EHAM1

I have not seen a review yet on FT of the Stradom House in Krakow, so sharing my observations of a recent 3 night stay at the end of July 2023.

The hotel opened early 2023 after a full renovation of an historic 14th century building. Location wise it's very central in Krakow between the Royal Castle and the Jewish district. A tram line is in front of the house, it's a very easy location to get around. While the hotel building is impressive I personally found the entrance itself not impressive, It was just a small door leading into the hotel lobby. Left is the reception and the elevators, on the right side the hotel's restaurant and in the middle there was a long desk where you can do some work on the laptop. There is also a very nice bar located behind the elevator's on the ground floor. I made a picture but didn`t visit it.

Check in around midnight was friendly but nothing special. As a Titanium welcome gift there was either the breakfast for 2 or points, I took the breakfast.
Our room was upgraded from a standard room to a Junior Suite on the 5th floor, all in all it was just a slightly bigger room with a sofa. But nicely decorated!
Room was facing the courtyard and it's was really quiet. The only thing is that even though that the room wasn`t street facing you could feel each time a tram passed. So perhaps staying more to the back of the building will solve that issue if you are a light sleeper

Our room did not have a bath tube, but the shower was nice. Bathroom had a really cool and fancy look with lots of marble like tiles and gold/copper taps.
Unfortunately the room only had one washbasin and we totally did not like the shower fragrance/shampoo. The bathroom also had a button to control the volume of the TV, which we only found out the last day (we were both wondering what the button was for, they could have used a sticker to inform guests). The WIFI overall was steady and fast. TV in the room did not have many non-Polish channels. Beds were comfortable and we slept very well.

The breakfast is served in the hotel's only restaurant Gaia (I believe it's served each day from 06.00 till 10.30). They have a really nice buffet and you can also order some additional a la cart items (pancakes, eggs in various styles) as well as some smoothies/fresh made juices. We liked the breakfast!

We also had dinner twice. Food is good and is mostly inspired by the Middle East cuisine. A little expensive though, especially since they add a mandatory 10% service charge to the bill (which unfortunately seems to become more and more common in Europe). We tried to look up the menu's online but unfortunately it was not available yet. So we used the Marriott Bonvoy app and the front office emailed us the menu's within 10 min. We later found out that in the meantime the menu's had already changed. It's a miss the hotel hasn`t posted the menu's online.
In general the service in the hotel was ok, people were all friendly but for the most not overly excited to serve/help you. Perhaps because the hotel is still new, but they could do a little better. So some training would not hurt.

The highlight of the hotel though for me is the nice and rather big spa area. With a huge indoor pool that had a nice temperature, 2 different sauna's (Finnish and infrared), a steam bath and a relaxation room. Also the separate fitness Area is pretty big and has the newest Technogym equipment. In the Spa area the staff comes around to take order for drinks as well.
The Spa and fitness areas are a bit hidden. You first have to go down to -1 with the hotel elevator, than walk a long corridor and take another elevator up. So it's not easy to find.

All in all we had a nice stay. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great. But I would gladly return. We paid 2050 PLN for 3 nights or ~ EUR 450 (seems to be an opening offer for 3 nights or more). Now I see now rates of EUR 250 a night. Which I think is a little high for Poland.



Front entrance

Breakfast

Breakfast

Bar on the groundfloor

Reception

Infrared sauna

Indoor pool area