Best Hotels near Information center of Karlovy Vary, o.p.s., Karlovy Vary

My experience at this hotel was bad. To start with: 1. Hotel credit card machine was not working. So everything had to be paid with cash. Who would expect to be walking around with 15,000 - 20,000 kronor in cash?? Going to city center and getting the cash cost us an extra $85 in transaction fees and poor conversion rates. 2. Being a small town and boutique hotel, very few people speak English. We made an appointment and went to the spa at the time. It was our first experience in a ”salt cave”. Nobody to tell us what to do. We lost about 10 minutes in this experience, but had to pay full price. Same thing with the mineral bath. Lost few minutes because there was nobody to guide us, but had to pay full price. Finally at check out time, we were told that their credit card system is not working for a month!!!. If that was the case, the hotel should have informed the guests in ADVANCE so that we would have made alternate arrangements. As for the hotel itself, it is a very nice property and enjoyable if the hotel can do a better job.

Easily in the top tier of hotels I've visited. What an experience. A) Friendly, helpful and attentive staff that makes you feel right at home, and makes sure they cater to your every wish. The whole experience from reservation through welcome at check-in and interactions with the staff during the stay had our whole family feeling great. B) Amazing quality of food. I usually don't book a package deal in hotels, opting to eat out at neighboring restaurants, however here we booked the full-board option and we loved every single dish. Food was fresh, made to order and the whole dining experience had the right mix of ”fancy” (Waiters bringing dished at the same time for the whole table) and ”casual” (Swapping dishes from the menu if time permitted, waiters joking around when appropriate). C) Great cleanliness and shape of the facilities in general. The hotel feels brand new even though it's been around for a few years now. The cleaning staff keeps all the areas including the common hallways spotless, so that despite the luxurious and plush interior, the hotel always feels fresh. Rooms were cleaned 2x a day. Overall one of my favorite hotels of all time, even compared to big fancy names like St Regis (New York, Abu Dhabi) or luxury boutique brands.

The building is impressive, enthroned up on the east hillside of Karlovy Vary. Habsburgian vibes reminiscent of ancient days. Imperial is in good condition and nicely renovated. The scale of the building is huge and dimensioned for thousands of guests. Walking around takes quite a bit of time but with lesser amount of guests than the mentioned thousand, it feels quite lonely to stroll the corridors... The public areas are mostly beautiful, but the five official stars... no, unfortunately not. What is lacking? Well, the scale of the property demands to keep it running. To keep it running you have to have a lot of guests. Thus, you have to attract people who not usually are in the ”five star category”. And so they (try to) do. Many things turn to ”cantina” standard in respect of both the reception and ”handling” of the guests and the dining options. Very tired staff at check in. One example: in the main lobby there are only two elevators, whereof one at our visit was out of order. Another elevator in another part of the hotel did not serve all the floors. Nah.... Rooms are renovated and just fine. All amenities and a good night's sleep in comfy beds. Nice with a small balcony. For those having some sort of boarding agreement, dinner is served as a buffet dinner in the magnificent ”Prague restaurant” with lavish decoration. A buffet is hardly a concept in a real five star hotel and we consequently had dinner in the more intimate ”Restaurant Paris” - see my separate review. In ”Prague” breakfast is also served, which proved to be a great gathering of all the hotel guests at the same time. More like a school cantina than a five star hotel. Everything in place though, and most thing you would want is there to find. Queues to the coffee machines... Parking was ”doen the hill” and we ended up parking on a tennis court (!). OK - no problem, but not in the ballpark of attending staff helping you with the parking facilities. Staff correct and polite. But very stiff. And tired. Many steps behind service of a true 5-star. It's about price/performance. We had the opportunity to stay at three different hotels at Karlovy Vary during our stay. And one of those was the Grandhotel Pupp, which we considered to be much more lika a true five star. AND they are/were cheaper! So, you may well stay at Imperial, just for the sake of the building's eminent history and athmosphere. But be aware that days gone by since the turn of the century does not apply in the respecto of ”grand” anymore.

Lovely hotel! the best things about it in my view are 2 things: the staff and the rooms. Martina, hotel receptionist, really went out of her way to make sure all our needs were met! Such a pleasant lady with lovely manners and keen to help attitude, thank you so much Martina! and the rest of the team always meet any queries/requests with a smile, whether housekeeping, restaurant staff, they are really very friendly and pleasant, thank you! The rooms are absolutely lovely: spacious, nice balconies for people to unwind and relax with a lovely river view, clean. The spa is great, and the treatments were all lovely, thank you! The hotel is not in the city centre. However, It's only a 10 minute car ride from the centre so one would need a taxi (there is no uber service in Karlovy vary). The hotel staff will happily order one for pick up when needed & it's relatively cheap. For someone who wants to indulge in spa facilities and have a relaxing weekend in the hotel, this should not be a problem however, as it's quite relaxing.

Wie immer zuerst die Anreise: Anreise per Bahn ganz gut, man muss nur vom Bahnhof über die Brücke Richtung Zentrum gehen. Das Hotel kann man dabei schon von der nächsten großen Busstation sehen ( vom Kreisel aus rechts gesehen). Das Hotel an sich ist vom Design her interessant. Prozeduren wie Massagen und ähnliches sind, je nachdem was man bei der Buchung wählt, ganz nett. Der Saunabereich ist etwas zu klein geraten. Etwas zu klein geraten ist auch der Speisesaal, weniger vom Platz her, als von Platz an den Speisen. Fazit: Vom Ambiente her interessant, die Entspannungsprozeduren sind auch nicht schlecht, jedoch fallen immer wieder Kleinigkeiten auf, die alleine nicht so schlimm sind, jedoch in der Masse her etwas störend wirken. Zum Entspannen für eine Woche aber akzeptabel.

Wonderful stay! Friendly and helpful staff. Nice room that was clean and smelled fresh. Simpel but tasty breakfast. English speaking receptionist/staff. Short walk to go down town for dinner and shopping. We were even offered help with our luggade when leaving, there is about 20 steps to reception. Fine by us but good to know.

Stayed here for a few nights for work during the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival. I liked this hotel although it was pretty hard to judge it properly as the entire place was PACKED due to the film festival with all areas and many floors of the hotel being used by companies and displays. It is a bit of an oddity in Karlovy Vary as it's a modern 15 floor tower / conference centre in a town full of Czech old world buildings (I can only imagine the uproar when they planned it). So it's a hotel that also has Spa / Medical Treatment / Swimming pool, thermal pool / pool party / conference centre and restaurants. It seems to be modern by local standards - I was in a superior room with a balcony on the 13th floor with great views. The room had all the mod cons available in most decent hotels, good wi-fi, USB Power outlets, nice firm bed, good regular housekeeping. One thing I noticed was that the beds didn't have a separate sheet, only a fitted sheet and then a throw over dooner - no big deal, just different. Downstairs restaurant doing breakfast / lunch / dinner with a lot of options and really good wait staff. There's a large separate building (accessed by hill climbing elevator) that has an outdoor heated pool, thermal pool, saunas, change facilities - there was also a Pool Party with DJ, bar etc on the weekend days / nights (I assume that's just in summer or just during the film festival). I believe you get complimentary access to the pools /saunas for a couple of hours every day of your stay - I used it every morning for laps, it was great. In the pool complex there's also a decent restaurant with amazing views. As I said, the place was packed and the staff all seemed to handle it well. Everything you could want outside the hotel is a short walk away and there's SO many restaurants / bars etc to choose from. Karlovy Vary wasn't on my list of places to visit, but now that I've been there I'd consider going back.

Věry lovely hotel. City Center , gorgeous swimming pool with amazing view, great breakfast. Very Good Wellness zone and exclusive Thaj massage, which I really liked. The Best weekend stay I can reccommend