The Josef is the only boutique-style modern hotel in Prague, with a great central location near the Old Town Square and Jewish Quarter. Consciously ‘designer’ style is visible everywhere, created by Eve Jiricná who has worked to acclaim in Paris and London, and pleasingly this is never at the expense of comfort. The overall feeling is one of light, air and an interesting use of fabric and colour.

You enter into a gleaming white lobby area, with the frosted glass reception desk at the far end. From behind steel doors with porthole windows emerge the friendly, professional staff. To the right is a seating area of comfortable white leather bound seats and, to the left, a long glass bar with futuristic bar stools and immaculately laid out bottles providing splashes of colour. In the middle of all this is the main architectural feature of the space; the curling black tip of a glass spiral staircase which winds up from below.

The 110 guestrooms are split between the pink building and the orange building, which differ only in the dashes of colour you will find on entering your room. Stylish appointments in white and neutral tones are offset by a bright orange chair or funky pink bedspread. Lighting is minimal and modern, and you will find internet access, DVD-CD players, a DVD library and minibar. The stone-clad bathrooms are partitioned by green glass, with large rainfall showers and separate toilets.

The Josef makes much of the 102 metres square of grass between the two buildings, calling it a ‘garden with recreational value’. Whether it lives up to this claim is debatable, but it cheers up the large canteen-style breakfast room with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the patch of green. The hotel has 3 conference rooms and a business room with internet access and a printer for all guests. There is also a ‘fitness area’ (they wisely stop short of calling a few exercise machines a ‘health centre’) and an adjacent terrace on the 6th floor roof. The Josef is good value and it fits its designer shoes with style.

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