UA-NYC

Doing Prague next summer for a couple days, I think I'm going to do the LC, even if it looks like across the river it's not quite in the old town

emuyshondt

I am planning to go to Prague October 20-23. It will be my wife's 50th birthday during that time, and I would like to stay in the most convenient location there, either in Starwood or Marriott hotels. I've tried searching the forum, but the threads I've come across don't compare the various properties. The page only lists the Popular Hotel and City bread only lists the Sheraton Charles Square. Perhaps the mobile site on my iPad doesn't provide the best search options.

My choices are:

- Augustine Luxury Collection
- Boscolo Autograph Collection
- Marriott Prague
- Sheraton Charles Square

I would like to have easy access to the Old Town and tourist attractions. I think I've listed the properties in order of attractiveness/convenience, but I would appreciate some confirmation. I would like to use points, or cash and points, so comments on value would also be useful. I've never been to Prague before and I have just started my search.

moulder3

If using points is important, I'd highly recommend the Sheraton Prague. I'll write my review in the next post, however it is a bargain as a Cat 3 (7,000 points/night) hotel. While the immediate area doesn't have a lot going on at night, I'd recommend Uber for getting around town anyway--both because the taxis in Prague are notorious for cheating tourists (the one thing about Prague I was warned about) and also because a ride from the castle to the hotel or Old Town to the hotel are only about $4 USD.

moulder3

Quick review from my recent trip....

I loved this hotel. The staff is great, hotel management is fantastic and the suites are amazing--especially for a Cat3 hotel. I spent time deciding between this and the Augistine and I'm extremely glad I chose the Sheraton for my stay. I knew there was a much better chance for upgrade here and if you read the Augistine thread you'll see that some of their standard rooms are really small. At the Sheraton, the smallest room starts at 300 sqft.

Pros:
- There are some amazing suites in this hotel. Many also have walk-in waterfall showers & the water pressure is off-the-charts great.
- Club lounge has a few beers & sparkling wines in the evening for free, in addition to snacks. Club lounge breakfast is buffet-style and served in the restaurant--very good quality, too!
- In-room internet speed was very good
- A few blocks removed from tourist areas, allowing you to experience more authentic food
- Walkable to both Old Town (about 15-20 minutes), Charles Bridge (15 minutes) & the Castle (about 30-40 minutes)
- The spa offered massages at extremely reasonable rates for a Sheraton (<$90 for a 80 minute massage & ~$70 for a 50 minute massage)
- The TV in my room had a device to hook an HDMI device & USB into the tv--fantastic for using Chromecast/Roku/Amazon Fire Stick to watch your own programs.
- Great Italian & Czech restaurants nearby, as well as a decent burger restaurant.

Cons
- The hotel isn't the heart of downtown. While I don't personally view this as a negative, there are admittedly limited restaurant options within a few blocks of the hotel.

* Bonus advice: Be sure to use Uber when traveling around Prague rather than a taxi. Both because you can feel confident that you're being taken the most efficient route, but also because Uber is extremely inexpensive. It costs about $4-5 to get from the Castle to the Sheraton & a 20 minute ride from the hotel to the airport still only cost ~$12. Sadly Prague's taxis are still known for taking advantage of tourists and having hidden devices that they can use to artificially increase fares. Since the Sheraton is a little removed from the major tourist attractions, I recommend just walking around all day. You can always get an Uber back from wherever in town you end up and the extremely low cost back to the Sheraton (~$5) to me more than offsets the MUCH higher prices (and some questionable rooms) at the Augustine.

MSPeconomist

The Sheraton is also walkable FROM the train station, even with a roller bag, as it's downhill. It wouldn't want to do the reverse direction with luggage.

bigguyinpasadena

Recent stay was a bit of a let down. "Upgraded" to an exec room but it was on the second floor overlooking the street. Noise from the Russian Mafia owned girlie bar next door, party folks, early morning trash collectors kept me up all night.

Moved to a courtyard facing "deluxe" room (tiny) on the top floor.

Three plat's staying the same weekend-no suite upgrades.

Staff was pleasant.

TIP if your flying out early in the A.M. expect surge pricing if going via UBER (All of us experienced this) Mine was showing 2.2x with a 45 minute wait. Taxi to the airport (let the hotel call one for you) is a fixed price. Right now there is a lot of construction on the roads around the airport so factor that in for timing.

stephem

Mediocre at best, definitely Cat 3, moving to the Augustine for my second night (it wasnt initially available but some rooms opened this morning when I called my travel agent before work meetings). You get what you pay for, I am sure it is perfectly suitable for tourists coming to see the sights (they are close enough and Prague is a great walking city anyway). My negative perception may be due to the fact that I arrived after a couple of nights in the Bristol in Warsaw and my normal hotel of choice in Prague is the Mandarin Oriental ;-)

Looking forward to sampling the Augustine.

UA-NYC

Please do report in that thread! I will be there in a couple weeks and there isn't a ton of info - looking forward to my stay there myself.

alanslegal

Your perception is correct, and I would expect anyone who stays at the Hotel Bristol in Warsaw just prior to coming to this Sheraton (or likes Mandarin Oriental properties) would be indeed disappointed. We spent five nights earlier in the year at this Sheraton as as much as The Augustine is much nicer, it was asking around 2.5 times the Sheraton's rate. Don't know when we will back to Prague but definitely when the new W opens up in a few years

vanabb

I am staying here soon, on a points stay.

Just after I booked I received an email from the hotel trying to upsell me to a club-level room. ?? As platinum I would hope for an upgrade. They say of course that availability isn't guaranteed until check-in, but still I can't remember this happening before. ...feels a little like blackmail? I politely refused but now I wonder now if I'm blacklisted for any upgrade.

Also the reservation had a link to upgrade to a jr. suite for 500 CZK/night (only 20 euro?). I tried it, but the reply was 'we cannot accommodate your request at this time'. ...? Why put this link there at all in the confirmation email then, only to disappoint?

Does anyone have a recent stay experience as a platinum?

UA-NYC

"Club-level rooms" are mostly irrelevant for Plats anyways...save for maybe a higher floor and better view

vanabb

Just finished a 5-night stay on points. In the end the upgrade was to a 'grand deluxe room', a 5th floor corner room. It should have been better for a Plat. A little disappointing but I didn't make an issue of it. Room was fine, nice bathroom. Hotel seemed busy with many tour groups passing through.

Self-parking was 20Euro/day at a nearby parking garage. Easy walking distance to everything. We left the car and just walked everywhere.

We liked the lounge, even though it was small. There was different hot food every evening and sandwiches all day. The breakfast amenity was in the restaurant; no extra charge for our 12yr old. Breakfast was good, we thought.

3 days in Prague would have been enough though. We only stayed longer for the 5th-night free.

James Luckard

Leaving Marriott January 1, 2019:

www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/announcements.html?propertyID=3268#conditions

Note there's a typo in the headline, which says 2018, but the body of the announcement correctly has 2019

yyznomad

What a shame. One of my favorite SPG properties in Eastern Europe. Always looked forward to my stays there.

CJKatl

Me too. I prefer this property over the Marriott and Design hotels. The Marriott is wonderful but a little too stuffy for me and the Design hotel is a little too bare bones, although I like its location a little better than the Marriott's. The Sheraton's New Town location is more European urban and my favorite bakery and building are nearby.

My family will be at the hotel in two days and I've asked them to let me know if they can find out what badge the hotel will wear going forward. I'll post the answer.

My favorite Sheraton Prague story. I met a friend in the lobby. He had two friends with him, one female one male, all were Czech and all spoke perfect English. We headed towards the Jewish Quarter. My friend loves showing off "his" city. As we passed the New Town hall he is pointing out the park, the building features, etc. As we walk down the street I see the next building, just behind the town hall, is a Hooters. I bemoan the fact that the Czech republic has so much culture and class while our country's contribution is Hooters. Turns out the three of them had no idea what Hooters is. There is a giant glass window looking into Hooters and the two other guys stopped to stare. Soon there were about a dozen men staring in. The woman and I finally walked away. It might have been twenty minutes until we got a call asking where we were. My friend is gay, but he thought it was the most awesome thing in the world.