Hotel Stary — Hotel in Krakow

Very disappointed with our 5 nights at Hotel Stary. Let’s start with the good. Kraków is a charming city, and The Hotel Stary is in a great location right in the middle of Old Town Kraków. The Hotel Stary staff is very kind, and do their best to make things right when you approach them with an issue. But much of what is wrong with the Hotel Stary is out of their control. ||Despite the hype, Hotel Stary is NOT a luxury hotel - not even close! Seems to me Hotel Stary is trying too hard to impress with its Gothic design aesthetics (which they apparently won an award for a while back), over simple guest comfort and safety. We were put in the “new” part of the hotel, whatever that means. Let’s start with the rooms - they are large, but dark and cave-like with little natural light, and no overhead lighting (although they provided us with a floor lamp on request). Furnished with large brown furniture, brown floors, mud-colored walls, all the lighting in the room is accent lighting. The limited natural light in our room came from two side windows which were unfortunately facing the right side of the bed. The awful brown curtains provided were made from a cheesecloth-like material and had no blackout layer. So every morning at 5:30, the only natural light we had in the room was when the sun was coming up, right into our eyes through these silly, thin, cheesecloth curtains. Maddening! The bed itself was low and uncomfortable. Worst of all, the duvet provided was too small for the king bed, actually a few centimeters shorter than the width of the mattress itself. Therefore, two people trying to sleep under this duvet (with no top sheet, common in Europe), was impossible. You end up tugging the duvet back and forth all night!! Never seen anything like it!!! When I asked the front desk why the provided duvet was too small for the king bed they replied "that's a good question." and proceed to tell me about their "design" for the hotel. The bathroom was equally bad. Worn, water-stained brown marble floors throughout, even in the glassed-off shower area, so it is super slick when wet. And water leaked around the glass shower enclosure making the entire floor around the shower, bidet and toilet area wet. Large brown sink, but no place for your hand towel (you had to leave it on top of the counter). In fact, no towels racks or towel warmers are provided in the bathroom at all - just 3 small hooks near the shower for everything - hand towels, bath towels and two adult bathrobes - completely inadequate. Oh, and the blow dryer was broken!||There are no fabrics or carpeting anywhere to be found — not in the room or the hallways outside the room. Our room had a tiny, dusty throw rug. All the flooring appears to be engineered wood, with nothing to absorb the sound. Therefore, everything going on in the hallway echos into your room. Walking, talking etc., whatever it is, you’ll hear it all at full volume, day and night!||Their rooftop bar area is also very disappointing. It is furnished like a youth hostel - just an assortment of tables and chairs and a beat up indoor bar. This is all just the tip of the iceberg with this place, but I don’t want to go on and on. ||When in Kraków, do yourself a favor and go around the corner and stay at the Hotel Saski, (from the Hilton Curio Collection). It costs about the same as The Hotel Stary. The Saski looked superb - bright lobby, nicely furnished with a more modern design esthetic, but still retains some old world charm. I am literally kicking myself that we didn’t book there. But when in Europe I like to try hotels other than US branded ones. Big mistake this time!! We'll stay at the Saski next time. || I’ll end with this: Hotel Stary wanted to charge us 180 pln (about 50 USD) for a transfer to the airport. So, I walked two minutes around the corner to the Hotel Saski. Their front desk was very helpful. They advised we reserve an Uber Green to pick us up in front of the side entrance to their hotel, just off the main lobby. Cost was 47 pln (about $13), saving us $37!! || You’ve been warned, when in Kraków, stay away from...

WARNING

First off, this has nothing to do with the hotel but note that Ubers are not allowed to enter the old town - just taxis. So if you take an Uber, you’ll find yourself dragging your suitcases a few blocks to your “5-star” hotel. You’ll wish you have 4x4 suitcases!

This hotel is by no means a 5-star hotel. Truly a 3.5-star hotel. • It gets 1 star for location which is undeniably the best within the old town. I shall assume that one wishes to stay within the old town when booking. For a first or second time tourist, I would recommend stayimg in the old town. Around the corner within 2 blocks one can find a market, a movie theatre, the most charming breakfast place in the area, some of the best dumplings in the area plus naturally the main plaza. • It gets 1 star for its pool and salt room which are pretty nice. They are dark but arguably more romantic. • It gets 1 star for decent bathrooms with Occitane products and a powerful showerhead • And finally half a star for its rooftop terrace

And that’s where it ends. The pitch about winning some sort of a design award is absurd. Kind of like someone saying an Ford Camry is the car of the year. There is always someone willing to give an award out for something. Claim to be the best design in Europe is laughable.

Avoid at all costs -09-ending rooms at the very least. If one chooses to open the curtains ome is essentially on display to anyone who gets off the elevator on their respective floor.

Fantastically noisy. Each morning I was woken up by someone dragging furniture across the floor upstairs (which lasted for an hour each time). Saturday night there was a wedding in the hotel and they essentially kept everyone awake until at least 2am.

And then all the little things: • no real lobby to speak of - not 1 couch to sit on • dark • weak wifi/internet • press button to summon elevator and it takes you in whatever direction it was going ignoring your request • easily the cheapest and thinnest mattress i’ve slept on in a while, plus it’s very low • 1 super small and super thin pillow per head on the bed • sharp edges where one rests head - careful not to roll the wromg way in your sleep • bedside “table” way higher than where one rests head - essemtially almost impossible to place things on it without getting up • bathroom sink easily overflows • bathrobes designed for elves • one has to stand up to turn off lights before sleeping - in general terrible lighting in the room • no do-not-disturb/make-room sign to hang on door. cleaning crew guaranteed to walk in regardless if you yell at them to stay out • 3-star hotel mini-bar selection • shower glass covering just a third of tub essentially guaranteeing bathroom becoming a pool • extended stay by a night. was quoted a dollar rate and they charged it as euros. they corrected it in the end but it’s annoying to have to deal with it • no movies in English on TV - meaning cheapest tv package they could buy

Granted it is Krakow. And it is Poland. I just get upset when one doesn’t call a spade a spade. And for that a 2 star rating for a 3.5 star hotel pushing me to have to write...

The location is fantastic, but if you’re a sensitive sleeper, this may not be the place for you. The neighborhood is extremely noisy, and the hotel itself is also quite loud. Our room was very large, but the space felt poorly used — no sofa to relax on for TV, only uncomfortable chairs.

The biggest issue of our stay was with retrieving our rental car on our second day, which resulted in significant wasted time, money, and frustration.

The first time we asked for our car (for a prepaid morning tour), we weren’t given a timeframe — just told they would get it. Several minutes passed before anyone left to retrieve it, and after 30 minutes of waiting, we asked about it only to be told it was 1 km away. There was no explanation for the delay, no apology, and no acknowledgment of the lack of communication. We decided to abandon waiting for the car and took a taxi, making it to our tour with less than a minute to spare. When we returned to our hotel (again by taxi), our car was parked out front.

We grabbed a quick lunch before our second prepaid tour, only to find that during our short break, the hotel had put our car back in parking. We immediately told the front desk we needed it again — ASAP — and stressed that, due to the morning’s incident, we needed it within 10 minutes. They said it would be 15. We went upstairs to grab warmer clothes and returned 10 minutes later; there was still no car. We waited another 10 minutes (now 20 total) and were told the driver was in our car and would arrive in less than 5 minutes. Another 10 minutes passed — now 30 minutes in total — and still no car. When we followed up again, we were met with major attitude and an overall lack of professionalism, especially unacceptable for a hotel positioning itself as five-star.

With no other choice, we rushed to grab a taxi but arrived at the salt mine just 2 minutes too late for our scheduled tour. Thankfully, they had space on the last tour of the day — 2.5 hours later — but this meant we lost a large portion of our planned Krakow sightseeing time.

In total, we wasted over an hour that day waiting for our car, 2.5 hours later in the day due to missing our scheduled tour, and the money spent on a day’s rental car we couldn’t use plus taxi fares to and from both tours. The entire situation could have been avoided with clear communication and timely service.

On a positive note, housekeeping was excellent — they cleaned our room quickly and efficiently while we were out with my service dog — and some front desk staff on other days were friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, the repeated delays, wasted time and money, and lack of professionalism on our second day left a lasting...