avja

Since it was a points stay, the room was what we booked. However, as a platinum member, at the very least, we should receive a room where we can sleep rather than one on the first floor 25 feet from the tram tracks.

5DMarkIIguy

I just used Uber to go from the airport to the hotel using the airport free wifi. Just walk outside and cross the street where the cars lane is. 18 usd. It was very easy. Uber is dirt cheap here. I took uber everywhere. 3-4 usd. Uber to the castle. Uber to restaurants. Most restaurants have wifi so you can uber back.

As far as restaurants, Cestr is near the Praha hbf. It is part of the same restaurant group Ambiente. The other one is Pasta Fresca. It was about 90% of a good pasta place in Italy.

Cafe Savoy is walking distance from the hotel. It's a lovely walk. Take the Charles Bridge route that goes through the river side and the park.

steveholt

Staying here now for three nights and have had a generally positive experienced. Used SNAs to upgrade to a Classic Suite, which is nice: huge bathroom, heated floors, comfortable bed, interior view (say that more with regards to it being quiet than gorgeous). Close to the green line of the Metro (~6 min walk). Breakfast is nothing special - no way to finagle a free full buffet since the buffet is only cold items and you have to order anything hot off of a menu. Service has been universally good, so haven't seen those issues myself. Didn't mention anything to the hotel about it being my birthday (and don't have an ambassador), but hotel had a apple cake waiting for me in my room when I returned from exploring Prague. Would definitely stay here again, especially given pretty reliable C+P availability in advance at this Category level.

supatight80

Wut? What are you talking about? I ve stayed at both the Augustine and Goldener within the last year and both uses Elemis Bath Products. In fact Elemis is quite standard now for European LC over the usual Bvlgari and Molton Brown.

jaejaez

My amenities were Elemis as well. The towels didn't feel cheap and were plentiful.

If the staff in general were a bit warmer and the housekeeping did its job properly (like actually vacuum the floors and not just claim that they have) it would make it into one of my top properties in Europe (alongside the likes of Schloss Fuschl, Alfonso XIII or the (new) Prince de Galles).

steveholt

Looking at the amenities in my room right now and they are Anne Semonin, not Elemis or any of the other brands mentioned. There are admittedly plenty of towels, some of which are on a heated towel rack, and the bathroom in general is very nice.

5DMarkIIguy

Goldener Hirsch used to have different amenities. Much better than the crappy Elemis.

SanDiego1K

I am very ambivalent about this hotel. I booked a King Premium Deluxe. The hotel was sold out and I got exactly what I booked. I got a very quiet room on the Monastery building with a roof view. (We were told 7 buildings comprise the hotel.) A lot of the room space was wasted in an entry corridor. The room was smaller than I anticipated as a result. If this was two steps up, I'd hate to see a base room. The bathroom was decent with both a tub and a walk in shower. I was told that all studio rooms face the street and get the trolley noise, implying we shouldn't want the upgrade up from what we had.

I didn't like spending waking hours in the room. The redeeming feature of the hotel was the interior/exterior space with a lovely courtyard and the adjacent restaurant with both inside and outside space. The refectory bar looked like a cozy space to spend a cold or wet day. And as others have pointed out, the location is an easy distance from much of what one comes to Prague to see. Uber is excellent and inexpensive.

Service was slow. It generally took an hour to get a bucket of ice. We called three times before the concierge called a restaurant to change the time we had booked. We were offered a pitcher of iced tea to replace a bottle of wine we were given, since we don't drink alcohol. It took over an hour to arrive, and was barely yellow. It was undrinkable. We were then offered a bowl of fruit that didn't arrive. After three hours, we had to remind the front desk.

We took a city tour in one of the vintage looking cars that I highly recommend. We were picked up at the hotel and had timed it so that we could be dropped where we wanted lunch.

As an aside, we were told that Segways will be banned in Prague as of next week. We were told that there are 2500 Segways for rent in town, that many operations are fly by night and give no safety information to riders. There really isn't space in the touristic sections of town for tourists and Segways to peacefully coexist.

tda1986

My wife and I are staying here over Christmas. Anyone have experience here over the holidays or in the winter more generally?

CandymanJim

The BAD:
During a recent stay we were misled by staff as to the charges for their breakfast. Now, in Prague, food is REALLY inexpensive, so paying for the mediocre hotel breakfast at about $25 per person is pretty extreme. As a 50+ SPG Platinum member, I am entitled to the free breakfast for me and one person sharing my room with me, and no one else. However, it is not uncommon for the hotel to extend this to my family party even though it is not part of the SPG program. Upon check-in at the hotel I asked the front desk staff “Would you be so kind as to extend this benefit to my two family members in the second room as well?” The girl at the counter politely agreed and advised that she would not be providing the slip for free breakfast and had me sign a breakfast form. I asked why I was presented the forms and why I was not given the breakfast slip for my guests. She indicated it was policy and not to worry about it, that she has noted my account and I would not be charged. All of this was witnessed by me and my three family members at the front desk counter.
Now, fast forward to checkout. I was now told I was charged the $25 for EACH of the two additional breakfasts for the two nights of my stay, $100 total. I was not worried as I knew the front desk girls name, and she was quite pleasant and we knew that this was just a misunderstanding, possibly due to the fact that English was not their first language. The check in girl was not available to discuss this matter with at checkout and I was assured by the manager on duty this situation would be reviewed and I should expect a response later.
Well, now after multiple emails back and forth the hotel is standing its ground. Their position is that my two family members were not entitled to the free breakfast. There was no question they were not entitled to this, but when asked for it, they agreed, as witnessed by the four of us. We simply would have gone out for breakfast $5eu/pp in Prague and avoided this charge had we known they were going to reneg on their offer.
Now the manger has reaffirmed their position that his front desk staff never agreed to the free breakfast (again, witnessed by 4 people in my party) and they will do nothing about the charges. I think this should be a reminder to all to be careful and not assume communications are clearly conveyed, it was a shame they wouldn’t make this good in the name of customer service as they clearly are more concerned about the $100 than the value of a customer due to a misunderstanding (on their part).
The Good:
The location of the property is nearly ideal for Prague, the uniqueness of the property means every room is different, and quite luxurious. All of the hotel staff we dealt with appeared quite helpful and friendly, eager to help out.

tda1986

My wife and I had a great stay here over Christmas. We stayed five nights on an award redemption, but we upgraded to a Premium Deluxe King on account of the less than stellar reviews of some standard rooms, particularly with respect to proximity to the trolly line. It was a good choice. The room we ended up with was in the old monastery building, as we wanted, and had a great view of Prague Castle. The room was spacious and had comfortable furnishings. They also left us a welcome amenity of two slices of some Czech cake and a small bottle of honey wine, which was a nice touch. We had room service for breakfast on our first day, which was pretty much unremarkable. We also had a few treatments at the spa, which were quite nice. However, there's a lack of consistency in the treatments, as my wife and I ordered the same thing but received very different services. Also, the rumble of the trolly on the street above was occasionally audible from the treatment rooms.

stephem

I spent last night at the Sheraton and woke up this morning and couldn't bear the thought of another flight after meetings in my 6th country in 8 days, the Sheraton was full so I decided to try the Augustine. I have stayed at the MO not far away in the past.

This. Is. How. I. Roll.

;-)

sitting in the courtyard having a beer and gearing up for a walk and some dinner after a grind of a week.

Pretty nice room, whoever said the lamps, etc are cheap, google the faucets... the place is quite nice. I think the MO is light limestone, the Augustine is darker brown, very nice elegant look.


OK- a brief update after the overnight. Yeah, the tram seems to run much of the night and it shakes the heck out of the rooms facing the street. I was so tired from a week of travel that it only served as a minor inconvenience, but I could see this bothering people. The physical property is gorgeous and the service was top notch, but I would echo the other posters about rooms facing the street if you think the rumbling (as much shaking as noise!) will bother your sleep patterns. Worth checking out the MO down the street if you are paying cash, last I looked the rates were fairly comparable.

So far so good except for a challenge getting a room at 5pm due to 100% occupancy, but they sent me to the spa, popped me a bottle of rose sparking wine with my friend and then bought us beers while i waited for my room. Good recovery.

UA-NYC

This place is amazing - now probably one of my top 5 favorite SPG properties globally, and a steal for a category 5. Sure there may be more plush StR properties, but this place is just so interesting as a former monastery turned into a hotel.

My SNA didn't clear (big American tour group sold out the hotel) but still got an upgrade into a deluxe room. Really unique architecture, nice open courtyard & dining. Had dinner here last night and it was spectacular.

Breakfast is quite good - no freebie egg option but still a lot of hot meats & such to go along with a nice spread of meat, cheese, fruits, yogurts, cereal, breads, etc.

Great friendly & warm service too.

jaejaez

Don't forget to book yourself a tour of the hotel - you can approach the concierge to arrange this. There're bits and pieces of the hotel with fascinating history that you wouldn't know about unless you've gone on this tour.

You also get to go into the out-of-bounds zones like the monastery side of the complex and walk along the secret garden where the plagued monks of the past are buried. It was one of our favorite moments of our stay.

bhrubin