“The B&B was not operating ... only apartments”
A terrible experience! The B&B was closed, we were treated quite badly, and ended up leaving the hotel to stay somewhere else. We would recommend you find another place to stay based on our experience.
The details: we arrived at 3pm for a 3 day stay in romantic Prague, traveling with our 6 month old daughter. We had arranged a booking over a month earlier with the Charles Bridge B&B and paid by credit card a deposit for the first night.
We were a little shocked when arriving at the hotel to discover that the reception looked like a deserted building (bankrupt business?) as the windows were covered in paper, there was no door handle on door, and importantly - no sign or notice about what was happening. A tenant of the building who happened to exit nearby told us it had been like that for about 21 days. We had not mobile phone reception so couldn’t immediately call them (with our booking info) and suspected the worst so went to a nearby hotel to see if they had rooms available, and if they could call the Charles Bridge people for us. They did call and we were told to wait and someone would come to us in 20 minutes. A woman, who spoke no english, turned up and ignored us while talking on a mobile phone then handed it to us. The guy on the phone told us that they had an apartment prepared for us nearby, and that they had tried to call us in the morning (when we were on the plane traveling to Prague) to tell us of the change, and that a notice had been put on the door of the reception (but was mysteriously missing). He also said that they had closed the reception “for a few days” for renovations.
We explained that we were not happy and wanted to get our daughter settled as soon as possible, so would prefer to cancel our booking (an apartment was not appealing) and stay in the hotel where we were sitting. He was persistent and very unenthusiastic about cancelling the booking or refunding money. We were very annoyed and not confident of dealing with these people, but went to the apartment to take a look. It was in a regular building, with a dark stairwell characterised by the garbage bins next to the entrance door. The apartment was on the first floor (so the baby carriage/pram would have to go up those stairs every trip out. The apartment was ok, but plain and boring. Breakfast was to be delivered in the morning (not a buffet at the b&b), and we have no idea if there was any internet (which we wanted). We felt uneasy about the whole situation, and were very disappointed that we didn't get the charming B&B experience we were after.
With further discussions on the mobile phone with the guy, we told them we didn't want the apartment, and did want a refund of our 1st night deposit as they were not offering the product that we had booked. He again refused, saying that they had tried to contact us (not their fault that they failed… ) and that they were offering us something “better” because it usually cost more. He was also very much focused on the fact that we must have been cancelling because we had found a better offer at the hotel where we had been forced to go to by them in the first place (in reality, that hotel was more expensive but we were happy to have a room).
We stated that we were cancelling our booking and would be in touch to arrange a refund. (I am doubtful of getting the money back, and am a little worried they will charge my credit card for the cost of the whole booking).
We then left the apartment and found a delightful small hotel nearby with a cafe/wine bar downstairs (that is also the location for the great breakfast buffet), lovely rooms with bath, fast internet, and the option to leave our baby carriage/pram in the lobby-level luggage room. Service was excellent from the minute we walked in the door (with a rather jaded view of Prague accommodation providers).
So we recommend you find an alternate accommodation provider until reviews indicate that these people have got their business sorted out (or they go out of business).
We stayed at Hotel Pinot and were very happy there.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC