Flooded Prague hotel stays shut

Prague's Four Seasons hotel will stay closed for at least six months, and perhaps longer, following the city's floods in August, it emerged last week.

The 162-bedroom hotel, which opened in February 2001, was badly hit when flood water came through the ventilation system and destroyed much of the equipment in the basement, such as heavy-duty sheet cleaners. Also damaged was the Belgian oak wall panelling at the hotel, which takes six months to order, prepare and put in place.

The floods were a gloomy baptism for the hotel's new general manager, Rene Beauchamp, who had arrived from New York's Four Seasons just a week before the flood hit. Despite efforts to protect the hotel, which included installing a steel barrier in front of it and accepting the help of guests to pile up sandbags, the overflowing of the drainage system made it all in vain.

Sales and marketing director Andrew Farnfield took comfort from the fact that the hotel was fully insured, including an arrangement to cover staff salaries for up to two years while repairs are carried out. The hotel has called in a specialist US flood repair company to manage the reconstruction.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 12-18 September 2002