In an age where hotel guests take self-guided Internet tours and make click-and-book reservations, hoteliers are beginning to understand that they may only have a few minutes to turn browsers into buyers.

As newer hotels crowd onto the Prague market, the need to showcase sleek, modern design is becoming critical for existing hotels that want to stay competitive. In spite of the fact that the Mövenpick Hotel Prague has been on the scene less than a decade, the international chain has been giving its interior a facelift in order to stay as appealing as the younger upstarts. The five-star hotel located on Smíchov Hill near Anděl in Prague 5 has been undergoing renovations since 2003. This year alone, the Mövenpick has spent a total of 900,000 euros ($1.1 million/26.6 million Kč) on renovation — and it doesn't plan to stop there. Improvements are expected to continue into 2007.

"With the new competition, we tried updating the look to keep up with what's going on," says Martina Podlipná, Mövenpick's marketing and quality coordinator, as she walks through a part of the hotel that has yet to be renovated. "For its age it looks quite nice."

Her comment is thrown out off-handedly but reveals the unspoken truth that in hotel years, a decade may as well be a century.

When the Mövenpick opened in 1996, its interior was a reflection of the times — an orgy of greens, yellows and oranges jumbled into cluttered patterns. But times have changed and so have the trends. Even the custom-made Mövenpick cable car, which shuttles people between the hotel's two buildings, was not enough of a hook to lure prospective guests away from the newer locales.

More and more, according to Podlipná, hotels are moving to a modern theme that puts emphasis on simple design, in which a single color influences a particular space.

Just beyond the Mövenpick lobby, this modern style is incorporated in a striking way. The redesigned lobby bar is dominated by a rich red color, which holds court over all the other elements in the room, from the tables to the napkins.

The hotel restaurant draws a clean cream color as its inspiration. Throughout other renovated parts of the hotel, hardwood has replaced carpet and leather has replaced rattan. Glass paintings by Czech artist Radim Vejvoda hang from the walls, giving the room accents while maintaining its smooth design.

Fortunately for the Mövenpick, the modern style fits well with the building that contains it. The hotel shows hints of the streamline moderne style, a descendant of art deco, itself an early form of modernism. "It does no good to force a style on a structure that wasn't built to accommodate it," Podlipná says.

One trademark of streamline moderne is the use of lighting behind colored glass. This feature is employed with striking effect throughout the Mövenpick's renovated areas, including the hotel's new fitness center, where light is filtered through monochromatic plates that run up the staircase.

Podlipná says the renovation has been a protracted process for two reasons. First, there is an inherent difficulty with redesigning a fully operating hotel. Guests don't want to hear the noise of construction, but that noise cannot be avoided.