Holiday Inn Prague Airport by IHG — Hotel in Prague

Bottom line: If you don't absolutely require the convenience of the Hotel's location I would strongly recommend that you stay closer to the city center. The difference in food and lodging price will easily justify the cost of the metro transport to the airport (about $3).

If you ARE considering this hotel, please read on. I am normally pretty forgiving, but my overall experience at this hotel was very poor and the issues don't seem to be one-time things that I just happened to have the bad luck of experiencing.

Some good stuff: The airport is within walking distance to the airport terminals (less than 10 mins) and the shuttle goes 24 hours a day on demand. That is the main benefit of this hotel. The reception staff was friendly, spoke good English, and checked me in very quickly.

The room was clean and and the furnishings were modern and new. No complaints about any of this.

HOWEVER, the issues are: The restaurant is highly over priced: $26 for a hamburger, fries, and 0.2 L coke. Breakfast is NOT included and consists of a basic continental style buffet. The breakfast spread was much less than what most hotels in the US offer for free. Even by European standards it is meager and very expensive: about $21. I skipped it and was able to save money by eating at one of the cafes in the airport. Other than the airport, there are no other eating options nearby. So the hotel has a food monopoly on its guests and is using it it to gouge them. One further issue with the restaurant: I arrived at the hotel at about 10 PM after a long day of traveling with no lunch or dinner. The restaurant is illuminated by overhead Flourescent lights to a very bright level. This killed any chance of unwinding and relaxing while eating my $26 burger. The harsh, bright lights were very displeasing. The restaurant is lit like a big box department store.

Despite what the hotel advertises, I could only get WiFi near the door to my room. No luck at the bed or desk. However, if you are traveling with a laptop (I wasn't) there is a wired connection available. The WiFi works fine in the public areas of the hotel.

The air conditioning in my room worked very poorly. Even with the A/C at the coldest setting I was so warm that I slept restlessly and had to get up once in the middle of the night and cool myself with a wet rag. I stayed on a very seasonable, cool evening. I can't imagine how miserably hot the room would have been if I had been here 4 or 5 days earlier when Prague was in the midst of a heat wave.

The sound isolation in the room was also poor. Despite the white noise from the A/C, every time another room door was open and closed in the hallway I heard it. Maybe this would not have bothered me so much if the room had been cooler and I was able to sleep...

Hotel parking is gated and instructions need to be sent on how to get in. I ended up hitting a button which allowed me to speak to someone who remotely opened it. However, no instructions on how much it would cost or how long I could park. I was just dropping my luggage and checking in. The car was a rental which I was returning to the airport so I didn’t need to park the car. There was no place to leave the car outside the gate for such a purpose. So I got charged as hotel staff did not explain that I only had a few minutes to get out for free. They only explained that after I checked in and said now I need to get to return car. They responded I needed to pay on the machine to get out as my free time expired. Perhaps it was a language issue as I don’t speak Czech but their replies in English were very short and their manner was a bit cold in my opinion.
Next the elevator was a bit of an issue. I got in, pushed the floor button, door closed and then an error messaged flashed. Elevator did not move. I pushed door open and it did. I got out.
I tried to call the other elevator but the same one responded. I got in again and pushed the floor button again but this time holding the button down a few seconds. This made it work. Strange. There was information in the elevator about the last time it passed inspection. There should be.
The room I have no fault with. The bed was comfortable, room was nice and clean, tv worked well, shower was great.
I could walk to terminal in about 10 minutes. Hotel did have a shuttle but I did not use it as I prefer the exercise to walk.
Final thought on front desk staff is that they often appeared to be in a room behind the desk. It would appear as if no one was manning the desk, but one I stood there for 10 or 20 seconds, they would pop out of the room. All the hotels I’ve stayed at with full time front desk staff were always at the front desk, not hiding out in some small room behind the desk. It gave me a somewhat bad impression that they weren’t working until they were...

I recently mixed business with pleasure at this hotel. It is a great location with ease of access to the airport as well as being on the bus route to downtown Prague. It is very easy to get a bus to the metro station and then within 5 stops you are in town. A lot cheaper than a taxi and very easy to navigate. Bus/Metro tickets can be bought at reception. To go downtown you simply exit the hotel and walk around the corner to the bus stop. Coming back, the bus stops outside the hotel door.

The hotel itself is very modern and clean. Staff are very friendly and willing to help. The Bar/Restaurant are can be small compared to other locations, however this is only in ratio to the overall size of the hotel. At no point was it over half full.

Breakfast is available for the same time 7 days a week unlike other hotels where times change during the week and is available until late morning so ideal for those who lie-in.

There were only x2 issues I had problems with.

Air conditioning in my room was not working correctly. Even set to lowest temperature the room was very warm. But I cannot vouch for other rooms in the hotel.

Rooms are not soundproofed. I was disturbed a few times with movement from rooms above and cleaning services of rooms in the morning. Compared to other hotels I have stayed in, this was noisier than I have experienced.

I had dinner in the hotel restaurant on x2 occasions and both times I found the food to be excellent. I know hotel restaurant prices can be dearer than local restaurants but on this occasion I believe it was value for money. There is a large choice to choose from for breakfast and the kitchen staff constantly keep the food replenished so there is no going short for those having a...