Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Reviews of Residence Masna on Tripadvisor

There is no doubt that more and more travellers rely on personal feedbacks of other travellers. Therefore I would like to present you serial of selected reviews of Prague City Apartments which were presented on the web of Tripadvisor.com. Our first rated property is residence Masna, see pictures of Masna residence.

Good location, just minor things need to be fixed...

Spent 3 nights in Masna Residence and it was a great stay. Booked through the hotel website, which was easy. Also scheduled a car to pick us up at train station (300 czk). The residence only has reception from 8am to noon. We arrived in the afternoon so the driver drove us to their office first. (I think the residence was under the group of Prague Apartment Rental, which have lots of properties in the city). The girl was very polite, gave us the keys, maps and the driver took us to the residence.

There was elevator to our floor. But there was a flight of stairs before you get to the elevator (which I didn’t expect)!!! It was about 14-17 steps. It was ok for us (but prefer no stairs since we had big luggage…) but not sure for senior/ handicap…

Room was really quiet since it was facing courtyard. Spacious room with a small balcony. The room was equipped with modern furniture. Washing machine in bathroom was a great idea. We could pack light! (No dryer but they provided a huge hanger) There was kitchenette with microwave, cooking utensils, teapot and cups etc. However, the cups and teapot were not cleaned very well. The room was very clean when first day we were there. The daily cleaning service… Really depends. I found that the cleaning team didn’t clean the floor well. Especially bathroom. Last day of our stay, cleaning team did a better job.

Location was great: Bohemia Bagel across the street, which offers tasty breakfast in affordable price (I think they open till very late too). 10-15 mins walk to Power Gate, Old Town Hall and Black Madonna. There was a convenience store close by opened till 11pm. Also some restaurants/ pubs on the same street. Another PLUS was the free usage of WI-FI. It was not the fastest but reception was ok.

Overall a very happy stay. And price is reasonable. Will recommend to friends.

Beats staying at a hotel

My wife, 2 young boys (5 and 7 y.o.) and I stayed at Residence Masna Room 201 for 4 nights. Not having been to Prague before and lugging around several pieces of luggage and 2 not so cooperative little boys, sort of forced my hand to avail of the transfer service provided by Prague City Apartments (the company that manages Residence Masna with several other properties). For 500 Czech Crowns, we were picked up from the airport in a roomy mini-van, brought to the Prague City Apartments central office within Prague Old Town for an efficient check-in and ultimately brought to Residence Masna which was nearby. Given our circumstances, the 500 Crowns was well worth it and I availed of the transfer back to the airport as well.

The room was a studio type arrangement with a bed, sofa, dining table and kitchenette all together. The sofa also served as a second, smaller bed where my kids then slept. The bathroom was quite large, possibly because the washing machine was inside it as well. There was in fact only a shower rather than a bath inside but the room was large enough that you can lay out a clothes drying rack provided with the room. Everything was clean when we arrived and daily cleaning was carried out as well by staff.

The kitchenette had a small refrigerator, a 4-burner gas stove, a microwave oven, coffee maker and a hot water pot. There was sufficient cutlery as well as plates, cups and glasses but what we found lacking somehow were pots and pans. There was a fry pan and a small and large sauce pan. The large sauce pan was missing its cover and the fry pan's non-stick surface was already scratched away from misuse. This made cooking a bit of an inconvenience but since my kids were picky eaters, it still made more sense to do so rather than keep eating out.

There was a TV, DVD and a satellite receiver with hundreds of channels, though for the most part, most of the good channels (e.g. Eurosport, Cartoon Network, Discovery, Nat Geo) were encrypted and not viewable. Luckily, my wife brought with her a pack of DVDs so this kept the kids occupied those times we were stuck in the apartment.

The apartment was in a nice location. A quiet side street close to Republic Square and Old Town Square. Both were within a 5 to 10 minute walking distance of the apartment. At Republic Square there was the Metro station as well as a tram stop. Kotva Department Store and the new Palladium mall provided excellent shopping options. There were Albert Supermarkets at both Kotva and Palladium, while Tesco was a couple of Metro stops away at Narodni Trida. Next to the apartment itself was a Japanese Restaurant and a branch of Bohemia Bagel.

WiFi was available, but not sure if it was simply our location but the signal was quite weak at our room. So much so that I had to connect using the free WiFi service of the coffee shop located across the apartment. There was also an in-room safe that somehow had a defective keypad. It so happened that my code used one of the defective keys so I kept entering the wrong code until such time that the safe just went into lock-out mode and kept beeping. Luckily this happened when there was someone at the reception desk (only there 'til 12 noon) and she managed to sort things out quite swiftly.

Overall, despite the hiccups, Residence Masna provided good value. The price we paid was certainly quite cheap for Europe and prior to coming I had checked out several hotels in Prague and the Masna rates were fairly competitive. Further savings were of course realised by cooking our own meals instead of having to keep eating out.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Again and again, financial crisis in Prague

With regards to progress of financial crisis we can measure the impact on travel industry in Prague. The hoteliers, travel managers and apartment owners are facing hard times. There is no doubt that the financial crisis has influenced many other industries as well; however, one of the first item what are cancelled in family budget are holidays and trips. Today, I am going to present you several statistical numbers of travel industry focused on Prague concerning accommodated tourist.

Source: CZSO

The first differences demonstrate that less than 130 thousands accommodated tourist came to Prague in the first three months of the year 2009. It just proves analytical warnings that the companies will face tough times.

Source: CZSO

This chart expresses the downturn of travel industry in Prague. It is visible that the first three months in 2009 are approximately on the same level as in 2006. Nevertheless the number of tourists was increasing in 2007 as well as in 2008. Therefore, hoteliers planned completely different budget for 2009 in the beginning of 2008. Now let’s have a look on incoming tourists to Prague.

Source: CZSO

Good news for hoteliers is that Turkey, Slovenia or Isreal have increased in the amount of tourists in comparison with 2008. However, the amount of their increase is less significant than in the case of losing travellers. In other words increase cannot be replace by degrease of tourists.

Source: CZSO

Here is the evidence. The numbers on axes of last two charts are on different level. Very bad news for Prague is losing serious amount of British tourists. These kinds of tourists are very valuable for hoteliers. On one hand hoteliers were counting on the as a loyal clients and on the other hand they always spend essential amount of their money in Czech Republic.

I have just presented simple data about accommodated tourists in Prague. Hoteliers and managers are searching for new distribution channels and loyalty is much worthy these days than ever before. But travellers are searching for new options how to save money and get higher value for their money as well. Therefore, new chance for Prague City Apartments has come. Staying in apartment offers saving money, e.g. by cooking for yourself, more space or higher privacy (see. Link). So think money, think space, think privacy – stay in apartment.