Hotel Angelo – Prague, Czech Republic

It's day fourteen (for me) in the A-Z blog challenge! This month I'll be sharing all about my Christmas/New Year travels in NYC and Europe – providing insight into the places I went, reviewing the hotels I stayed at, and telling my story. Today's letter is Q for Quaint Hotel Angel. Feel free to follow along as I make my way through the alphabet this month! :)

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Destination: Prague, Czech Republic
Date: January 2016
Hotel: Hotel Angelo
Brand: Vienna House
Elite Status: n/a
# of travelers: 4
nights: 2

Hotel: Making the Decision

While I did make the decision for all of the other hotels Justin and I stayed at during our time in Europe, Hotel Angelo is one hotel that I did not make the decision for. Our friends who had been to Prague before had stayed at Hotel Angelo and liked it. Being the easygoing individuals that my husband and I are, and realizing that, when traveling with friends, you should share ideas, we were up for whatever experiences (or hotels) our friends decided to throw our way.

Getting There

After we left Germany, my husband and I were in the capable hands of our friends who drove us to Prague.

If you don't know of anyone that will drive you, you might also consider taking the train, renting a car, hailing a cab, or, once you're in Prague, riding the tram to Hotel Angelo. One thing this city is not – short on public transportation.

The smaller the vehicle, the less it will cost to park in the city!

Making Reservations, Checking In & Parking

I booked Hotel Angelo for a cheap rate shortly before Christmas. In fact, it was so cheap that our friends were in denial of the rate I was seeing. After sending screenshot after screenshot of the rate, they decided to let me book it, which inevitably made me all the more responsible if something went wrong.

And, of course, something went wrong.

All through the process of booking the hotel, I sent screenshots to our friends: the goal was to have someone double checking my work. The last thing I wanted was to get there and find out I had misread something, booked the wrong dates, didn't include something someone wanted (like breakfast), or … something else. I wanted this booking to go as smoothly and perfectly as possible, so that when we got to Czech Republic there wouldn't be any issues at the front desk, especially considering none of the people in our group spoke Czech.

So we get there and ask to check in. We are all ready to go to our rooms, change, eat, and rest. The car ride was long and just being able to walk was nice.

The lady looks up my husband's name and finds one room – just one. I had booked two; where was the other one? :-/

Since I had put our friend's last name on the reservation too, we had the front desk look up their name. Nothing. Everyone in the group looked at me silently accusing me of only booking one hotel room for the four of us. No wonder the hotel room(s) were so cheap! Nevermind the fact that I had sent screenshots for double checking purposes. Clearly this problem was all my fault.

Luckily, I had planned ahead knowing that something like this could occur; I had printed out all of our hotel and ticket information before leaving the states.

Justin took one look at the sheet I handed him and said "Mandy, this is for the wrong hotel." I received the glares again. :-/ Didn't my friends and husband love me? Didn't they trust me?!

No, apparently not.

So, I looked at the papers I had handed Justin, turned them over looking for myself. Voila! The hotel confirmation for Hotel Angelo was right there! Two rooms, breakfast for all, cheap price.

And, of course, only then could the front desk clerk find the second room. … Was she trying to charge us extra? Was the information really not in the hotel database?

Rather than leaving the situation be, or compensating us for the hotel's mistake, she then decided to upsell us. An additional 20 euros per night for a space in the parking garage and a better room?

Whatever. We had to park the car somewhere, so we went with it.

Hotel Room, View, & Amenities

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The room at Hotel Angelo was nice and big, but very simple. As I saw in both Paris and Strasbourg, simple is not always a bad thing. Sometimes simple means a better price for an equivalent experience you might have elsewhere.

Unfortunately, despite the front desk suggesting that we might have a view from our room if we paid to stay on a higher floor, this simply was not the case. Well, technically we had a view into office buildings and looking down into an alley where snow was beginning to fall. Being me, I could have sat on the window ledge for hours watching the snow fall; it was so peaceful! But we had things to do, people to spend time with, and experiences that needed to be had, so off we went…

Except not quite. We had to wait on our friends to change clothes and get acclimated. While we were waiting, the hotel staff asked to enter our room to change our bed from two singles (?) to one double. Like, instead of having two single beds shoved together with individual sheets on both sides, they put one sheet over both mattresses. Odd to an American, but I guess that's how they do things in Europe. (From what I understand, larger mattresses are harder to find there. Most people just use two single beds to form one large bed.)

And before I move on, it should be mentioned that the hotel offered soaps, shampoo, conditioner, and a hairdryer in the large bathroom perfect for all of your hygienic needs. I always like when hotels provide these types of supplies, because it is much nicer for air travel and, especially, light-packing travelers. No one actually likes packing a big container of soap in their bag when they go somewhere!

Location

Once our friends were ready, it was time to move on! But how? And with what money?

We decided to ask the front desk if they had any Czech koruna they were willing to spare. And, could we buy tram tickets from them?

As it turns out, our friends were able to get Czech koruna from the front desk, but myself and my husband could not. :( They were willing to sell us tram tickets though, but only the one time. #confusing

Our first order of business: a bar.

Don't ask me. I wasn't in charge. :)

As the trip progressed, we were able to see not only how close restaurants, shopping centers and the tram were to the hotel, but how easy public transportation near the hotel made it to get around Prague. Hotel Angelo is clearly only a hop, skip, and jump away from some of the best things to see and do in Prague!

Lobby & Bar

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And when it gets so late that everything shuts down for the evening, you can relax in the large hotel lobby with abundant seating, enough for everyone! My husband and friends ordered drinks and snacked on peanuts sitting and talking until late into the night. It was a great chance to relax after a crazy day of travel.

Restaurant

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Early the next morning, we met in the lobby for breakfast. The executive floor where we were staying offered free coffee and tea, but we had paid for breakfast, so we went down to get that instead. We didn't have to wait in line, we just told someone standing at the front of the restaurant what our room numbers were and went in, finding our own seat. Coffee was brought out for the table, but the breakfast itself was served on a bar. There was a lot to choose from including fresh cow's and goat's milk, homemade yogurt, cheeses, breads, meats, fruits, and juices. In my opinion, breakfast was a million times better than anything you'd get in an American hotel chain with their "intercontinental breakfast" (waffles, pancakes, bacon) but not quite as good (and with as large of an assortment) as what we had found in Strasbourg at the Regent Petite France. (Apparently, I like the combination of French and German breakfasts. Don't give me one; I need both options!) If an American breakfast is what you are seeking … don't go to Europe. ;) Or try muesli. It's close. And delicious! :)

Check Out

We didn't have nearly as many problems checking out as we did checking in. We handed in our key, paid for the rooms, and waited for our friends… Y'know the punctual ones? ;)

As it turns out, if you want to be "German punctual" just tell them you'll be ready … like 10 minutes after you actually will, that way maybe you'll have the chance to beat them at their own punctual game. Then again, if you're like me, sometimes it may only be a fluke that you actually succeed in being ready at the agreed upon time. Oops.

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Overall Review
★★★ (average)

While Hotel Angelo was a decent hotel, there was nothing that stood out. The beds were hard (which may be what you are looking for), and the staff, while nice, were quick to charge extra. I felt like the hotel database should have been up to date and that I shouldn't have had to prove I had a reservation.

With all of that being said though, there were many good aspects. Like, the short distance between the hotel and the tram. And the breakfast. And how comfortable the lobby was after a busy day in Prague.

Would I go here again? Probably not. I'd probably try an American chain hotel or see if I could find a room with an actual view. However, I didn't do any research when booking this hotel (aside from price comparison), so I'm not really sure what other hotels Prague has to offer…

Your Turn

What is important to you when booking a hotel? Is it low cost you are looking for? Do you like being within walking distance to everything? Or do you have other criteria you use when picking hotels? … If you've ever stayed in Prague before, which hotel did you choose and did you like it?

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