Das.Goldberg

“Has it all, location, service, beautiful rooms and common areas.”

What a beautiful hotel in a beautiful location. We were promptly greeted upon arrival with Champagne and canapes. I requested a room upgrade and was shown the original and the upgraded room. Room: We did choose the upgraded room which was on the top floor-it was spectacular! It had two balcon… more

What a beautiful hotel in a beautiful location. We were promptly greeted upon arrival with Champagne and canapes. I requested a room upgrade and was shown the original and the upgraded room. Room: We did choose the upgraded room which was on the top floor-it was spectacular! It had two balconies, one overlooking the valley in front of the hotel and the other overlooking the ski slope and to the southern part of the valley. There were chairs/table and a couch with pillows on the front balcony and a hot tub with sun loungers on the side balcony. Off the side balcony was a separate "room" with a large lounge bed, small area with refrigerator and kettle, a shower, a fireplace, adjustable lighting, skylight and a sauna which came with different aromatherapy choices. We spent each evening in the hot tub and then the sauna. The bed was very comfortable and there was lots of storage for our clothes. There as a nice freestanding claw foot tub which I didn't get to use. There was also a fireplace. I love these fireplaces as they have a glass enclosure that shuts completely so no smoke gets out into the room. Spa: We did not have a good experience at the spa with massages, I received a massage and got what I equate to a rug burn on my back due to the lack of use of adequate massage lotion/oil. Otherwise the spa/pool areas a fabulous, lots of room and choices of pools/saunas. Food: I am a picky eater. The breakfast buffet was good with a lot of choices. We did not eat lunch there. Dinner was good the first two nights as our server did speak some English and we were able to communicate about the food choices so I was able to get what I liked. However, the 3rd night, which was a "special" dinner as part of our package was a disaster. We had 2 new servers and neither spoke English. I had worked out a plan with the chef earlier in the day and that seemed to have been thrown out the window. Due to the language barrier I was extremely upset and made about what was going on with our food. I did make a complaint to the front desk while we in the middle of the dinner, but all I was offered was to have the chef come to our table which I chose not to do in order to not make a public scene. I couldn't get out of there fast enough and back to our room. After a night of reflection I did realize that it was not so much the servers fault as it was the restaurant management, which I do believe was aware of what was going on but did nothing to help. There were other servers who did speak English but we were never offered their help. Upon checking out I did have a discussion with the front desk and offered up my observations regarding the previous night and what I believed to be the issue(s) so as not to put all the blame on the servers as they were really nice people. All in all, we would go back, now knowing what to expect and not expect as the case may be. This is by far one of the best hotels we have been to as far as location. service and the hotel itself.

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“Location, location, location”

The location is superb. Our suite faced the mountains on the other side of Bad Hofgastein....The view was stunning. The scene of the town was also great. I have read many of the comments made by other guests, and they do appear a little "moany". Comments about barstaff over charging and charges… more

The location is superb. Our suite faced the mountains on the other side of Bad Hofgastein....The view was stunning. The scene of the town was also great. I have read many of the comments made by other guests, and they do appear a little "moany". Comments about barstaff over charging and charges for bus trips to town. Our experience was very good. the bar staff were delightful. Pleasant, helpful and polite. the serving staff in the restaurant were also great. We stayed for 6 nights and experienced several different staff. We had no bad experiences. We got the impression that there are not many English speaking guests other than other Eastern Europeans that did not speak German. But we were never made to feel awkward because we did not speak German. The food was good and for 6 nights on the trot possibly a little too rich for our liking, but not complaints about the quality. If the stay was 2 or 3 nights the prior comment would be redundant. The wine list was excellent. Outside Germany/Austria, Austrian wines either get a bad press or are just not found except for top rated restaurants. The suite was great and had a great feel. Terrace was superb and would be better used in the warmer months. Now the elephant in the room. There were plenty of comments in reviews about the slope outside of the hotel running down to the town. It seems to be the main area for complaint about calling the hotel ski in-ski out. Yes, it is quite steep and only really for experienced skiers, but most of the guests appeared to be German where skiing is of course a basic pastime and therefore pretty skilled at the sport. It did not phase us too much as the 5 mins bus ride down to the cable car lift is easy enough. The only real issue we had was the weather the week we went was just too warm and even halfway down the mountain the snow was deep slush. At the top of the slopes the skiing was great. I guess it is a lottery this time of year. We understand 10 days later, and it was down to minus 6!! Vera - you have a lovely hotel and great staff.....

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“Great hotel but a few tweaks would make it perfect”

Overall this is a very good hotel, but a few things make it less than perfect. First, there isn’t enough comfortable, well lit seating in the rooms; there’s a big rocking chair but otherwise only a quite firmly upholstered couch with no decent back support or cushions. It’s hard to find a place ne… more

Overall this is a very good hotel, but a few things make it less than perfect. First, there isn’t enough comfortable, well lit seating in the rooms; there’s a big rocking chair but otherwise only a quite firmly upholstered couch with no decent back support or cushions. It’s hard to find a place near a light for more than one person to sit and read a book. There’s a light over the rocking chair but it’s ineffective. One night I went to read in the bar but after dark the lighting isn’t much good there either. Second, their policy on charging for using the hotel shuttle is hard to fathom. Basically you HAVE to use it as the hotel is a long way up narrow winding road from town. There’s a footpath too but that was icily treacherous. We were told the shuttle is free (a) to collect ski kit, (b) to pick up from the train station and (c) to and from the bottom of the lift. Nonetheless, some of the reception staff tried to charge 12 Euros per trip (apparently regardless of number of passengers and whether we shared with other guests) - or perhaps they were saying it was necessary to pay after 5pm or for a trip to the centre of town - we could not work it out. Anyway we ended up not paying for it at all and the guy on reception gracefully deleted the charges they had put on from our bill without us having to raise the issue on final check out. We certainly booked expecting it to be free, and that was repeated on arrival. Basically the hotel is inaccessible to guests without cars if they don’t provide a free shuttle, so why on earth don’t they clear up this muddled approach? The location of the hotel is ski in ski out, but it is on a steep and depending on snow conditions potentially very challenging red run. So better to describe it as ski out and ski in if you’re brave and competent. The snow conditions are awful at the moment and have been for a while - in fact we ended up skiing only to mid station level. The hotel staff are brilliant, helpful and friendly; the boss made a point of talking to all guests and trying to address any issues positively. The apres ski bar is great, and we liked the main bar area. The terraces would be delightful in summer, with fantastic views over the valley and town. They have very decent live music in the bar three nights a week, which we really enjoyed, each group was different style so it was a good varied programme. The food in the restaurant is good although it would be nice if there was more day to day variety in the salad bar and for breakfast; it got a bit boring after a full week. We got a taxi to and from Salzburg, but one of our party came by train which seems a very viable way to the resort from Salzburg.

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