Austria Hotel

I read a number of very negative reviews on a number of websites prior to spending a week at the Hotel Austria, which caused me to be very worried about what to expect. However, my husband and I had a lovely holiday and would definately stay at the Hotel again. The owners,the Steiner Family, are very much present and involved with the running of the hotel, and appeared to work very hard to maintain the high standards of service and accommodation that they clearly pride themselves upon. Some of the staff appear a little stern / reserved, but I think this is down to their lack of English,the cultural differences, and their focus on the job in hand (their English is a whole lot better than my German!). We had no difficulties with the staff, who were helpful, polite and very efficient.

Our room, a family suite in the Steiners Residence accross the road, was furnished to a very high standard and was very clean. The bath was large and deep with plenty of hot water - just what you need after a day on the slopes. The beds were very comfortable, contrary to what i read in advance in reviews! Staying in the Steiners Residence meant that we had to walk across the road or through the underground car park into the main hotel building for meals and services, but it was closer to the slopes allowing us to ski-in and ski-out, had it's own, quiter, boot / ski room, and felt more private and independent. Swings and Roundabouts!

The walk through the corridors to the fabulous spa area is long, whether you are in the main building or in the Steiners Residence. It is located in the Bellevue Hotel next door, which is also owned by the Steiner family, but is very much a part of the Hotel Austria. However, guests in the Steiners Residence have access to lockers in the spa area so that they don't need to go to the spa in their swim suits and robes, as is expected of other guests (this appears to but a custom in Austria). There is a changing room.

The Restaurant serves extremely high quality food - at least 5 courses each night, sometimes 6 or 7! The breakfasts are good and plentiful, although there is no "cooked breakfast" other than boiled eggs. There is also an afternoon snack after 3pm in the bar, such as soup, cakes, sausages, etc - there really is no need to buy lunch if you stuff yourself at breakfast and come back for your afternoon snack!

The negative reviews I have read must be the exception to the rule - everyone we spoke to at the hotel was enjoying themselves and would return again.

I will start with the positive, the food is good, the staff in general are very welcoming and friendly. I am afraid that is it !

Before I address the biggest problem with the hotel, the manager, there are some smaller disappointing gripes I would like to mention, firstly there is no water with dinner or breakfast, if you want to have water with your meal and the expensive (and not particularly good) house wine you have to pay €5 a bottle. Secondly afternoon tea, should be renamed afternoon snack, it is not worth making the effort for and does not include tea, coffee, water or juice for children.

With regards too the swimming facilities, they are reasonably pleasant, however to use the facilities you must wear the hotel slippers and robe, which of course is another cost, you have to pay for the loan of the items.

This brings me on to some of the health and safety matters, the slippers you have to pay to borrow for the pool are dangerous, you are more likely to break something trying to walk in these than on the slopes or on the drive away/ entrance to the locker room of the hotel, unavoidable lethal areas.

All of the above wouldn't be so bad and could be overlooked if it wasn't for the rude, unhelpful, quite abusive and frankly racist manager Simone (family member of the hotel owner). I could list a number of quotes, such as "a buffet for you greedy English' , to inform us there was to be some carol singing she shouted at us "shut up, don't be stupid for 10 minutes", her response to no hot water was, "Oh well, you only have one more night" and I could go on the list is endless.......

Make no mistake there was no translation difficulties, she is just terrible! If everything else in the hotel was totally perfect, you might even overlook her but it is not.

There are only two reasons to stay in this hotel, if you are a sado masochist and like to be verbally abused or if you make a career out of creating legal disputes, plenty of place to break a leg!

(This is not something condone or I would bother doing)

My advise is visit Obergurgl, just stay any where but the Austria or the Bellevue. Plenty of other lovely, honest hotels.

After a fantastic time in Obergurl last march we decided to have Christmas there.We booked the Bellevue because it was close to the slopes and friends had stayed in the Austria ,it's sister hotel and were very satisfied.Our Christmas was something we were all looking forward to but the Bellevue proprietress managed to ruin it with her downright rudeness.She even had one of the waitresses in tears!For a 4 star hotel she had 2 star PR skills and would benefit from taking lessons from her staff who were all super.

One of our main gripes was that jugs of tap water were not on the table at dinner.We spent plenty of money on wine and drinks at the bar so to be ripped off with €5 bottled water was unacceptable.Our hotel in March happily put tap water out for us,also a 4 star.The path outside the ski locker to the road was lethal with black ice and we had several falls.When one of us asked something to be done ( even offered to put sand herself ) she almost got her head bitten off.Another person asked to pay her bill and was rudely asked why she couldn't of settled on the previous evening...........I could go on and on.

My final comment is Book anywhere but there !

Mrs V Boufidis

Unfortunately, we can fully understand prior complaints about the behaviour of the owner's family. They are unfriendly and indifferent. Good staff, like waiters, are treated very rude and it is not much better with guests...

Due to the location of the Hotel, it can not be recommended for families with children between 3 - 6.

Apart from that, the Hotel is connected to slopes, has a very good SPA and a good cuisine.

Anyhow, due to the arrogance of the owners, we would chose another Hotel next time we come to Obergurgl.

I have just returned from the hotel Bellevue in Obergurgl.

The hotel is very traditional in decoration and style, The standard rooms were okay and bathroom extremely dated, with no bath!

The swimming pool facilities were excellent, the outdoor pool is outstanding, very hot with splending views. The only downfall was, it attracts a lot of children, and after a long day skiing, we wanted to relax in the swimming pool, but couldnt, because the children were always quite unruly and bringing snow in to the pool etc.

I believe a lot of others staying at this hotel, and myself thought that the indoor pool should be reserved for children, but to keep the outdoor pool adult only.

Just a warning, if you have to go to reception, you will have to wait a long time to get anyones attention, and to be served. It looks like the owner multitasks, and is receptionsist/manager/waiting.

The house wine is 25 euros! which is scandelous, and a small coke 2euros 50c

The location is pretty good, you can carry your skis a small distance and then ski down to the lift.

For your afternoon lunch, I recommend the madelaine hotel's italian restaurant called restaurante romatica, fantastic food! also david's hutte which is a mountain restaurant at the bottom of a blue run.

We are looking to go back to Obergurgl next year, but I dont think we will be re booking for the Bellevue, We didnt find the hotel very good value for money and prefered the Josl, which is more central and same price.

Fairly smart 4* hotel up a short slope close to the centre of the village. Very clean and comfortable, staff helpful and spoke fairly good English.

We had evening meals in the sister hotel, the Austria, (reached through a short tunnel) and the food was superb, though the wine prices a bit steep I thought.

Go for a south facing room if you can, the views are much better.

*** THE HOTEL STILL HAS OUR LUGGAGE ***

Unfortunately, a super holiday (the first my partner & I haven taken together) has been severely marred by the fact that hotel removed our suitcase from the reception whilst we were awaiting our transfer back to the airport & to date (over 2 weeks later) our case has still not been returned.

We cannot get in contact with the hotel at all to request our property be returned & our tour operator, Crystal Ski (part of the TUI group) deny all responsibility.

If you want to take a holiday where you are sure to return with all your luggage, I would not recommend the Belle Vue or the Austria (owned by the same people)!

The hotel is situated up a hill about 5 minutes walk off the main street of the resort.

Access to and from the ski slopes is very convenient - almost immediately opposite the front of the hotel.

Despite concerns following what we had read in earlier reports that the owners and staff were not very friendly, this was far from our experience.

We found this hotel to be one of the friendliest we have stayed at in Austria over the last 20 years! The staff were always very courteous and friendly, and very ready to help with any request or question.

The owners who run the hotel are present at most times of the day, which we think is always a good sign. Like the staff, we found that they were always happy to stop for a brief chat and would often enquire whether everything was OK.

Our bedroom was quite spacious, very comfortable and exceptionally clean, as was the rest of the hotel. The bathroom was modern, of a decent size and everything was in perfect order.

The hotel's bar and lounge is well furnished in traditional style, with plenty of seating areas to relax in at the end of the day.

The dining room is similarly well laid out in attractive Tyrol/Austrian wood decor that provides a cosy atmosphere at meal times.

The food and meals match the excellent standard to be found in most Austrian 4 star hotels, and the daily menu offers a reasonable choice of attractive and well-presented dishes.

All-in-all, a very pleasant place to stay when on holiday in this beautiful country.

We only booked 3 nights in this hotel in order that we could experience Obergurgl, with our main holiday in Seefeld. We checked out after 2 nights though. The hotel is very dark with the childrens play room, leisure facilities including swimming pool all located underground. This unfortunately created a rather oppressive atmosphere. It was however, very clean and the menu was acceptable without being great. We did not feel at all welcome though by the manageress.Whether she objects to families staying in her hotel or she was upset that we only booked in for 3 nights I don't know, but we wouldn't go there again. Austria is full of charming family run hotels - this unfortunately is not one of them.

I was disappointed with our stay at the Austria.

While it is well situated at the base of the slopes and has excellent leisure facilities, we found our bedrooms to be dark and outdated. I am aware that some rooms must have been refurbished as our room bore no resemblance to the lovely room shown in the brochure/website. Food was good however on occasion dinner was a little rich for our tastes. The staff were kind and accommodating but the Manageress was abrupt to the point of rudeness, she was very unhelpful on arrival and this did not improve throughout our stay.

The Austria is not a cheap option and I would prefer to spend my money where my family is made to feel welcome and my business is appreciated.