The Intercontinental is an ideal location in Prague for visitors. Just 15-20 minutes in holiday lite traffic from the main train station, it's walking distance to everything else you might want to see.
The room had a lovely view of the river and was on a high floor away from the lifts as we prefer. It was European small and very very warm. The decor was average, a bit dated, but clean and functional.
What was good:
The staff: were very nice and mainly knowledgeable. Fantastic English-speaking! (If you haven't been to Prague, you won't know that while people often do speak English - not all like to, or do it well- particularly some service
/industry people... which you'd think would be a 'given" but, if it's not your first language, "well, why bother" can be a problem.)
Hotel car: To avoid taxi scams, ask for their car to come get you. It might cost a little bit more, but you can tack this cost onto your room if you like and you will be in a very clean car with a very nice driver to get you from point A to point I (Intercontinental) with no fuss.
The room was decent, though the heat was blasting - we had to open the windows and turn the system off completely (although it was only 0-3c outside - we were roasting!)
The Internet worked and was relatively fast.
Location Location Location.
What was "Eh":
Sound carries: we could hear every noise everywhere - and so could our neighbors. When we got locked out of our room (the battery on our key card entry device died) our whispering in the hall alerted a neighbor who popped out to ensure all was well.
Though I was promised a newspaper, I never got one, so I had to tell the desk.
The television list boasts some well-known and popular channels from around Europe- but the TV doesn't actually have them apparently. The engineer came up to check our connection- only to confirm, "yeah we don't carry those channels anymore" which was sort of strange. :(
Speaking of engineers -- as mentioned, our door keycard reader (not the card itself) failed. we ran up and down the elevator not once, but THREE TIMES before we could get an engineer up there to get us sorted. Tack on 40 minutes sleep loss at 23:00. :(
The bathroom was small and the metal tub needed a refinish. The shower splashed water all over the floor with a whimpy curtain there - so needless to say, that was a bit of a hazard.
In-room continental breakfast was bad. No dry or liquid creamers for the coffee (we didn't order milk, sadly). Coffee was just more Nescafe anyway (same as already provided in room). Bread stale, no fruit. Best part: Bon Maman honey pots and jelly- but what do I put it on?
But all in all, the hotel is a 3.5 out of 5 for an Intercontinental. The big size, spacious and modern lobby areas scream Intercontinental, but it's more like a fancier holiday inn express room-wise.
Bar area seemed cool. We didn't' drink there. Didn't try the restaurant, they the offer a savings deal for IHG members.
When we were there (Jan 2016), they had cleared out three gift shops (literally) overnight and we learned it was the start of a large renovation project. So we were glad to have missed all that potential noise and look forward to our next visit to a nice newly revamped shiny hotel.
p.s. I am reading other's memories of an amazing breakfast buffet. Didn't even know that was an option (?) and we're IHG priority members, so something was amiss about that during our stay. Shame they couldn't bring these amazing pastries on the plate to our room when we ordered continental breakfast upstairs. Odd. read more