The renovated pools of the Thermal hotel will open to the public on Sunday

Karlovy Vary - The reconstructed pools of the Karlovy Vary hotel Thermal will open to the public on Sunday. Vladimír Novák, the hotel director, told ČTK today. According to initial plans, the pools were supposed to be accessible to the public last Sunday. Then Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced an opening for today, the day before the start of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. However, the opening has likely been delayed by construction work and final adjustments.

According to Novák, the occupancy permit for the repaired pools has already been completed, and the hotel is now handing over the pools to the operator, which will be the company Saunia. They will also operate the adjacent sauna center, which is still under construction. The new operator still needs to install their hardware and software in the pool center, Novák told ČTK today.

The reconstruction of the state-owned hotel and pool center has been influenced by the coronavirus pandemic. However, the hotel is largely repaired and has been welcoming guests again since the second half of June. The follow-up reconstruction of the pools and the future sauna center is expected to be completely finished by autumn. The pools, one for swimming and one for relaxation with mineral water, should welcome their first visitors on Sunday, August 22.

Hotel Thermal was built in the second half of the 1970s based on the architectural design of Věra and Vladimír Machonin for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The reconstruction, which started last year, is expected to cost around 580 million crowns according to the original specification, with the state contributing 300 million crowns as an investment in the hotel’s equity. The project also received an additional 148 million crowns for energy savings from the State Environmental Fund, with the remainder covered by a loan.

In July this year, the government decided to increase the hotel’s equity further by 300 million crowns to 1.1 billion crowns. The reason was the drop in revenue due to the pandemic, rising construction costs, and unexpected expenses related to the hotel’s modernization - such as the need for the disposal of hazardous substances and the necessity to remediate emergency metal structures.