Mama Shelter Praha — Hotel in Prague

When planning to go to Prague for a weekend, we checked the hotels and decided to try out Mama Shelter. It was slightly more expensive than other hotels in Prague, but since we have heard good reviews about it in other cities, we were curious to give it a shot.. From the outside, the building looks like an old Soviet-era hotel, but the lobby immediately gives off a cool, hipster vibe. At the reception desk, we were greeted by a woman who, noticing we were speaking French, switched languages to accommodate us. Check-in was smooth, and we headed up to our room. And there the fun started. First, to activate the electricity, we needed to insert a card into the slot by the door—a standard procedure. Unfortunately, the card alone didn’t work. We had to squeeze in the cardboard cardholder as well to get the power on, since the card’s weight or size wasn’t enough to trigger the switch. Next- a very small bathroom. It was extremely small—barely enough room for one person, let alone two (and we’re both quite fit). In the room, we’ve had a creepy surprise as two cheap face masks at the bed lamps that freaked us out in a way. When we took them off, we’ve seen that we can buy them downstairs at the lobby. I believe that those who really want something like this can see and buy it directly, since displays downstairs were quite well arranged and attractive. We didn’t pay to have a selling point in the room. Bed was comfortable, however the pillows weren’t. The room was clean, but very small too- only one person could pass between the wall and the bed (again, we are both fit). Another very unpleasant surprise was in the shower. While eco-conscious efforts are appreciated, it would still be nice to provide hair conditioner. Worse, being on the ninth floor meant waiting nearly five minutes for hot water. This might be expected in older buildings, but given that renovations were clearly made, installing a proper thermostat could’ve been an option. Standing cold and wet in the shower while waiting for the water to warm up was not enjoyable. In the evening when we came back (was at around 22h) we were in the mood of getting some tea. The atmosphere in the lobby was great, music, bar, game stations- everything gives a nice vibe. When we came to the bar, the bartender told us that the coffee machine has already been cleaned and he can’t do anything. We understood, and since we remembered that there were no kettle in the room (which was quite weird for a hotel like this), we went to the reception desk to ask whether they know where we can get some. The receptionist told us that they can lend us a kettle for a deposit. As a reminder, we have paid 130+ euros for the simplest double room. We paid around 20 euros to get a little, quite old and cheap kettle, and after a reminder the receptionist gave us tea bags as well (only one kind of black tea was available). This was ridiculous. The checkout in the morning went without problems. Our final verdict: If room comfort and amenities aren’t a high priority for you, but you're looking for a trendy vibe with a lively bar and social areas, Mama Shelter Prague might be a fun choice. Otherwise, there’s a plenty of other hotels that would provide you with better comfort and be cheaper in this...

I'm convinced the majority of people leaving 5 star reviews are part of the kink scene lol.

I stayed at Mama Shelter Prague with a group of people for a work conference. The positives first:

The lobby is very nice, as is the restaurant and bar. I didn't try the food but the coffee was good and the atmosphere was comfortable enough.

The reception/employees were relatively friendly, depending on the person (and probably how far into their shift they were).

That's pretty much it. I don't usually leave reviews but my experience with this hotel was so unusual that this is a first. So, the negatives:

Maybe a positive for some, but the sexual overtones, implications, etc. were just...weird. Especially from a hotel that markets itself for business conferences and families. We came into the hotel room and found what I assumed were kids costume masks left behind from the last people in the room. Then upon exploring the free x-rated films (everyone does it, don't lie!), realized they were masks from porn scenes. Along with all the "Mama has a soft spot for you" and "Mama got dirty" and everything else that initially seemed cute but now not so much... just weird. The door handle marker for housekeeping flips over to a BDSM glove for... some reason? We never figured out what that meant lol. Anyway, all of this was more funny (at best) and cringey (at worst) than something to really complain about.

Had 5 rooms booked in total, AC wasn't working in 3 of them. Fans turned on, had the temp set to the lowest, but no cold air.

HDMI connection blocked on TV. This wouldn't be a problem if the TV "box" wasn't absolute trash. Chromecast instructions don't load. TV will randomly and frequently freeze to the point where it wouldn't even turn off. We had to pull out the cable and replug it. Movies would also freeze or just not load at all. We gave up on the TV after the second day when it wouldn't last 10 minutes without bricking.

Public WiFi blocks VPNs. Look, I get this from a security standpoint. They want to ensure customers aren't doing illicit activities on their network. But when you have a free WiFi without a password that anyone can connect to - guest or not - it's the same thing for your customers.

Room was not up to my standard of cleanliness. Maybe this is a me thing, though. The carpet was dirty, the bathroom had some scuff marks (probably from shoes) on the tiles, etc. The walls were also thin enough to hear people in the halls and any loud noises from adjacent rooms (but not actual voices or TVs, etc.)

Room lacks amenities you'd normally expect from 4-star hotels, like electric kettle, stocked mini-fridge (with paid items to charge to room), and adequate plugs (both USB ports on my side of the bed were broken - I had to unplug the lamp and use our wall charger).

Overall, I don't recommend Mama Shelter Prague outside of sex-venterous couples/groups/whatever. If you're looking for a place to hold your next orgy, this hotel is probably perfect. One last thing - don't bring your kids here (it's a little weird their shop has a kids section alongside an erotic...

In July this year, I stayed 4 nights with my girlfriend at the new Mama Shelter in Prague just as it opened. I'm probably exactly the person the Accor focus groups imagined when they created the Mama Shelter brand, hitting all the right buzzwords: "a design-conscious ex-hipster millenial with decent disposable income". So, yes, I was excited to stay at the brand new Mama Shelter in Prague, especially since it's in a really cool and unique Eastern bloc building.

Unfortunately, this was not a good stay. At all. It very quickly became clear that the hotel was nowhere near ready for its opening date. There was still significant construction ongoing in the hotel, paint cans in the hallways, only one functioning elevator etc. But more importantly, there was no hot water for half of our stay and the air conditioning did not work at all. Our room (according to the room thermostat) reached a very uncomfortable 29C (85F) and it was so hot that it became difficult to get any sleep at all. In Sweden, indoor temperatures above 28C are considered "harmful to health" - and I paid for this room! The breakfast room with its massive windows was even worse and we ended up spending as little time as possible at the hotel. Totally unacceptable for a hotel with this level of ambition.

I raised these concerns to the reception desk and, to my surprise, the General Manager of the hotel offered to sit down with me for a discussion. The GM turned out to be a very nice man, Mr. Dobson, who was very understanding and quite visibly embarrassed himself by the issues the hotel was facing. He offered to refund the stay in the form of LeClub points - which I accepted. As he, being a new Accor GM, was still not familiar with the Accor IT infrastructure, he gave me his email address and told me to reach out to him personally if the points were not refunded.

So, the issue? The refund has still not materialised, 5 months later. As instructed, I have reached out to Mr. Dobson several times without any response. I have been in contact with Accor Customer Care who have only given me, repeatedly, the same standardised response that the "case has been forwarded to the relevant department" and that I have to contact the hotel directly. I have contacted the hotel both via e-mail and phone, who have promised to get back to me but which has never happened.

While it really should not matter to receive promised compensation, I guess I should mention that I stay a lot in hotels both privately and for work and that I am usually a big fan of the Accor brands: I am a Platinum member several times over (with almost 3 times the required status points for Platinum) and have just in the last two years spent €20,000+ in Accor properties. That has been of little use in this case. Safe to say that I have spent way more effort and time on this issue than the promised points are worth - but at this point it's more a matter of principle, I just want Accor and the Mama Shelter Prague to make good on the promise that was...