Penzion Baroko — Hotel in okres Český Krumlov

This is the first time in 30 years that I am about to leave any form of complain re: the hotel staff.||I have every reason to believe all the superlatives previous guests gave to the Pension Baroko, but unfortunately we were denied the pleasure of spending the night in this apparently fine establishment by the very people who, I presume, run this place.||I booked the accommodation via Booking.com||(btw. the last time I will ever use their service. As it turned out their customer service was not helpful in mediating this dispute but succeeded in being delightfully annoying and patronising, adding insult to my injury). Although there were cheaper options available I chose this place because of its immaculate feedback, .||The story is long and tiresome as such disputes frequently are and boils down to this.||While placing a late booking I failed to notice two things that were proven vital in the aftermath, namely that the personnel in Penzion Baroko does not speak English and that they allow check-in only between 14 and 18 h. Both facts are well hidden on the Booking.com site. In order to find them one need to scroll down to the bottom of the page BEFORE hitting the "book now" button. Not to mention that the information about the personnel’s inability to speak English is given in tiny font under much bigger title "We speak your language", (title written in English, of course).||Reading the booking confirmation I realised that the place has peculiar check in time so just to be on the safe side I mailed them that we might not be able make it until 18h anticipating delays on our 10 hour journey from Amsterdam to Krumlow. ||As it turned a drive through Germany was far worse that anyone could anticipate. Although we drove on Thursday avoiding the weekend, the jam was huge, more than 30 km at places and traffic occasionally needed to be diverted causing further delays. Realising that the things are not going well I tried to phone the place a few times after but nobody picked up the phone. Neither did they ever reply to my e-mail. ||Finally I managed to get in touch with them around 22h while stuck in yet another jam some +/- 3 hours from Krumlow. ||When you spend a day in traffic jam last thing you want a hear that the people who run the place you booked are not really prepared to wait for you but are prepared to give you a long lecture in German and Czech, languages you do not really understand. I spent what seemed an hour trying to get them to give me simple "yes" or "no", to the question "Are you going to wait for us?" using every German word I could muster but to no avail. While I had them on the line they never showed honest intention to wait for us. All I could hear was back-pedaling and references towards the small print in the booking details. Things got worse when a male voice replaced the female at the other end of the line. Obviously agitated by the situation when he took over the phone I received a long triad in fast Czech, which I tried to interrupt many times by saying politely "Sir I do not understand..." but he just kept on hammering on and on, ignoring my cries until the line suddenly broke. ||Since I was not the one who hanged up and I could only assume that either the line broke due to the technical failure or (most likely) he angrily hanged up on me.||It was one of the strangest and most humiliating experiences of my life. Sitting tired in the car with two children in the middle of the night in the traffic jam on a German highway, at the same time having frustrated hotel manager telling me in an upset voice something that sounded like he was reading the small print of their cancelation policy in the language I could not follow except for a few international words like "voucher". I felt desperate. ||As it turns, their cancellation policy allowed them to happily charge me full price of 100 Euros (have in mind that the Czech average monthly wage is 705 E). We were forced to spent the night in a car as it was too late find any other accomodation. In the aftermath the Booking.com customer service, finally rubbed it in informing me "that [I] will not be able to leave feedback on this accommodation if [I] did not stay there. That is the policy of Booking.com to avoid any negative or untruthful feedback the guest might leave on the website especially when they did not accommodate there."||So please learn from my mistake. ||Do not book this accommodation unless you:||- speak German or Czech ||- you are certain you will arrive to C. Krumlow between 14 and 18 hours.||- do not expect them to help you in case of force majure ||Also read the smallest print before booking when using Booking.com as they will be quick to refer to it in case things do not...

This is the first time in 30 years that I am about to leave any form of complain re: the hotel staff.||I have every reason to believe all the superlatives previous guests gave to the Pension Baroko, but unfortunately we were denied the pleasure of spending the night in this apparently fine establishment by the very people who, I presume, run this place.||I booked the accommodation via Booking.com||(btw. the last time I will ever use their service. As it turned out their customer service was not helpful in mediating this dispute but succeeded in being delightfully annoying and patronising, adding insult to my injury). Although there were cheaper options available I chose this place because of its immaculate feedback, .||The story is long and tiresome as such disputes frequently are and boils down to this.||While placing a late booking I failed to notice two things that were proven vital in the aftermath, namely that the personnel in Penzion Baroko does not speak English and that they allow check-in only between 14 and 18 h. Both facts are well hidden on the Booking.com site. In order to find them one need to scroll down to the bottom of the page BEFORE hitting the "book now" button. Not to mention that the information about the personnel’s inability to speak English is given in tiny font under much bigger title "We speak your language", (title written in English, of course).||Reading the booking confirmation I realised that the place has peculiar check in time so just to be on the safe side I mailed them that we might not be able make it until 18h anticipating delays on our 10 hour journey from Amsterdam to Krumlow. ||As it turned a drive through Germany was far worse that anyone could anticipate. Although we drove on Thursday avoiding the weekend, the jam was huge, more than 30 km at places and traffic occasionally needed to be diverted causing further delays. Realising that the things are not going well I tried to phone the place a few times after but nobody picked up the phone. Neither did they ever reply to my e-mail. ||Finally I managed to get in touch with them around 22h while stuck in yet another jam some +/- 3 hours from Krumlow. ||When you spend a day in traffic jam last thing you want a hear that the people who run the place you booked are not really prepared to wait for you but are prepared to give you a long lecture in German and Czech, languages you do not really understand. I spent what seemed an hour trying to get them to give me simple "yes" or "no", to the question "Are you going to wait for us?" using every German word I could muster but to no avail. While I had them on the line they never showed honest intention to wait for us. All I could hear was back-pedaling and references towards the small print in the booking details. Things got worse when a male voice replaced the female at the other end of the line. Obviously agitated by the situation when he took over the phone I received a long triad in fast Czech, which I tried to interrupt many times by saying politely "Sir I do not understand..." but he just kept on hammering on and on, ignoring my cries until the line suddenly broke. ||Since I was not the one who hanged up and I could only assume that either the line broke due to the technical failure or (most likely) he angrily hanged up on me.||It was one of the strangest and most humiliating experiences of my life. Sitting tired in the car with two children in the middle of the night in the traffic jam on a German highway, at the same time having frustrated hotel manager telling me in an upset voice something that sounded like he was reading the small print of their cancelation policy in the language I could not follow except for a few international words like "voucher". I felt desperate. ||As it turns, their cancellation policy allowed them to happily charge me full price of 100 Euros (have in mind that the Czech average monthly wage is 705 E). We were forced to spent the night in a car as it was too late find any other accomodation. In the aftermath the Booking.com customer service, finally rubbed it in informing me "that [I] will not be able to leave feedback on this accommodation if [I] did not stay there. That is the policy of Booking.com to avoid any negative or untruthful feedback the guest might leave on the website especially when they did not accommodate there."||So please learn from my mistake. ||Do not book this accommodation unless you:||- speak German or Czech ||- you are certain you will arrive to C. Krumlow between 14 and 18 hours.||- do not expect them to help you in case of force majure ||Also read the smallest print before booking when using Booking.com as they will be quick to refer to it in case things do not...

I loved our visit to Cesky Krumlov including our stay at the Penzion Baroko. The owner had just had a baby so her lovely niece and friend were taking care of the Penzion. They were so kind and helpful. My friend's luggage was temporary lost by the airline (for 4 days!)and they even offered to some laundry for him during our stay. The room is fairly simple yet it was clean, the beds were comfortable and the location perfect. Breakfast was simple but delicious. ||If you are driving to Cesky Krumlov, call ahead as the parking is a bit confusing to figure out on your own. ||And don't miss the Zapa Bar a short walk from the...