Review of: Hotel Alef, Krakow

2/5 (minimum 1)

by tom on 14 Dec 2006

Make sure you know what you're getting if you book into Hotel Alef. The place has a reputation (at least with some guide books) that seems based on the business's flagship site at 17 Szeroka, the stunning square in the heart of the Jewish area of Krakow's Kazimierz district. There is still Restaurant Alef on this site, and a number of guest apartments. However, Hotel Alef itself is at Św. Agnieszki 5 a good ten minutes walk away, and arguably not within the boundaries of Kazimierz at all. The location is still a good one, but not what we were expecting.

To be fair, the web site of the Hotel and the Restaurant does make this distinction. However, the waiter who directed us from the Szeroka site to Agnieszki 5 was fairly rude, and did not seem particularly bothered or surprised by the situation, or our disappointment. This left me with the feeling that the staff had no problem with perpetuating the confusion.

On arriving at the real Hotel Alef, we were given the keys to a twin room, having explicitly requested a double. There was no record of this request on their reservation system, so presumably only good luck meant that we could change rooms.

The dining room and common areas of the hotel are very nicely furnished, but the rooms are really uninspiring. Small, worn in places, and furnished with ugly modern hotel wardrobes and tables, they are a real contrast to the public areas. When paying 80euros a night (not cheap even for pricey Krakow) this left us feeling really cheated. Ultimately Kazimierz is wonderful enough that our time there wasn't ruined. However, Hotel Alef did nothing to enrich it.

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Hotel Alef, Krakow

Tags: accommodation hotel jewish-quarter kazimierz krakow poland szeroka
Homepage: http://www.alef.pl/
See Also: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/europe/poland/kra...