Posts Tagged ‘hotel’

Mosaic House

July 18th, 2010

At the end of June my husband and I had the opportunity to stay at Mosaic House. It’s a new hostel/hotel that our friends just opened up in down town Prague and it’s beautiful. I was so super impressed with Mosaic House that I just had to write about it here. I will tell you up front, in the interest of full disclosure, that we got to stay there for free thanks to the fact that we know the owners and they had some availability in the first few weeks that they were open. I decided on my own that I would love to write a review of Mosaic House here on my blog. This review will be all my own honest opinion.


Mosaic House greets it’s guests with a casual chic atmosphere that would be hard to durplicate. Out in front of the building there are a number of benches and potted plants that give the feeling of a little oasis amid the busy city streets. You come through the doors to walk across an old restored mosaic from the 1930’s into a large open room. The bar is directly in front of you with the check-in desk right next to it and off to your left. We came in with our 9 month old son and were soon greeted by smiling employees and fellow guests many of which took a quick second to coo at our “adorable” baby boy (which as a mom I of course deeply appreciated).

When we arrived it was late afternoon and the bar was already busy although not nearly as crowded as it would be later in the evening. Belushi’s Bar at Mosaic House is definitely the place to be. People were hanging out, making new acquaintances, watching the world cup games on the big screen TV’s and swapping traveling stories. It would be the perfect place to hang out with friends and grab a beer.

Since we had a baby with us we made our way to the restaurant off to the right from the front door and found a quiet room with a number of comfortable tables. This was probably my personal favorite room in Mosaic House. They had these awesome lights hanging from the ceiling and the bench that stretches throughout the whole downstairs of the hotel went up the wall in this room, which I just thought looked so cool. We hung out in the restaurant for quite a while with a number of friends from around the city. We had dinner there and each had great hamburgers with heaping servings of French fries. I only have two complaints about the restaurant: they didn’t have a high chair for babies/toddlers, and it wasn’t exactly “real” food – it was good food, but not really traditional, local, preservative free, organic, sustainable, or anything like that. The high chair may have just been an oversight since they had only been open a few days. And as for the menu, well, most restaurants don’t really serve real food so I can’t complain about that too much. But, wouldn’t it be great if more hotels and restaurants started to consider the health and sustainability of the foods they are presenting to their customers? Especially green hotels like this one?

That brings me to the coolest thing about Mosaic House and perhaps my favorite thing. Mosaic House is an environmentally friendly, green hotel.

“Mosaic House features some of the most sophisticated green technology in the hospitality industry, including the first greywater recycling unit with heat recuperation technology in the Czech Republic, water heated with solar panels, energy-efficient lighting, room temperature levels and electric shutters controlled by a super computer based on occupancy, bathrooms with low-flow toilets, rain dance showers, and more.”

Seriously, how cool is that! I loved that they took an old building from the 1930’s and restored it not only into a beautiful and comfortable hotel, but also into an energy-saving, earth-friendly place to stay. I really appreciate that and wish more hotels were making these kinds of efforts.

All that’s great, but what about the rooms themselves, you ask? Well, there beautiful! Whites, burgundies, and natural woods create an elegant and comfortable feel in the thoughtfully designed rooms. The bed is super comfortable with big pillows and soft duvet covers. The bathroom is clean and fresh with a beautiful raised sink and a invigorating shower that you would never be able to tell is water-efficient.

Best of all though was the great customer service. Maybe it was due to the fact that we knew so many of the people working there, but even those we didn’t know were so friendly. I really appreciated that the employees smiled. Czech’s aren’t known for being smiley people, so I especially appreciate when someone in Prague takes a minute to smile at me. I also really appreciated how helpful everyone was. When we had a question or needed something people were really attentive to get it for us, or apologetic if they couldn’t (like the high chair).

Overall, we had a wonderful experience staying at Mosaic House. If you live in Prague go check it out – Belushi’s bar is a great place to hang out and the hotel itself is a wonderful place for a little night away from home even within your own city. If you don’t live in Prague but are ever traveling through I would definitely recommend that you stay at Mosaic House.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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Some Random Thoughts On “Lifestyle Hotels”

July 10th, 2008

Alright, so generally I’m sort of a blog addict. I have over 100 blogs in my favorites list that I try to read at least weekly. Most of them are religious in nature and most of those are what many would label “emergent” or “missional”. But, sometimes I wander away from those and read some other types of blogs – blogs on personal finance, blogs on economics, blogs on random things that I have no involvement in – like the hotel industry – haha J That’s right, a while back some friends of mine who own a few hostels in Prague told me about Daniel Craig’s blog. He’s been in the hotel industry for years and that’s what he writes about but he’s got a great writing style and so I enjoy occasionally checking out what he’s talking about…

So, a while back I read this article by him and it got me thinking. So, this is something I wrote a while back but figured I’d share now…

So, we’ve all heard of hotels, hostels, and even boutique hotels but have you ever heard of a lifestyle hotel? Supposedly that’s the new thing. Daniel Craig describes lifestyle hotels as hotels that “cater to the traveler who wants to pack more than his PJs when going on the road, he wants to take his entire lifestyle: technology, health and wellbeing, social life, the dog and even eco-friendly practices.”  So, here’s what got me thinking… What is my lifestyle? What would my ideal lifestyle be? If I were to choose a “lifestyle hotel” to stay in what would I want it to be like? Bryan and I got to talking about these things and it was interesting to me.

So, here’s what we said we’d love to have in a “lifestyle hotel”:

-          Ipod docking station in the room

-          Tv (preferably flat screen) with ability to hook up the computer to them (cords for hooking up computer provided)

-          Free wifi internet

-          That they use only all natural bio-degradable fragrance free cleaning products and detergents and provide all natural shampoos and soaps in the rooms instead of those heavily scented chemically stuff that is usually in hotels

-          Have a restaurant that serves dishes using all organic, natural, locally grown ingredients and does special orders for allergies and other diet specifications

-          Low energy appliances and lights

-          Large library for the use of hotel patrons

-          Lots of little sitting areas and public places to sit and talk or sit and read a book

-          A cool bar with a variety of drink options

-          We’d want the style to be warm and inviting but also clean and not cluttered – elegant and classy but also comfortable and unobtrusive

-          Options for various educational classes/lections available (i.e. art classes, cooking classes, poker lessons, lectures on the local culture, lectures on the latest book, etc, etc)

-          Gym at the hotel with options for yoga classes and a spa with massages available

-          Options for giving back available through the hotel – one idea was that a percentage of the cost of each room goes towards building homes for those in need in a developing nation or goes towards some good cause in that specific community facials

-          Options available to guests to get involved in service projects in the community if they desire while they are staying at the hotel

-          Great public transportation near by

-          A game room, complete with pool table, where guests could hang out and play cards, or pool, or board games provided by the hotel

-          Oh, and it should all be reasonably inexpensive! :)

Ok, so I know that this post is totally random and not a topic I normally write about, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway :-)

So, what are some things that your lifestyle hotel would have and incorporate?

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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