My husband and I stayed in Prague over the Christmas holiday 2006. We spent half of our stay at Hotel Josef and the other half in the Apart-Karee Hotel, after a family member joined us. The Apart-Karee was a great choice. It is located in the Vinohrady district and is a short two blocks to the Namesti Miru metro and street car stop. The metro stop is 3 stops away from the Stare Mestko (Old Town Square) metro stop. Vinohrady is still very much an urban location, but it is much less touristy, quieter at night, and feels more authentic. It takes only a few minutes to take the metro into the old town area from Namesti Miru.
The hotel itself is very nice. It is extremely clean and well-maintained. It is in an apartment building that was probably built in the late 1800s or early 1900s and was fully remodeled a couple of years ago. We stayed in a two bedroom flat. Upon entering the flat, there is a hallway. Off the hallway is a half bath (toilet/sink), a "master bedroom" which has an attached bathroom with a bathtub/jacuzzi, another smaller bedroom with two beds, and a combo living room/kitchen area. The kitchen is small (basically the type that is designed for a small studio in the US), but has a full size refrigerator, range/oven, and microwave. There is a flat screen TV (17 or 20 inches). The flat has hardwood floors, and a lot of storage. The design is quite modern -- it's certainly not a "design hotel" like the Josef, but is just fine. The flat is cleaned everyday, and the wireless internet access worked perfectly. We visited several Czech friends who live in Prague, and I think that the quality of the apartment is quite high by Czech standards.
We believe that the hotel is owned/operated by Russians, and the clientele seems to be mostly Russian. However, the staff speaks perfect English and is very friendly and helpful.
There is a good grocery store (Albert) near Namesti Miru -- in the Pavilion.
The one major downside (which was not a problem for our family) is that the only shower/tub is located adjacent to the master bedroom and can be accessed only by going through the master bedroom. Thus, the people who stay in the smaller bedroom can bathe/shower only by going through the master bedroom. This could be a problem for travelers who would like to have more privacy (e.g., two couples who are traveling together).
Minor downsides: The two beds in the smaller bedroom are separate single beds, although they could perhaps be pushed together. Also, the TV gets about 1000 satellite channels, but most of them were scrambled -- the only English language channel of any interest was the BBC news (but we didn't come to Prague to watch TV).
All in all, we rate the hotel very highly.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC