Hotel rank 

Hotel description

The Alchymist Grand Hotel and Spa is a luxury boutique hotel located in the centre of the historical quarter Mala Strana (Lesser Town) in the neighbourhood of the US Embassy and 400 metres from the Charles Bridge. The oldest preserved part of the Dum u Jeziska (House at the Jesus Child) is the rear part of the structure facing the courtyard. The lower part of the original tower structure could date from the fortification of the Lesser Town in 1257, the oldest Premyslid fortification. This tower, which later underwent a Baroque adaptation, is decorated between the second-floor windows with a very well preserved polychrome relief sculpture of Our Lady of Loretto. The first written information about today’s Dum u Jeziska dates from 1548. The building must have certainly looked different back then and its ground plan was much more modest.The building, located on the upper part of Trziste Street, is also famous because the young Frantisek Palacky lived there from 1823 to 1825 when he arrived in Prague. In the nineteenth century a picture of the Infant Jesus of Prague was hung on the balcony on the main facade and the Lesser Town neighbors began to call it the Dum u Jeziska. The new name caught on and has been preserved until today. The name has also been reinforced by the fact that the widely worshipped wax statuette of the Infant Jesus of Prague is placed on its own altar in the nearby Carmelite Church of Our Lady of Victory.

Rooms
Single Room
Double Room
Junior Suite
General Suite

Hotel Policies

Services included in the price

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While Margaret River produces three per cent of Australia’s grapes, it accounts for more than 25 per cent of its premium wines. On its own secluded vineyard within an estate fringed by lakes and forest, 22-room Cape Lodge, once a private house, has twice been voted Australia’s finest boutique hotel. It makes its own sauvignon blanc and shiraz exclusively for hotel guests and for its award-winning restaurant, which also has a 14,000-bottle cellar filled with the best vintages from the most awarded vineyards. Sitting right over the lake on stilts, the restaurant, run by the celebrated chef Tony Howell, has a lovely alfresco deck and hosts cooking classes and gourmet weekends.

Cape Lodge Margaret River Hotel

The seasonal local menu (try the Margaret River venison or Fremantle sardines) changes daily. There is also a five-bedroom, exclusive-use ‘Residence’ ideal for a group of friends, a one-bedroom cottage, an all-weather tennis court and a huge free-form swimming-pool. Close by are pristine beaches lapped by the Indian Ocean, and neighbouring Margaret River wine estates such as Mosswood, Cullen and Pierro.

Relais San Maurizio Hotel

Piedmont, Italy

The Milanese flock to Relais San Maurizio in the Piedmont Hills at weekends for great food and wine in a beautiful converted 17th-century monastery setting, and to stock up on bottles from the local vineyards (Barbaresco, Barolo and Barbera, for example, are all within 10 miles). Perched on a hilltop overlooking the village of Santo Stefano Belbo, the hotel has 31 rooms and suites fashioned from the original monks’ cells, lovely sprawling gardens with gnarled ancient olive trees, criss-crossed by hidden paths, and more formal gardens. The hotel’s excellent but expensive Michelin-starred Da Guido restaurant, serving traditional Piedmont dishes with a contemporary twist, is housed in restored barrel vaults within the original monastery cellar and has a three-volume wine list with more than 2,200 labels and 30,000 wines. There is also a bistro, La Vie en Rose, housed in a frescoed hall with beautiful outdoor terraces, where breakfast and lunch is served. A spa (‘La Via del Sale’, meaning the Salt Path) features a series of increasingly salty baths and two pools, including one on a hillside overlooking vineyards.

Hotel Cheval

Paso Robles, California

If you fancy yourself as a bit of a Californian wine expert, you have probably heard of Paso Robles, a pretty little town about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles with a reputation for experimental, maverick winemakers breaking with the mainstream winemaking traditions of other parts of California. It is also the centre of one of the fastest-growing wine regions in the state. Just off the historic town square is the very welcoming Hotel Cheval, the perfect base for exploring the local wineries, with 16 large, comfortable bedrooms and an inner courtyard with a working fireplace. While it has no restaurant – there are so many very good ‘farm-to-table’ options in town, you really don’t miss it – it does have the Pony Club, a bar serving some of the best wines of Paso Robles and central California, where daily breakfast is also served. Paso Robles is the place to come for wine and olive oil tastings, to explore farmers’ markets and to eat out in great restaurants, and the hotel can arrange customised wine tours and dinner bookings.

The Yeatman Hotel

Oporto, Portugal

Paying homage to the terraced vineyards further up the valley, the Yeatman in Oporto, a collaboration by the founders of Taylor’s Port (run by the same family since 1692) and two other port companies, has been built into the steep south bank of the Douro river. It has 82 spacious rooms, each named after a local wine partner (which has been allowed to decorate it – one has fashioned a bed from an immense port barrel), spilling down the hillside. All overlook the hotel’s decanter-shaped infinity pool and across the Douro to the vibrant Old City beyond. The hotel’s 25,000-bottle cellar is home to the world’s most comprehensive selection of Portuguese table wines and ports. These are married with intensely flavoured, locally sourced food in the restaurant, overseen by the award-winning executive chef Ricardo Costa. Every Thursday a wine dinner is hosted by a different local grower and the chef builds a menu around four of its wines. The wine theme continues in the Caudalie Vinothérapie Spa, where treatments are grape-based. There is also a hammam and Roman-style baths.

Overall, the U.S. hotel industry’s occupancy rose 4.7% to 55.7%, its average daily rate was up 4.3% to US$100.85 and its revenue per available room increased 9.2% to US$56.17.

Among the Top 25 Markets, Nashville, Tennessee, experienced the largest occupancy increase, rising 16.1% to 60%, followed by Detroit, up 13.5% to 60.3%, and Houston, up 10.9% to 60.7%. New Orleans fell 10.6% in occupancy to 59.5%, posting the only double-digit decrease in that metric.

San Francisco/San Mateo, California, increased 19.5% in ADR to US$158.42, reporting the largest increase in that metric. Three other markets achieved double-digit ADR increases: Oahu Island, Hawaii, up 14.4% to US$173.67), Miami-Hialeah, Florida, up 13.6% to US$151.10 and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-New Jersey, up 10.2% to US$121.50). Atlanta, Georgia, fell 4.1% in ADR to US$81.51, reporting the largest decrease in that metric, followed by Denver, Colorado, with a 3.0% decrease to US$96.08.

San Francisco/San Mateo also posted the largest RevPAR increase, up 31.4% to US$118.78, followed by Nashville, up 22.9% to US$55.83 and Miami-Hialeah, up 22.4% to US$118.58. New Orleans reported the largest RevPAR decrease, falling 12.4% to US$73.14, followed by Denver with a 7% decrease to US$53.12.

Following intensive negotiations with a number of national and international hotel operators, Bayerische Hausbau GmbH & Co. KG, a wholly owned subsidiary of the renowned Schörghuber Group, has assigned 25hours, a member of Design Hotels, with the operating agreement for the planned 4-star hotel project in the Bikini Berlin development in City West.

The future 25hours Bikini Berlin will feature 149 rooms, a small meeting area, a restaurant with an appealing exterior surface and a view overlooking the Zoological Garden as well as a spa area. The design hotel extends over a surface of 7,000 sq. m. and will represent a crucial component of the urban re-development of the historic property Bikini Berlin.

Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels was exclusive advisor to Bayerische Hausbau GmbH & Co. KG in the process of operator selection as well as during the subsequent contract negotiations.

Ursula Kriegl, Executive Vice President of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels says: „With 25hours, it was possible to secure a hotel operator that emphasises the unique characteristics of the Bikini Berlin development”. Further, she asserts that „despite the intense competitive landscape in Berlin’s hotel market, there was strong interest from operators due to the pioneering concept of the overall development and the outstanding location in the centre of City West. Hotel operators recognised the opportunity to realise a hotel which would set new standards.”

“An extraordinary and distinctive kind of lodging experience was always envisaged for the BIKINI BERLIN development. Following a thorough review and analysis of existing offers, we are certain to have found the perfect partner in the collaboration with the 25hours Hotel Company”, states Kai-Uwe Ludwig, Managing Director of the Bayerische Hausbau and responsible for Investment and Asset Management, subsequent to the contract execution. “25hours’ innovative concept convinced us right from the beginning, thanks to its ideal combination of traditional hospitality concepts and the ability to satisfy the expectations of a modern, cosmopolitan traveller. This capacity absolutely coincides with the overall concept of Bikini Berlin, redefining a historic landmark to exceed contemporary requirements.”