About The Hotel Forum Warsaw

About the Hotel Forum that was at the Warsaw Centrum.

The Hotel Forum, long a tradition and landmark in Warsaw, Poland’s Centrum is no more.

It has been replaced by Novotel.

The Hotel Forum, Warsaw had a long history in Poland. It was one of those places that was a primary place to stay during the days of communism and during the early 1990’s as Poland worked through the intial efforts of transition to a market based economy.

Rumor’s were rampant that the rooms were bugged so that the Communist secret services could listen to what foreignors were talking about. And even after the fall of communism it was rumored that the bugs were still being used.

It was one of the only places in Warsaw from which you could send a fax. And you could also make international phone calls – provided you stood in line for some time to wait your turn.

In short it was a communist hold over. In the early days of transition, the restaurant service was advanced communist. The food was good but served in that drab way and at the low service level typical of the times. That changed with time like everything else.

The lobby bar had its fair share of Russian “business women” in those days. They did a lot of business.

As the country changed, so did the Forum. The “business women” were replaced by gift shops. The clientel shifted to a large numbers of young jewish tourists. Business men found better quarters at the newer hotels in the Centrum.

Regardless of the changes made, the Forum was the Forum. And it is history.