The Purple Hotel (Purple House)

Member Name: Boylins

Product:	Purple House
Date:	20/06/00 (686 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, friendly, clean, comfortable

Disadvantages: None really

I stayed in Prague for a long weekend, arriving by train via Vienna. Just as the train is pulling into the main station, there was an announcement over the speakers that anyone seeking accommodation in the city should be very wary of rip-off merchants and
non - Czech tourist board recommended hostels and hotels haggling for trade in the station. Don't take this too seriously, though be careful!

Sure enough as we came off the platform we were immediately surrounded by people claiming to represent hotels, etc who offered very cheap rates and also to drive us straight to the accommodation. Of course we had no idea which areas of town the people were talking about or where they were.

So what we did was get a map out and ask one of these men to point out exactly where his hotel was, and if he had any sort of documentation to prove its location. A bit much perhaps but we firstly wanted somewhere where the owners spoke some English at least, and secondly we didn't want to have to make a 30 min tube ride into the city centre and out again to our hotel. Fair enough I think.

The place we ended up was called the Purple House. It has rooms of varying size, but no singles. There are double rooms and rooms for 3-4 people too. Ours was very large and had an ensuite bathroom/ shower and a kitchen with fridge. There was also a (well stocked) bar downstairs in the cellar which was open early and closed late. These are common to most of the hotels / hostel (a really good is The Clown actually). They are also a great way of meeting other visitors to prague and getting some tips on what's worth visitng. A lot of people also arrange to work in these bars in exchange for free accommodation in order to prolong their sejour.

The manager of the hotel was really nice and when one of the other guests complained that the hot water didn't work in his room, the manager ket him use his own shower while he had the problem fixed straight away
. (It was fixed in about an hour). He also gave us helpful hints on travelling. (eg make sure to sign the back of your underground pass - I know 2 Greek girls who were in the police station for over 2 hours because the ticket inspector found that they, innocently, had failed to sign their cards).

The location of The Purple House is pretty good - close to the main tube station Havlani Ndrazi and also to several tram lines that ran to the centre. The only draw back is that in places Prague is even hillier than Edinburgh and walking home at night means a rather steep climb to the hotel.

All in all the 3 of us paid £7.50 each for 3 nights in the hotel (no board, but Prague is so cheap that it doesn't matter). I highly recommend it.

Summary: