This is an excellent hotel in almost all material respects. Positives: 1. Friendly and helpful staff 2. Impeccable decor in common areas (lobbies, etc.) 3. A harpist performing every morning at the breakfast buffet was a very high-class touch that helped to create a sophisticated ambience. 4. The breakfast buffet was extensive and fantastic. It includes an omelet bar where an attendant will prepare a customized omelet. 5. Although it is a high-rise hotel, elevator waits were never excessive. 6. The pool and fitness center on the top floor (43rd) was a spectacular setting. The fitness center features a large array of top-quality cardio and weight equipment. There were free weights and several types of weight machines, as well as rowing machines. 7. Room, bedding, towels, TV, Internet Access, all good (though I would have preferred to have a sheet and a comforter as top covers, as opposed to just a comforter). English language channels included CNN and the BBC. 8. In my opinion, the room rates were very reasonable for a modern, exquisite property like this in the heart of downtown. 9. Location is excellent . . .a huge shopping center, with several eateries ranging from fast food to table service, and a Carrefour supermarket, is a 5-minute walk. There are several nearby restaurants and cafes. There is a metro station 5 minutes away. You can walk to Old Town in 20-25 minutes. 10. Kudos to the hotel for providing employment to a number of Ukrainian people, who have come to Poland to ride out the war and make a living. Nearly every member of the housekeeping staff was Ukrainian, as were many of the restaurant staff. A few beefs: 1. I like to have an in-room refrigerator in order to keep some personal food and beverage items on hand. My in-room fridge was not very cold; I notified the front desk and a maintenance guy came to my room. He explained that technically it was not a refrigerator, but a "refreshment center" (once upon a time, a mini-bar) and as such it was intentionally not as cold as a normal refrigerator. I asked if they hotel has mini-refrigerators and he said they did, and brought me one. But, as far as I am concerned, a 5-star hotel should have a functional, legitimate refrigerator in every room. 2. As far as I can tell, the pool/ sauna/ steam room/ gym complex (which, as mentioned earlier, is spectacularly set on the 43rd floor) is a separate operation (i.e., a health club that sells memberships), to which hotel guests have complimentary access. The pool and hot tub are very popular and tended to be overcrowded (and it's a festival of dental floss bikinis). The pool is nice but it really ought to be bigger to accommodate all users. There was insufficient seating capacity on the pool deck chairs on most evenings. If you're a lap swimmer, don't count on being able to swim laps. The sauna and steam room were also often crowded. The hotel really needs to consider expanding its pool/ hot tub/ sauna/ steam room facilities. Since it is likely logistically prohibitive to add onto the top floor, maybe they could construct a secondary facility at or below ground level. 3. While the gym is officially open from 6:30 AM to 10 :00 PM (opening at 7:00 AM on weekends), hotel guests theoretically have 24-hour access. A sign at the gym entrance advises hotel guests to call a number for after-hours access. Calling this number results in a directive to go to the front desk (43 floors below) to fill out a form (why not adjust the sign to say, "hotel guests: for access after-hours, please go to the front desk)". So you go down to the front desk and full out the form, then go back up to the gym and wait for a security guard to come let you in (while a fitness club employee who has shown up before opening time pretends not to see you and ignores you). Why not set up the fitness center doors to open with a hotel key card? 4. And, in another strange development, the lifeguard came into the sauna to tell me and my companion that swimming suits were not allowed in the sauna; use of the sauna was permitted only in the nude. For several days of my stay prior to that, I observed that every guest wore either a swimsuit or a towel to the sauna. So why were they picking on us? And why would they care if I wore a swimsuit? Do swimsuits damage the sauna? Utterly ridiculous. I know Europeans are more "liberated" than we Americans, but excuse me if I do not want to be in the nude in a coed sauna. Also, be sure not to jump into the pool, even in a gentle fashion, or the lifeguard will get angry at you for that too. 5. Having booked three rooms (one for eight nights, two for seven nights), hence running up a bill of over $3,000, I would have thought the hotel could have been a little more flexible in offering a late checkout on the final day. They granted me a 2 PM checkout for my room, but no extension for the two rooms of my traveling companions. These are little things that one remembers.…
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.