Hotel Erzherzog Johann

“Could be so much better”

We booked this because it was part of the Vita Alpina chain of franchised hotels that we've used before, all of which have promoted wellness (well being) but also been quite stylish. Our room was very drab with very unfashionable orange carpets which made it feel very dated (it was refurbished in 2… more

We booked this because it was part of the Vita Alpina chain of franchised hotels that we've used before, all of which have promoted wellness (well being) but also been quite stylish. Our room was very drab with very unfashionable orange carpets which made it feel very dated (it was refurbished in 2007 and must have looked out of date then). The type of furniture, curtains and even the tiles on the balcony floor all looked dated. It was however pretty clean apart from a huge cobweb on the frame of the balcony door near the floor. The bathroom was OK. Anyway I will stick to the facts and avoid opinion; The geraniums on the balconies as shown in the images on Tripadvisor were not present at all on the side of the hotel looking out to the valley - this is the side with the premium view. The ledges where they normally go were there but not one was used - if you walk around Schenna you will see most hotels have got them. I've never been to a hotel before where I haven't been asked within a few mins of sitting down at breakfast if I want a drink but this was the case on each of the three mornings we stayed. I've also never been to a hotel before that doesn't have "do not disturb signs" on the doors - I might be wrong but this suggests that the management don't want you to choose when the room is made up which kind of sums the place up. We went for half board and the food was good but serving time of 1830-2000 wasn't ideal. Likewise breakfast until 10am was a little bit early compared to some hotels. Also there a lot of hotels in the area that do half board, also offer an afternoon buffet free of change but this one doesn't. Rooms on the front overlooking the valley get very hot on sunny summer evenings and there is no air conditioning, we had to leave the main door open to get a draft in. The free wifi was very fast. The staff (who weren't part of the family that owns the hotel...) were by and large excellent, and Mario and Lea stood out for being particularly helpful and polite. Overall could have been worse but for not much extra you can get a significantly more luxurious experience in Schenna as we did for the next 4 days...

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