Travel Tips: Lodging Explore and Enjoy

Hedgie's Trip Tips

LODGING

Overview:

Prague offers a range of accommodations: hostels, apartments, small family-run hotels, and luxury hotel suites. Prices range from 20 euros to over 700 euros per person per night. Accommodation costs may actually exceed those of other European capitals. Bargains still exist in the countryside, but Prague tends to be fully booked in season, with 100,000 visitors per day. Prices reflect that.

Control your cost
Factors affecting the cost are primarily the season, the hotel's class and amenities, and the distance to the center. Not all hotels use the same dates for their seasonal rates; check carefully.

One way to control cost is to pay only for those amenities you will use. Why select a hotel with Internet connections, conference and spa facilities, and a restaurant, if you won't use them? Even selecting a hotel without an elevator can allow a stay in the historical center for a much lower rate.

We recommend that you stay at least few days in or very near the historical center to experience both early morning walks before the crowds arrive and the unique atmosphere of evening in Prague. If you are only here a few days, it will save time as well as money, because you can walk to everything. A "quiet" neighborhood on the periphery could mean a long walk or bus ride to the Metro with an hour commute to the sights, and the Metro shuts down at midnight.

Best of all, if you choose the right hotel in the historical center, it can make your trip magical. In our hotel reviews for members we aim to help independent travelers find exactly that.

To get all this in high season, you may need to book your stay well in advance.

Booking Your Room

The ways of booking a room vary considerably and can be classified as follows:

Veni, Vidi:
Some visitors still arrive, as was popular in the 1990's, without reservations and rent an apartment from people who solicit tourists in front of the main railway station. While this sometimes works, we do not recommend it.

If you do not want to book ahead, find an agency after you arrive. Both in the train station and in the city center are agencies which offer rooms in hotels, pensions, and private apartments, and which have reputations to protect. This can work in the off season, especially in a year when tourism is down. In a boom year and in high season, if you want to be in a reasonably-priced attractive hotel in the historical center, book well in advance.

Traditional Methods:
Use the services of your local travel agent or use a hotel chain you know, such as the Hilton.

Internet booking:
You can book a hotel room in advance, directly over the Web.

Several types of sites offer reservation services. Most operate by collecting an 8-20% commission from the hotel, while offering the same price as the hotel would charge directly to the customer.

Hedgie offers this "prickly" review of the state of online booking for Prague:

Large global, usually U.S.-based, websites. These offer secure checkout, but the selection is narrow, slanted toward the expensive, and the local information is often incomplete, misleading, or even incorrect.
Travel agencies based in Prague Many travel agencies based in Prague allow online reservations. However,some of the sites are poorly constructed and few have "secure checkout". Confirmation is usually by fax (as required by CZECH BANKS). Most welcome e-mail explaining what you are looking for, and promise they "will respond in 24 hours" with information and an offer. Actually, some sites have nothing but this on their site! A few use wild graphics which may hang up your browser. All this is slowly improving. This FAQ for members provides tools, reviews, and links to help you sort things out.

Cautions:
Most visitors want a small, charming, friendly hotel in the real historical center. Most small hotels want you to think this is what you are getting. Too many hotels have misleading information online, especially about their distance from the historical center, the quietness of their streets, and the acceptability of their "renovated" bathrooms.

Some are known to pull "bait and switch" techniques, shuttling you away from the hotel in the historical center that you booked to a "sister" hotel in a far less attractive area, with the excuse that your room has developed a "problem."

Some "three star hotels" feel more like hostels. Some hostels are extremely noisy and unsafe.

In our FAQ's for members we review specfic hotels and make recommendations. We also answer questions which are rarely asked, but should be. With our tips, you should be able to book yourself something you'll really enjoy.

Hedgie's Reservations

Hedgie's own rental reservation service allows you to get off the mass tourism track and book cottages in the countryside or apartments in Prague directly with the owners. Once you are a registered member, you may make reservations.
How it works: Hedgie's Rental Reservations

If you need more help:
Our Ask Hedgie! services are offered only to members, and on a limited basis. Our site is set up for independent travelers, but we are willing to help members with special needs or dreams. Requests must be made well ahead of your trip. Our rate is 30 to 70 € /hour, depending on complexity.

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