My wife and I have just returned from Prague and stopping at the Riverside. We had a superb time there and the hotel was of the highest standard. We received an upgrade to a junior river view suite and also had the offer of free mini bar which was restocked every day. The hotel is very well appointed as you would expect, the area is a quieter than the old town and Wenceslas Sq which suited us fine. The hotel is located two bridges down from Charles Bridge where the nearby Andel metro station is available for accessing virtually anywhere in Prague and if you should want to visit Plzen (Pilsen) then the station at Smichov is one stop away. Overall we would highly recommend the Riverside.

we were a bit concerned about the distance from the town centre but we enjoyed the walk there and back,once returning by taxi due to heavy rain only 4 pounds,once took the tram to the castle
no problem.the reception was very pleasant and found me a dentist as i had lost a filling on the plane it was a ten minute walk and they drew a very easy route to follow.The room was as expected a junior suite overlooking the river,it was spacious and very clean.the breakfast is very expensive at 20 euros and not very special ,fruit juice not even fresh.Staff were very attentive apart from returning from a concert on the last night there was a smell of cigarette smoke in our toilette.for a thai foot massage we can recommend mantra ,brehova1, and they told us about thai restaurant arzenal valebtinska 11 very enjoyable.went twice to restaurant kampa hergetova cihelna by the river near charles bridge expensive but really good.

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.