Hotel Josef, Prague, Czech Republic
Hotel Josef 4 Stars
“Eva Jiricna’s sleek design hotel is a minimalist haven away from the flamboyant architecture usually associated with Prague.”
The Press Say
"A wonderful base for exploring Prague." FodorsHotel Overview
Review of Hotel Josef, by Angela Moore
Hotel Josef in Prague is the elder sibling of the Maximilian. A stylishly luxurious design hotel, it was designed and purpose-built by the Czech architect, Eva Jiricna, who wanted to build somewhere that would be a refuge from the endless flood of Prague's decorative, baroque beauty.
The facilities
The lobby at Hotel Josef is a dramatic open space, with creamy white walls, faintly green-lit glass and a long bar. One of Jiricna's signature glass and steel staircases spirals downwards. The lobby then leads through to a small, grassy courtyard, where you can have breakfast or sit with a drink.
This, and the glass-walled breakfast room beyond, are a more cheerily comfortable take on the lobby. Location-wise, this is excellent, on the edge of the Josev (the old Jewish quarter, one of the most magical bits of Old Town Prague).
The rooms
By Prague's standards, the 109 rooms at the Hotel Josef are relatively compact. Jiricna went all-out with the glass to compensate and make rooms seem larger (fitting in a city known for its glass.) As a result, rooms have glass walls or huge windows and glass fixtures and fittings. There are soothing neutral colours enlivened with splashes of fuchsia and tangerine.
Room categories from superiors and up also have glass bathrooms. While this can be an appalling concept, these are extremely well-executed and discreet. A large glass box with limestone-tiled floors contains wash basins and towel racks and so forth, while green opaque glass walls shield the loos and showers.
Rooms 801 and 704 are special rooms, suite-sized and with tiny balconies and great views. Both have tubs as well as showers and in 704 there are views of Prague Castle from the bath.
Amenities are good throughout, with the Hotel Josef laying on extremely comfortable beds, TVs and DVD players, robes and slippers and lots of White Company goodies in the bathrooms. No proper closet space will irritate some people but the expensive designer furnishings and clever modular fixtures will make up for that.
Facilities
Rooms
109Who stays here?
This hotel is perfect for modern design lovers, as well as tourists looking for a great base to explore the city.Come for...
- Location - just minutes off the of the Old Town Square
- Views from the top two floors
- Cool glass bathrooms
Not Suitable for...
- Historic features
- The glass-phobic
Children
Children are welcome to stay at the hotel, and they can organize a babysitter if needed. Extra beds also are available for families.Eating in
There is no restaurant at this hotel, though there is a cool lobby bar. The breakfast room is in the orange building, where floor to ceiling windows overlook the courtyard and where you can eat in summer. Room service runs until 1 a.m.Reviews
Review of Hotel Josef, by Jenny Pidgeon
Hotel Josef is a boutique-style modern hotel in Prague, with a great central location near the Old Town Square and Jewish Quarter. Consciously ‘designer’ style is visible everywhere, created by Eve Jiricná who has worked to acclaim in Paris and London, and pleasingly this is never at the expense of comfort. The overall feeling is one of light, air and an interesting use of fabric and colour.
You enter into a gleaming white lobby area, with the frosted glass reception desk at the far end. From behind steel doors with porthole windows emerge the friendly, professional staff. To the right is a seating area of comfortable white leather bound seats and, to the left, a long glass bar with futuristic bar stools and immaculately laid out bottles providing splashes of colour. In the middle of all this is the main architectural feature of the space; the curling black tip of a glass spiral staircase which winds up from below.
The 110 guestrooms are split between the pink building and the orange building, which differ only in the dashes of colour you will find on entering your room. Stylish appointments in white and neutral tones are offset by a bright orange chair or funky pink bedspread. Lighting is minimal and modern, and you will find internet access, DVD-CD players, a DVD library and minibar. The stone-clad bathrooms are partitioned by green glass, with large rainfall showers and separate toilets.
The Josef makes much of the 102 metres square of grass between the two buildings, calling it a ‘garden with recreational value’. Whether it lives up to this claim is debatable, but it cheers up the large canteen-style breakfast room with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the patch of green. The hotel has 3 conference rooms and a business room with internet access and a printer for all guests.
There is also a ‘fitness area’ (they wisely stop short of calling a few exercise machines a ‘health centre’) and an adjacent terrace on the 6th floor roof. The Josef is good value and it fits its designer shoes with style.