I have to confirm the previous comments, the hotel is really a hidden gem, the service is warm a personal, the rooms are extremely comfortable. The common parts of the hotel are small and therefore not proportioned with the room level, but the stay experience is anyway excellent.

Usually I am not one to complain. However, in this case I feel it is necessary to warn other travellers.

The major problems with this hotel are:

-rooms MUCH smaller than stated and pictured on the internet

-cigarette smoke pouring out of the air conditioner in a non- smoking room

-Attempt by the hotel to charge 10% to much for the room at checkout

For those of you who want to read the details of these problems, please keep reading.

We booked this hotel directly through the hotel's webpage to avoid any problems with possible hidden charges or taxes.

When we arrived at the hotel, we received with a friendly greeting and told that we could get our welcome drink in the bar. Unfortunately, we waiting there for 10 minutes without even being asked what we would like. Finally, we just went to our room without the welcome drink.

The room was extremely small! On the webpage, it states that a Superior Room features a sitting area. We had one chair stuck in the corner which you could barely sit in because it was crammed between the wall and the bed. The webpage lists the average room as 25 square meters. Ours was not more than 15! The sample picture on the webpage (for this type of room) shows a large room with two large windows. Ours was not even comparable.

On the positive side, the room was perfectly clean and well set up. This is to be expected from a 5 star hotel.

At night, we tried to turn on the air conditioner as the room was quite stuffy. For some reason, the air coming out of the conditioner smelled very strongly like cigarette smoke. So we had to turn in off and sweat all night. We tried turning the air on again in the morning with the same result. When we mentioned this to the front-desk at checkout, they simply said sorry. We got the impression, that they already knew of this problem and weren't likely to fix it anytime soon.

The final blow to our opinion of this hotel came when we got the bill. The internet page lists the price of the room in Euros. When we tried to pay with our credit card, they charged us in CZK (Czech Krone). However, they used an exchange rate that is 10% above normal! Luckily we had Euros in cash and were able to pay in this way. However, it seems extremely unfair, that the price on the webpage is listed in Euros but the charge to your card gets made in CZK and you end up paying 10% more for a room which is already on the high side by Prague standards.

I tried contacting the hotel manager by phone to give him a chance to voice his opinion or convince me that my situation was not normal for his hotel. Unfortunately, I was told three times to call back because he was busy. Finally, on the fourth call, I was told that he was not in the hotel and requested to send an e-mail. Instead of sending the e-mail, I chose this method to voice my displeasure.

To sum things up, for the price of the Riverside Hotel, you can get better hotels in Prague. Or, you can pay a lot less somewhere else for the same quality.

Fortunately, Prague is such a beautiful city, that coming to the city is always wonderful. Even a terrible hotel can not ruin such a memorable time. However, it could be better with a decent hotel.

We (my girlfriend an me) stayed here for 4 nights, and were positively surprised by the hotel, room and staff. It is very close to all the main attractions and the superb public transport of praque. The view from the riverside room is great, and the very friendly staff really took take the time for their guests.. A nice stay, and I can and will recommend this hotel to everyone..

If you are looking for a first class hotel outside of the hustle and bustle of Prague old town, then this could be just the ticket!

We booked directly through the property web site taking advantage of their 'Culture' package.

This included limo transfers to and from the airport, tickets for three days travel on trains, trams, buses and the metro, a three course 'candlelight' dinner for two and a free minibar!

The staff were very helpful and efficient and the room (603), a junior suite, was clean, tidy and quite with a balcony and views towards the river, the shower in particular was one of the best we have used recently. Breakfast was 'continental' (fruit, cold meats and pastry's etc) only, but was fresh and well presented.

Location is great for those who want a bit less hustle and some quite time, but is still only a short walk to train, bus and metro stations and you can walk to the centre of the old town in 15 to 20 minutes, with the added benefit of not having to pay the premiums of town centre prices for food etc.

All in all we found the Riverside to be an excellent hotel.

U Modre Kachnicky is also an interesting location for a meal, some good 'modern/traditional' style Czech food in a unique 30's style setting!