My family of three and I recently stayed for a week and change at the Iron Gate in Prague. Let me say that our overall experience was wonderful.

First, I can't imagine a better location in Prague, for my purposes. The hotel is on Michaelska, which is a small road (almost an alley) very close to the Old Town Square. Michaelska has several restaurants to choose from, ranging from reasonably priced Czech-style eateries to an outstanding, but expensive, Indian place at the end of the street, which used to reside inside the Iron Gate. Best of all is the jazz club less than a block from the hotel, U stare pani, where we saw Jan Spaleny's combo perform, one evening.

From the Iron Gate, most of Prague is an easy walk. Charles Bridge is a few blocks away, and Wenceslas Square is about the same distance in the other direction. Since our strategy was to pay for a nice hotel, and then take it easy on food prices, only eating out for dinner, if we could manage it, we found it convenient that there are several grocers nearby, and the fruit market on Havelska was a godsend.

Iron Gate is precisely in the center of the tourism industry, which might be a drawback, if that's not what you're looking for, but it also means that there are hundreds of little knick-knack shops about, as well as small art galleries, jewelry stores, and restaurants.

I've seen reviews of the Iron Gate where the reviewer complained of the noise from the streets, and I can imagine that might be a problem in some rooms. However, my recommendation would be to take a room on a higher floor, facing the inner courtyard. We had no problem with noise at all.

Our room was what the hotel calls a deluxe suite. What this meant was that there were two connected rooms with a short flight of stairs connecting them. The upper level (and entrance area) was the master bedroom, and the lower level was the living area. The (outstanding) bathroom was off the master bedroom. Both the living area and the bathroom had very old wood and stone ceilings. We were told they were 14th century, which is quite possible. In the bathroom, the wooden beams had been coated with some sort of sealant, presumably to prevent water damage to the wood from the shower.

The king bed was very comfortable (which in my book means a fairly hard bed with several pillows), and we slept well. The living area contained a fold-out sofa, which became our son's bed.

The Iron Gate has a room that they call the Bohemia Lounge, which is ostensibly available for use by the guests, with free Internet access, comfortable seating, and books in several languages on the walls (including some popular fiction American paperbacks). However, the week we were there, they had a succession of meetings booked in that room, so during the days the room was unavailable. Although the staff was happy to let me and my wife (and other guests) use the computer when the room was not actually in use by the meeting group, the fussy little managerial type evicted me from the room one evening around 11 PM, on the grounds that the room was reserved, whether it was in any danger of being used, or not. You can probably tell that left a bad taste in my mouth, but YMMV.

Finally, let me say that their staff was very friendly, helpful, and communicated well. The housekeeping staff was largely comprised of non-English speakers, but the front desk staff, the restaurant staff, and the bellhops were quite fluent.

The staff that checked us in were very accomodating. We arrived earlier than their check-in time, but having been on planes for the previous 20-or-so hours, we asked if there was a room ready, anyway, and could we please just sleep? The team got our room ready for us and checked us in within fifteen minutes.

We had the hotel book babysitting for us for two evenings, and they had an au pair meet us on those nights at the appointed time. This was a wonderful service, and the hotel handled it beautifully. We had the same experience with their transportation services, which were prompt and courteous, even when we had to leave the hotel for our flight out of Prague at 4 AM.

The other excellent experience we had was using the front desk for information and tourist arrangements. We took two day trips out of the city, and the desk attendant (they give them the title concierge, but they're not empowered in the way that a real concierge should be) found me train information both ways, printing out schedules and discussing the different options knowledgeably and helpfully, allowing me to plan the best trip we could have, in both cases.

In addition, prior to our trip, my communications with the hotel were always promptly and ably returned. I exchanged several emails with the staff as we planned our trip months before our stay, and my one telephone conversation was also quite pleasant.

All in all, as you can no doubt tell, we were very pleased with the Iron Gate.