Hotel Francis — Hotel in Cheb District

A visit here was rather surreal, I went with a friend who went to pick up a relative , thinking i would have a look around and maybe book a few days of wellness for myself. When we arrived at Hotel, main door was locked , another elderly couple were also waiting , no door bell to press , and knocking on the door received no response , after a telephone call we were directed to go through the car park and a door to the rear of the building entering by the fire exit , receptionist , now that she was finally here was polite , but with no explanation of why we had to use the rear door , for us it was fine , but for the elderly couple with suitcases (wouldn't accept help) , it was a bit of a track. My friend went off to his relatives room to collect her , I waited in reception to carry the suitcases (my friends relative is elderly and needs help with walking), in came, who I think was the gardener , a young guy who worked out , he said something in Czech as he came in , and I apologized I did not speak enough czech to understand, he stood behind me , and glancing over, puffing his chest out , all rather weird, I ignored him , as did the reception lady , must be his thing. Any way, as the people I was with came out , the puffed up chest guy started to get agitated , and fired off a few verbals which again, I didnt understand, however, I did get by the thuggish demeanor, he was being rather unpleasant, and i did understand the Czech version of get out now (and through the front door which was now unlocked), not the sort of behaviour i would expect from a hotel , and during this time the receptionist ignored all the goings on. Maybe i read him wrong and he was upset that i didnt respond to him , or maybe he was maybe making advances on me , which would have been far from the mark , but for sure , a rather unpleasant visit , and i certainly wouldnt want to stay there for any more...

This is a very small hotel if compared to some of the huge hotels in this pleasant spa town, about 20 rooms here. In fact it feels more like a small family pension as there is no proper reception and the front door is locked at 9 pm. Then the entry is through a back door off the carpark. The staff is quite friendly and speak German, no English. My single room in the attic was tiny but clean, the bathroom was a reasonable size. The buffet breakfast was ok although the hot section was not heated properly thus eggs, bacon etc were all just lukewarm and the buffet of some items (sweet parties for example) was not refilled. The evening meals were generally good. The “spa” section in the cellar was certainly disappointing. It is far too small for what is trying to provide. Thus there is no comfort or privacy during treatments. Some treatment for the lack of space are not done properly. The fact that all treatments (I had 3 a day) are grouped in one morning hour (9 am-10 am in my case) does not make the experience relaxing at all, being rushed from a CO2 bath for a massage rather than having time to rest between is unheard of in other spa places. The place is also far too noisy (endless chatter of staff). The hotel, unlike other hotels, in its package offers does not mention specific treatments included, it only gives the number of treatments. My7-night package had 15 treatments included but the choice, as I only learned on arrival, was limited to the cheap ones on offer. A felt a bit cheated and disappointed. So the best would had been to choose a package with not many treatments and then choose extras...

We booked this hotel because it accepted a one night reservation which many other hotels did not. It also has parking behind the house and is close to the beautiful small town center. The owner is friendly and speaks German, no English. Czech of course.||Our room was tiny but ok for one night with its own bathroom, clean. Everything functioned well which is not always the case in hotels of this category worldwide. There was soap and shampoo.||||The restaurant only caters to hotel guests and it was full! Décor and ambiance are of the places I know from the fifties and sixties in Germany and Austria, comfortable and now outdated. The food was comforting home cooked, exactly what we expected.||||Since we were the only one-night non-spa guests - all other guests used the hotel's spa facilities - we were seated with a lovely family of four from nearby Germany. We had the greatest conversation with them about how Franzensbad used to be (grandpa had grown up next door to the hotel), life under the former communist regime compared to now and why they had chosen this hotel many times. They did it for the price-comfort relation, the good food, the family ambiance and the fact that the spa treatments were grouped in one a.m. hour which left the rest of the day open for excursions. Except for their comments on the spa which we cannot verify, we found the other...