Four Seasons Hotel Prague

Pre-Arrival
Nothing much to note here. We only had 3 days in Prague, which my wife had planned out pretty well so we didnt really use the FS that much for this trip. Of note they did send an email prior to arrival asking our preferences for pillows and any special requests; as well as asking of we were celebrating a special occasion. I had inquired about a transfer from the train station, but the FS quoted 55 euro. LM225 assured me that it shouldn't be more than 7-8 euro for a taxi so I opted to save the euros.

Arrival
We arrived by train from Vienna; which takes a much longer time that one would think (worse than taking the train in the US). I think its about 300 KM yet takes almost 5 hours. The 1st class cabin is comfortable but nothing special. I did have a humorous encounter with the Czech train staff in which I tried to order a bottle of water and ended up with two big beers. Maybe thats considered water in the Czech republic. Nonetheless after many warnings not to take a taxi at Prague station, we ended up in a nice 5 series Uber ride. It was probably about a 15 minute ride to the FS where upon arrival our luggage was taken. There was no line at the front desk and we were helped immediately. The agent asked for our passports and credit cards and welcomed us to the Four Seasons. After accessing our booking, he wished us a happy anniversary. Noting that we had booked with a FSPP partner, he offered us a room upgrade from the Renaissance room to the Modern Room. Since I suffer horribly from jet lag (and MrsFDW is a great sleeper) I offered to pay for a further upgrade to a suite if possible. After consulting someone, he offered a duplex suite with a nice view of the castle for an additional 100 euros a night. He offered to show it to us first before decided but knowing that the hotel is multiple buildings I declined is offer and accepted the upgrade. He then explained the remaind of the FSPP benefits (breakfast; but already included in room rate in either the restaurant or room service) and $100 of hotel credit. In addition, he reminded us that late checkout was also a FSPP and we told him we would utilize it as we had a late flight on our day of departure. He then proceeded to accompany us to the room, which was a good thing because we probably would have gotten lost without his help

The hotel is a mix of buildings from a number of different errors. Modern, Renaissance, Classical and Baroque. By combining different buildings, it makes for a confusing layout. Theres a lot of elevator changing to get from one part to another. Charming? Yes. Logical? Not necessarily. Given that all the buildings are fairly low ride, I would have loved to have had access to stairs to bring us up and down the levels. We did try using the stairs but they ended up being more hassle than anything. At one point we ended up outside, between two buildings. Fortunately the doors did not lock automatically. Nonetheless the public areas are quite nice; with a beautiful floral display in the lobby. The location of the hotel is superb. Close to the Old Town center, close to the Charles bridge but felt a world apart. Definitely well located; we were close to public transportation as well (tram and subway). We walked most places; even to the Prague Castle. Of note, the gift shop sells transportation tickets at face value, chargeable to the room which is quite helpful. There is also a small business center (two computers and a printer) located next to the gift shop which was great for printing out our boarding passes. I did check out the fitness center or the spa during the visit

The duplex suite was located in the front building, right on the water. I think it was the Classical building, as the windows were very small. As you enter there is a powder room and a small living room on the first floor. The minibar area is here. The minibar once again had a Lilly espresso machine. Its quite a small area and honestly didnt feel all that conducive to lounging. However, it would have been a great area if our kids had been with us as there is a pull out couch and a toilet for them to use. Thankfully our kids were not there! Upstairs there was a fairly large sized bedroom, but only one fairly small window. However, out of all the windows was a great view of both the river and the Prague castle. Unbeatable view. The bathroom had only a single vanity and was fairly cramped. Definitely a let down after the PH. Small shower and small bath but definitely serviceable. They did have a TV bolted to the wall, which seemed like a bit of an afterthought. Asprey toiletries which were nice, much glad not to see the L'Occitane products that I'm allergic to. I think that the hotel just finished a renovation within the last two to three years, but especially compared to the PH it seemed quite dated. Nonetheless, the bedroom was quite comfortable. I much prefer the traditional plush FS bed to the PH bed. In retrospect, I wish I had asked if there were any other suite options. I found the split level arrangement kind of a waste because we ended up spending most of our time in the bedroom. I did, however, end up waking up early often and going downstairs and having coffee and reading. In addition, the small window in the bedroom made it a bit on the dark side, but I guess thats in keeping with the classical nature of the building. Wifi connectivity was a bit of a disappointment. They offered wifi for free for two devices, with the option to buy up to a premium package. The standard wifi wasnt really usable for anything other than email and social network applications. The speed tests I ran showed max download of 512k and the upload speeds wasnt sustained. Quick pings for sending out data but it didnt really support a prolonged upload. The premium package supported up to 4 devices and supposedly higher speeds, at a cost of $30/day. Contrast this to the PH which had free wifi for as many devices as we had (5?).Thankfully the 3G internet was speedy enough even to FaceTime to say hello to our kids back home.

Entry

Living Room

View from Living Room

Stairs

Bedroom

View from Bedroom

I like to eat breakfast the first morning I stay at a place in the restaurant, just to kind of get the lay of the land and figure out whats good. Afterwards, we much prefer to have breakfast in the room. The breakfast is laid out quite similar to the PH. Small buffet with the staples and hot entrees available to order. Except that the FS has breakfast entrees on their menu! Yeah. Not just eggs 2 ways, or pancakes but a couple of different ones including one that had either guanciale, tomatoe sauce and poached eggs that was quite good. Also the roasted potatoes were quite good here (actually they were also quite good at the PH). I was quite happy with the quality of the items on the buffet and the entrees were also good. Room service was quite good and they did ok on the poached egg test. With the credit we had lunch at Cotto Crudo which is their Italian restaurant. I guess one of their things is raw or cured meats/fish. I tried the house cured salmon (or maybe it was sashimi; I dont recall). It was ok but nothing that blew my socks off. The entrees though were very very good. I had risotto and my wife had their ragu with papparadelle.

The service overall was a very high standard. Exactly what you would expect from a FS. We were addressed by name fairly regularly. I cant think of any service lapses here. Some things to note. We always had ice. Which was awesome. I think ice must be an American thing but I do enjoy my water cold. I had a problem with the coffee machine when we first arrived; I mentioned something to the front desk on the way out and it was addressed before I had returned. Housekeeping noted my love of coffee and proceeded to make sure I had extra capsules with every service (thats a major score in my book). At turndown, the clock was angled towards the bed for easy visibility (and returned to the normal position each morning). On our last night, they left a quart sized bag for us, which was a nice touch. And yes, I did leave a coffee mark on the window sill(I like drinking coffee by the window) and it was indeed cleaned up with the next service. Restaurant service was very good (folding the napkin whenever we got up) and room service orders within the stated time frame and accurately. I appreciated that the orders were read back to me as confirmation. Finally, we did receive a little token for our anniversary; which was much appreciated.

Extra coffee! Yeah!

Coffee with a view

Our bill did need some correcting as the breakfast from the morning and the lunch hadnt been taken off. Very apologetically it was taken off quickly. I very much dislike when hotels quote costs in Euros and then charge in the local currency. I've noticed this in Turkey as well. It's quite annoying and I'm pretty sure that the conversion doesn't benefit me... thankfully they also didn't try to double convert into dollars using DCC. I checked out around 2 PM but wasnt planning on leaving till later, which was quite fine. One thing that was nice is they asked how my stay was and if there was anything that could have made it better. I could only really think of the wifi, which he promised to pass along. Finally, he offered to send a bellman to help with our luggage, which I declined.

A world of difference I say? Really the service wasnt anything over the top but in my mind it met the criteria for what is necessary for a luxury hotel. I did appreciate the extra step that housekeeping took in recognizing that I liked coffee and meeting my needs without having to ask. And, coming from the PH it was a world of difference. The hard product might not necessarily been in the same league but heres a case where the soft product really made up for it. I would not hesitate to return to the FS in Prague; nor would I hesitate to recommend it to anyone. I probably wouldnt recommend the duplex suite unless one was traveling with kids but the room was still quite comfortable. The wifi situations was less than ideal, especially since most people now travel with many data hungry devices. I was very pleased with our experience at the FS Prague; I honestly felt quite at home.