Hotel Rubinstein — Hotel in Krakow

Nice hotel in a historic square, but not the best stay.

We booked a room with shower over a bath, but sadly only had a shower. I told reception the day we checked in to be told they're full and couldn't change rooms, and this was just the start of our problems.

The room. We had a really uncomfortable bed with flat pillows, that's left me with back pain. You sank into it and made you feel like you were sleeping on a slant. It was quite an odd bed. We were given room 401, it was right next to the elevator so we had a lot of mechanical noise off that. The next noisy thing was the daily drilling and banging, late at night, 10pm at 2:30am in the morning. It was ridiculous and never experienced anything like this at a hotel. Which kept us awake, with the terrible bed, we both had an awful night sleep. In Hotel Rubinstein's defence I do think the drilling was coming from the building next door, but can't be sure. However, I told reception hoping they would resolve the issue, but only confirmed that Hotel Rubinstein does not have any works going on but did say something quite bizarre, that maybe it was a guest to which I asked, "if it were, would you not be worried about a guest using a hammer drill 2:30am?" But this also fell on deaf ears.

Only 1 window which overlooked other rooms and the backend of a glass elevator.

Food and drink. Our breakfast was included, hot food was nice but only consisted of a choice of fried eggs, scrambled eggs, hotdog sausages. It's not buffet, you have to order it. The continental breakfast is buffet.

We never tried the evening meal, there are so many restaurants around with plenty of choice and are all reasonably priced. Which is part of the reason why we never dined at Rubinstein, the main reason was we were charged 96.91 Pl for two single jack Daniels and cokes. It was quite costly. Im sure the food is very tasty, but when other establishments are costing around 100 - 200 Pl for food and drinks, 96.91 just for two drinks is a bit too much.

The outside. It's in the historic Jewish Quarter where Schindlers list was filmed. There is plenty to see and do just on the square outside, but beware the two restaurants either side of the Rubinstein, they will hustle you into their restaurant every time you walk past. It gets quite tiring when you only going back to your hotel room.

Shame, we had high hopes, would love to know who thought it was a good idea to use a hammer drill 2:30am...

Visited Hotel Rubinstein which is located in the quiet Jewish quarter of the city which is ideal if you’re wanting a more peaceful stay which we did. That does mean it is around a 20min stroll to the main square but that didn’t bother us.

We arrived at the hotel before the check in time so fully expected our room not to be ready which it wasn’t, however the welcome we received was very sharp and seemed as though we were an inconvenience to the lady on reception, especially when asking if we could leave our 1 piece of luggage in the storage room which was replied with a ‘huff’! Not quite the welcome we were expecting.

We enjoyed the lovely weather and the few bars in the square outside the hotel before returning to check in at 2pm. We were given our key to room 405 which was a very nice room. Large and bright with a very good sized bathroom however the toilet could be a little tight for some people. As this room was located at the back of the hotel there is a tram that passes often from 5am-11pm. This could disrupt your sleep however the hotel does supply ear plugs. Once settled we thought we’d try the sky bar before finding somewhere for dinner. We were disappointed to find this was closed but had no explanation as to why. Before leaving for the evening we wanted to request a couple of extra pillows. ‘What do you want?’ was the greeting we got. Not the greatest customer service. After we found somewhere for dinner we returned to the hotel for a drink in the bar. It took a little while for the drinks to arrive but the biggest surprise was my partner almost being cornered and asked to put 10% onto the bill for ‘service’. We’re fully aware and accept the tipping culture but firmly believe you earn your tip not expect it. That left a slightly sour taste on our evening and the following day the gentleman outside who had previously greeted us with a smile, now ignored us. Oh well.

The breakfast at the hotel is nice, quite basic with limited items but enough to choose from. The coffee machine was a highlight and the scrambled eggs were very good.

Overall the hotel room was nice and can get over the fact it is slightly noisy however the terrible greeting we got from most the staff means we wouldn’t return to this hotel. Customer service goes a long way and this hotel is far from the...

It is the story of an independent and feminist woman who paved her own way - especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a time when women suffered discriminatory treatment in society, not to mention rights that now seem elementary, such as the right to vote. A woman born Chaya Rubinstein in 1872 to a Jewish family in Krakow, refused to marry a matchmaker and became one of the richest women in the world, terrorizing Elizabeth Arden and making a headache for Revlon - fascinating right? So let's start from the beginning.

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Rubinstein was born as the eldest of eight daughters (!) She wanted to be a doctor, but at the age of 15 was forced to leave the school bench in favor of working at her father's grocery store, where she was also exposed to her mother's beauty secrets.

Whoever's motto was "there are no ugly women, there are lazy women", had to travel as far as Australia to find out her destiny. Almost without knowledge of English and without any financial means, she came to live with her aunt. Pretty soon she notices that the women of the city are admiring the skin of her reserved face. She sold them the cream jars she had brought in her suitcase from Europe and as the demand grew she started making creams herself. She opened more and more beauty salons and at the same time began her trips to London and Paris, where she opened more branches of her renowned beauty salons. In Paris she developed into one of the most prominent figures in the city's culture and fashion scene. She has partnered with fashion designers like Paul Poeira, famous writers such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald and haute couture houses like Lennon and Dior. In addition, she began collecting works by artists living in Paris, such as Braque, Miró, Peskin, Picasso and others, who also created unique portraits of her.

At the outbreak of World War I, Rubinstein traveled to New York. There it became an economic empire. She leveraged PR to an art degree and used her classic figure and friends to promote the products. All of which made her an enemy in the eyes of her biggest competitor: Elizabeth Arden. The two competed with each other, with Arden stealing from Rubinstein workers, until Rubinstein hired the services of...