Hotel Štekl — Hotel in okres Semily

Although situation of hotel is most beautiful this hotel does not make most of it - very unwelcoming. The hotel overlooks the gorge - it has outdoor terrace and seating. But no one is allowed to use this. It is all closed off even to hotel guests... Access is through restaurant which is only open, we think, for 2 hours in the evening. We went to restaurant on one of our two nights. As soon as we check in they ask us to pick a time for dinner and whether we want set menu or a la carte (expensive). We were the only guests for dinner in a 50 seat room, no offer of outdoor table - it was a bit chilly in all respects. The food (we chose set menu) is still pretty expensive and served as fast as possible by the waiter without any pleasantries. Cost over 500 kr each with one glass wine. A la carte menu will cost you at least twice that as average price of main is 600 kr. Who would spend that to sit in an unwelcoming room without even any musak or other guests enjoying themselves? It feels they don't want guests to be here. Just use your bedroom and leave. There are no communal facilities at all. Nowhere to have drink, or read book. Fridge in room with one bottle water each. To enter hotel is 3 keys. Reception not always manned. Bed is comfortable, bathroom nice, but although we have deluxe room overlooking forest there is no balcony. The breakfast was good choices though. Wi fi also acceptable. |If you stay at hotel stekl you can be pleased that there is the chateau hruba skala 100 m away. There we found welcoming friendly staff happy to serve you drinks and food at any time of day. It has outdoor terrace and indoor restaurant full of very happy people eating and drinking. Our dinner there was very good value compared to hotel stekl and nobody pushed us out after we finished eating. Enjoy drinks etc there. |Hotel stekl is bed and breakfast - no more, very inhospitable. No lifts and no one to help carry your bag up 4 flights of stairs. Family with a baby had to leave pram on ground floor. No service of any kind. And nothing available to non guests obviously. Front door of hotel closed....It is obvious that this is off putting even to those of us with a reservation. Do not know how profit can be made at hotel stekl. We stayed for 2 nights in first week June and looked like only 3 lots of guests whilst at breakfast - 7...

In every aspect, we were so incredibly pleased and impressed by Hotel Stekl. It was clean, beautiful and cozy, carries an interesting history, serves high quality (gourmet!) food at the restaurant, charged a reasonable price even in high season, and its staff were friendly and helpful. I very highly recommend this hotel, which undoubtedly deserves another star.||||Note: It is located at the start of many gorgeous walking and biking trails, and next door to the beautiful castle that overlooks the “valley”, a view you can catch with a cold and well-deserved beer on the terrace, after a long day of trekking. The receptionist at Hotel Stekl gave us generous tips on what activities we could do in the area and walked us through a map available at the hotel desk. ||||A small anecdote: ||My boyfriend and I were looking to stay in Hrubá Skala to explore the impressive natural park and rock formations known as the “Czech Paradise”. As we walked through the town on a very hot afternoon and carrying heavy packs, we stopped by nearly every pension in the town, only to get the same answer at each one: “Do you have any space?” “Moment……..” [comes back] “Full!”. We finally decide to hike up the steep hill atop which Hotel Stekl was located. The travel day was dragging on and we were getting quite exhausted, so we put out our thumbs to hitch a ride. Many cars passed until an older man in his luxury saloon car stopped, asked us where we were headed, and said smiling: “Hotel Stekl! Yes!”. During our stay, we saw the man at the hotel – always smiling – until we later realized that he was in fact its humble owner, a descendant of Mr. Stekl himself. the hotel's founder! After our stay, we began heading to the train station in Hrubá Skala, reached the bottom of the hill by foot, and tried catching a ride. Cars passed and none stopped until we turned around, and there he was again! We – and the Hotel Stekl linens and towels – were taken to Turnov by this kind and hospitable man, to then carry on with...

The best thing of this hotel were the lovely ladies behind the reception desk... The hotel offers a free parking spot on their own property behind a locked gate. We could only reach our car with help from these ladies, who stopped working at 20:00. So if you’re out for dinner you can’t park there when returning. ||We stayed in a junior suite and that was the biggest disappointment of them all. The room was way smaller than imagined. The decor was really basic and cheap and was lacking comfort. For example: the matras was really REALLY hard, the pillows were practically made out of air and you could feel the cotton balls. We could ask for an extra pillow which was delivered promptly. The housekeeping however, came in the room without knocking. Even when we had a shower she just walked in.||There was no tea or coffee making facilities and there isn’t a bar in the entire hotel. So if you’re not having dinner there is no possibility that you can get a drink.||The walls are made of paper and the WiFi is too slow to watch Netflix. ||And last but not least; there was an iPhone cable stolen from our room after the housekeeping cleaned it. They left the adapter in the wall socket, but the cable was gone. The lady behind the reception desk tried to investigate it but failed, so she gave her own (fake) iPhone cable.||All together, we really don’t...