and after landing and without any luggage we made our way very quickly through passport control where we found our driver waiting for us even though we were early. No need to change currency as we arranged the fare in sterling. As a result we were settling into our room within half an hour of touching down in what must be the quickest landing to checkin ratio outside of airport hotels.
The CP is a remnant of Communist days and as such is a very interesting hotel with impossibly wide corridors and an excess of marble. Checkin was very smooth, the FD clerk knew us as soon as we walked through the door, we were, it seems the last of the checkin of the day. Our PB stay was upgraded to a superior room, that's a double upgrade, excellent for any stay, never mind a PB one. The room was very big with all the facilities one would expect.
It does have an exec lounge which we were offered access to, for 35euros/night... So thats a "no" then. As a matter of interest I am a Plat and reading the forum suggests that they don't give plats free club access on PB's, dont know about normal redemptions or cash rates though...
Staff were friendly and efficient throughout and had a clear service ethos. We exchanged a small amount of sterling at the hotel for 26CZK to the £. Not great but not as bad as some money exchangers in Prague that were offering only 22!! The best rate we found was 28. There were far more moneychangers than cash machines, indeed the lack of citywide cash machines and preponderance of foreign tourists mean you almost certainly will be offered to exchange currency on the streets, we were. Police advice is not to do so. nonetheless it is a good idea to take some euro/sterling/usd with you due to the lack of atm's. Euros are particularly useful as you will find they are accepted as straight currency at most tourist type restaurants/activities. Indeed dual pricing is pretty common throughout restaurants in the city. Even if you bring euros I still think you'll need to change some CZK though.
The hotel breakfast is VERY expensive in comparison to Prague centre, indeed even more expensive than the tourist trap cafes near nam.republiky... We did choose a breakfast in the bar on our last morning as it seemed a good deal at 180CZK (£6/$9) per person, fully cooked and brought to your table with coffee and breads. We waited over 20 mins for it to arrive, only to find it was STONE COLD. Cooked bacon, sausages, toms, fried eggs, toast, heck even the beans were cold. It had clearly been sitting around after cooking for probably 15 mins of our 20 mins wait. Every ingredient was cold. NOT HAPPY. Staff VERRRY apologetic and arranged us to eat in restaurant FOC. Please believe me, the restaurant buffet breakfast is NOT worth the 550CZK (£19/$28) per person they charge, but if the bar breakfast had been served as soon as it was cooked it'd have been delicious and easily worth its 180CZK... Nonetheless, the staff did solve it without question or any kind of dispute.
We purchased the 24 hour public transport tickets at 100CZK each. They can be purchased at the booth next to the tram station which is directly in front of the hotel, note the hotel only offers the single use tickets at 26CZK. You use the tickets by sticking them into a reader inside the tram which "validates" them, printing a code including the time stamped, you then have 20 mins to complete your journey with a "short hop" (18CZK) ticket, or 90 mins with a standard 26CZK ticket, both of which are good during their validity for changes onto bus, tube and tram. If you intend to tour around a bit the 100CZK tickets make the most sense as they last 24 hours from time of validation. We got good value out of our tickets as the centre is about 20-30 mins tramride from the hotel. You can use a combination of tram to Dejvicka and then tube but we enjoyed the view of the ride on the tram (no 8), although we did use the tube a few times. For our return to the airport we used the tram to Dejvicka and the 119 bus to the airport, a total journey of about 30 mins. BTW, dont make the mistake of getting off at terminal 3, its miles away from the other 2... The airport buses are a part of Pragues public tranport and hence we used the last few minutes of our 100CZK pass to do it.
The CP Prague is a great economic choice for Prague, rates of about 65euros/night are easily possible. You can probably find better value for points but on PB its a total steal. Will definitely stay again for a cheap weekend in Prague, although if you want to party the night away I'd recommend a central hotel as public transport becomes very limited after midnight and Prague is noted for its shonky, overcharging taxis...
We arrived at 10.30pm. Due to our late hour of arrival I booked a private airport transfer, and after landing and without any luggage we made our way very quickly through passport control where we found our driver waiting for us even though we were early. No need to change currency as we arranged the fare in sterling. As a result we were settling into our room within half an hour of touching down in what must be the quickest landing to checkin ratio outside of airport hotels.
The CP is a remnant of Communist days and as such is a very interesting hotel with impossibly wide corridors and an excess of marble. Checkin was very smooth, the FD clerk knew us as soon as we walked through the door, we were, it seems the last of the checkin of the day. Our PB stay was upgraded to a superior room, that's a double upgrade, excellent for any stay, never mind a PB one. The room was very big with all the facilities one would expect.
It does have an exec lounge which we were offered access to, for 35euros/night... So thats a "no" then. As a matter of interest I am a Plat and reading the forum suggests that they don't give plats free club access on PB's, dont know about normal redemptions or cash rates though...
Staff were friendly and efficient throughout and had a clear service ethos. We exchanged a small amount of sterling at the hotel for 26CZK to the £. Not great but not as bad as some money exchangers in Prague that were offering only 22!! The best rate we found was 28. There were far more moneychangers than cash machines, indeed the lack of citywide cash machines and preponderance of foreign tourists mean you almost certainly will be offered to exchange currency on the streets, we were. Police advice is not to do so. nonetheless it is a good idea to take some euro/sterling/usd with you due to the lack of atm's. Euros are particularly useful as you will find they are accepted as straight currency at most tourist type restaurants/activities. Indeed dual pricing is pretty common throughout restaurants in the city. Even if you bring euros I still think you'll need to change some CZK though.
The hotel breakfast is VERY expensive in comparison to Prague centre, indeed even more expensive than the tourist trap cafes near nam.republiky... We did choose a breakfast in the bar on our last morning as it seemed a good deal at 180CZK (£6/$9) per person, fully cooked and brought to your table with coffee and breads. We waited over 20 mins for it to arrive, only to find it was STONE COLD. Cooked bacon, sausages, toms, fried eggs, toast, heck even the beans were cold. It had clearly been sitting around after cooking for probably 15 mins of our 20 mins wait. Every ingredient was cold. NOT HAPPY. Staff VERRRY apologetic and arranged us to eat in restaurant FOC. Please believe me, the restaurant buffet breakfast is NOT worth the 550CZK (£19/$28) per person they charge, but if the bar breakfast had been served as soon as it was cooked it'd have been delicious and easily worth its 180CZK... Nonetheless, the staff did solve it without question or any kind of dispute.
We purchased the 24 hour public transport tickets at 100CZK each. They can be purchased at the booth next to the tram station which is directly in front of the hotel, note the hotel only offers the single use tickets at 26CZK. You use the tickets by sticking them into a reader inside the tram which "validates" them, printing a code including the time stamped, you then have 20 mins to complete your journey with a "short hop" (18CZK) ticket, or 90 mins with a standard 26CZK ticket, both of which are good during their validity for changes onto bus, tube and tram. If you intend to tour around a bit the 100CZK tickets make the most sense as they last 24 hours from time of validation. We got good value out of our tickets as the centre is about 20-30 mins tramride from the hotel. You can use a combination of tram to Dejvicka and then tube but we enjoyed the view of the ride on the tram (no 8), although we did use the tube a few times. For our return to the airport we used the tram to Dejvicka and the 119 bus to the airport, a total journey of about 30 mins. BTW, dont make the mistake of getting off at terminal 3, its miles away from the other 2... The airport buses are a part of Pragues public tranport and hence we used the last few minutes of our 100CZK pass to do it.
The CP Prague is a great economic choice for Prague, rates of about 65euros/night are easily possible. You can probably find better value for points but on PB its a total steal. Will definitely stay again for a cheap weekend in Prague, although if you want to party the night away I'd recommend a central hotel as public transport becomes very limited after midnight and Prague is noted for its shonky, overcharging taxis...