The andel’s Hotel Prague and Vienna International Hotels & Resorts (VI) are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the 4-star hotel as well as the birth of the andel’s design hotel brand. Even today, the hotel continues to represent a new dimension in terms of design that has been popular from the beginning with locals, business guests, design enthusiasts and individual tourists from all over the world. Since the opening of the first andel’s hotel in 2002, VI has opened three further hotels of this brand.Ten years ago, in 2002, the first andel’s Hotel opened in the modern and lively commercial district of Anděl in the centre of Prague. The neighbourhood gave its name to a brand that would soon be exported to Poland (Cracow and Łódź) and Germany (Berlin). The successful design concept, bearing the mark of British architects and interior designers Jestico+Whiles and managed by Vienna International Hotels & Resorts, looks back: nearly 1,300 andel’s rooms and 2,600 andel’s beds are transporting the Prague-based success story out into the world.
James Dilley, Associate Director of Jestico + Whiles, is proud to have been part of the design team that helped to create the andel’s hotel brand 10 years ago: “Sense of place is important, and our contemporary design makes use of subtle references to the tradition of Bohemian glass manufacture, with a modern emphasis on style and comfort, so we used it in glowing, jewel-like boxes carved into roughly split locally quarried limestone. We designed the reception desk as a floating block of honed stone, the staircase as a flying ramp and the rooms as extremely comfortable, warm and reviving. Now, 10 years later, we are delighted that the concept for a new way of living is still fresh, optimistic and refreshing.”
It did not take long for the successful concept to receive several awards: the andel’s Hotel Prague won the FX International Design Award 2002 shortly after its grand opening, it was chosen into the TOP 100 Luxury Hotels in the World for the Travellers’ Choice Award in 2006 and 2007, and it received the TripAdvisor® Travellers’ Choice™ Award 2008. Many more awards followed for the other three andel’s as well, such as the European Hotel Award and the Design Hotel Award for the andel’s in Łódź and the honour of being selected Poland’s Trendiest Hotel for the andel’s Cracow.
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