Grand Hotel

The design and execution at The Hotel Grand are outstanding. It’s another phenomenal renovation by the Likus group of hotels, with very few places matching its architecture and attention to detail. The rooms and public areas are superb, and the spa is especially good. Service is friendly and professional, as you’d expect from a 5* hotel. One room-service order fell well short of that standard. The restaurant was empty, but when we ordered a bottle of red wine, we were told it would take 20 minutes, which was already too long. Fifteen minutes later they called to ask if we’d take a different bottle. We wanted one of the three reds on the room service menu, which should either always be available or be removed from the menu. The replacement bottle arrived 25 minutes after we ordered, and they brought one glass first, then the second five minutes later. It took half an hour to get the wrong simple order from an empty restaurant. Otherwise, excellent.

I returned to the Grand Hotel after 20 years. It used to have a wonderful atmosphere, connected to the past, with a cocktail bar full of glamorous, vibrant night birds of all kinds. Now it has shifted to a more modern feel.

The hotel is beautiful, the staff were generally kind and polite, and the wellness and spa area was one of the best parts of our stay. But New Year’s Eve was a letdown. Dinner service was extremely slow, with long gaps between courses. The party had already started while we were still waiting for dinner, so we missed a significant part of the celebration we’d paid for. For an event like this, the organization and timing need to be better. The way the dinner and celebration were managed left a negative mark on an otherwise promising stay.

Our car was left outside and got dirty, although we thought valet parking meant it would be kept indoors. The arrangement seemed questionable because other people could access the parking area, or the valet driver may have used the car personally. That concern grew when we later found a photo of our car on a car-spotting website, taken in a very unusual location. At the end of August, I stayed at Grand Hotel Łódź, and the rest of our stay was very pleasant. But valet staff damaged my iPad while parking my car. I reported it to hotel staff before we left. They handled it professionally at the time and asked me to email photos, which I sent right away. After several weeks with no word, I called. I was told my message had been forwarded to the person responsible and that I’d hear back soon. No reply came. I followed up by email and still haven’t received any response. That lack of communication isn’t acceptable, especially at a five-star hotel.