Hotel Thermal can host a congress of up to 2,000 participants, a gala dinner for 250 or a workshop for 20 around a U-shaped table. The hotel stands in Karlovy Vary, the spa town in the west of the Czech Republic, close to the colonnades and the historic center, and it combines its conference halls with 273 rooms and suites, restaurants and a thermal wellness center in the same complex.
Seminars and company events
The hotel lists more than a dozen halls and lounges, from the Great Hall with 1,148 seats down to three cinema halls of 50 seats each. That range lets an organiser run a plenary session, parallel breakout groups and a cocktail reception without leaving the building. The Conference Hall, a circular room 22 meters across with its own stage, takes 250 people in theatre style, 120 in classroom and 100 at banquet tables. The Congress Auditorium, with 250 to 350 seats, can be connected to the Conference Hall or to the Small Hall when a program needs more room. A 750-square-meter exhibition area serves sponsors and poster sessions, and the hotel has 300 parking spaces. The events team can also arrange decoration, flowers, photography and activities alongside the main program.
Rooms and capacities
The Great Hall is an oval cinema hall of 1,135 square meters with a stage 22 meters wide whose height can be adjusted, served by a foyer and vestibule of about 750 square meters. The Small Hall seats 243 and has a 50-square-meter stage, sound and lighting equipment and air conditioning. For receptions, the Conference Lobby takes 250 at tables or 300 standing. The Moser Lounge, with a covered terrace, holds 80 in theatre style or 50 at dinner, and its roof terrace adds space for 100 standing. Smaller sessions fit in Festival Lounge I and II, with 40 and 50 seats, and in Red Lounge I and II, with 60 and 30 seats, which can be combined. The east and west roof terraces add 2,800 square meters in all.
Accommodation
The hotel has 273 rooms and suites, and the venue states accommodation for more than 500 people, so most delegates of a mid-sized congress can sleep on site. Guests can use the Thermal Wellness Center, a spa, a pool and a fitness room, as well as the outdoor pools and sauna world of Saunia.
Catering
Catering is handled in-house and covers the whole day: breakfast, coffee breaks, lunch, dinner, buffets and cocktail receptions. The building houses a restaurant serving Czech and international cooking, the Film Café lobby bar and a summer terrace.
History and setting
The hotel was built between 1968 and 1977 to a design by the architects Věra and Vladimír Machonin, chosen through an architectural competition. Its concrete volumes mix Brutalism and the International Style, and the complex was planned from the start as a festival center, a hotel and a thermal spa. Since its opening in 1977 it has been the central venue of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, whose opening and closing ceremonies take place in the Great Hall.
Getting there
The hotel is at I. P. Pavlova 2001/11 in Karlovy Vary. The town has its own railway station and a regional airport, and Prague is roughly two hours away by road.
