Hotel Review: Hotel Sacher Wien (Vienna), Austria.

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Overview

As always when looking to book a hotel, my first go to place is Leading Hotels of the World (https://www.lhw.com) - there were two LHW hotels in Vienna; Hotel Grand Wien and Hotel Sacher Wien. The Sacher Wien seemed the better location right opposite the Opera House and was rated higher on TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com) at #9 (out of 372, on traveller ranked basis) vs the Grand Wien at #46. I had hoped Vienna would have snow but unfortunately for the few days we were there, there was none albeit having clearly snowed on the day we arrived.

I do think it would be so much better for the hotel to have the reception desk located at the main entrance (rather than the concierge desk) as it would be much more welcoming. If anyone has stayed at the Café Royal (https://www.hotelcaferoyal.com) in London before and after the reception area was relocated, they will understand what a transformation this can have.

https://www.sacher.com/en/vienna/

Would I stay here again?   Such a great location, good service and outstanding rooms; so yes would absolutely stay again - would love to see Vienna with snow.

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Location

The hotel is located 12 miles (20 km) from the international airport - we arrived late evening as our flight was delayed, there was minimal traffic and took about 30 minutes. It’s a great central location, right opposite the famous Opera House (https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/) and only minutes from the Karlsplatz underground station (which is easy to use). Being there at Christmas time there were markets within walking distance, all of which were of a very high standard and a great selection of Christmas decorations and gifts, as well as excellent food and drink options.

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Accommodation

Overall the hotel has 150 rooms and suites. We had booked two Deluxe Rooms, having booked through LHW and having Aurelian status one was upgraded pre-arrival to having a view over to the Opera House. The other room was upgraded to the same category on arrival. Both were excellent in terms of space, facilities and cleanliness but the category does vary quite dramatically in terms of size. One room was #308 but #314 was considerably better - bigger, three large windows instead of two and a full length balcony with seating overlooking the Albertinaplatz (Albertina museum facing).

The bathroom was amazing - double sinks, deep soaking tub with a sliding glass door leading to the WC and a smallish walk-in shower (two person possible, but only just). There was an ample supply of ‘Time to Chocolate’ shower gel, shampoo and body lotion - really did smell like Lindt chocolate. Everything in the room was spotless and serviced twice a day (dust on the top of the phone in the WC however), with fluffy white towels changed daily and a very nice heated marble floor. The bathroom area was fully Carrara marble lined and was a real highlight of the room - the vanity/bath area also had a large window to the bedroom area, albeit could be closed over for additional privacy.

The bed looked like a normal sized double (or a small king), not as large as an international king size but with lovely bedding albeit we did find two single duvets a bit odd - they were warm enough, but on first glance appeared exceptionally thin. On arrival there was a small square of the famous Sacher Torte each, along with a bedtime chocolate. The room was also supplied with two small bottles of water each day and either a couple of chocolates or pastries, replenished each day. As guests of LHW you normally get a welcome gift, I’m not sure this was it albeit we did get a welcome card.
In terms of technology, there was a decent sized LCD TV in the room with accessible HDMI ports, which I really like so that I can connect an iPad for viewing Netflix etc. on a larger screen. There was also a tablet and what looked like there should have been a mobile-phone type device at the side of the bed (there was a display holder but no device, in either room) - from reading the guidance it would seem this could have given us free WiFi when out and about. WiFi in the room was free and decent speed, with no need to enter room or passcode details to log on.

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Food & Drink

Breakfast was exceptional - there was such a choice of fruit/juices (on a separate attended section of the restaurant), breads and pastries, cakes and jams etc. as well as a champagne bucket. Tea, coffee and hot chocolate was served to the table, you could also order from a very wide range of additional dishes from a menu, including all sorts of eggs with sides of bacon, tomato and beans. On the first day I didn’t get the side of tomatoes I had ordered and on the second day ‘Mrs’ ThePrivateTraveller also didn’t get bacon, despite asking twice where it was. The choice of food however was exceptional, as was service, and a real highlight each day.

We ate out at all other times from the hotel, but did (eventually) manage to reserve a table in the Blaue (Blue) Bar for drinks before going out to eat one evening. The bar had the most elaborate decoration and a really lovely room to spend an hour or so - there was an extensive menu of drinks and cocktails and light snacks were also served. The lobby area was also decorated with a very large traditional Christmas tree and wonderful decorations throughout.

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Facilities & Service

Service at breakfast (other than some missing orders) was excellent - very friendly and attentive, albeit (especially on the Sunday morning) was very busy and additional connecting ante-rooms had been opened up for additional seating. Service in the Blue Bar was excellent too.

In terms of facilities, there was a Spa (located on the 5th floor) which also had a good fitness room, sauna and steam room. I didn’t have time for any treatments during our short stay, but (as you might expect) they did offer chocolate versions. What was annoying was booking a restaurant with the Concierge - I was told they would try and book and leave a note in the room as we were going out. We came back about six hours later to find no note in our room - I phoned down to the concierge desk and they told me it was good news that the restaurant was confirmed for 8pm that evening. I immediately told the other guests we were dining at their choice of restaurant (Patara Fine Thai Cuisine, currently #116 out of a total of 3,670 restaurants in Vienna), only to find that Concierge phoned back 10 minutes later to advise there had been confusion and the restaurant was actually full and they had given us the wrong message. It was immediately after this that I noticed there was a quick “vote” button on the in room tablet to indicate a positive, neutral or negative view of your stay. Having had a poor welcome on arrival and then misleading confirmation of the restaurant reservation, at that point the view was neutral. On coming back from dinner there was a personal note from the hotel recognizing the neutral impression and to let them know if anything could be done to improve the situation.

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ThePrivateTraveller’s top tips (any areas for improvement?)

• Welcome on arrival - the bellman on duty when we arrived completed ignored us in favour of another couple that arrived at the same time - didn’t even acknowledge us and made of point of showing them to reception and take their luggage. We were just left to try and figure out where it was (and not easy to find when behind a red closed door).

• Reception being tucked away in the centre of the hotel (and behind what looked like a blast shelter door) wasn’t a highlight.

• Wait until the afternoon before supplying the rooms with chocolates - bizarrely on our day of departure (with confirmed late check-out to 4pm) there was a cake delivered to one of the rooms marked “for the new guests”. Came back after breakfast to find water and chocolates had been replenished but without the room having been serviced.

• Make guests aware in advance by a quick email, as I’ve had elsewhere (or at least when checking in) that local restaurants are going to be incredibly busy and difficult to get reservations.

ThePrivateTraveller’s absolute highlights:

• Location - can’t be faulted

• Breakfast - wow factor each morning 

• Room standard - everything was such high quality with exceptional cleanliness

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Useful website links:

• Hotel Sacher Wien https://www.sacher.com/en/vienna/

• Hotel Sacher Salzburg (another great sister hotel) https://www.sacher.com/en/salzburg/

• Leading Hotels of the World https://www.lhw.com/hotel/Hotel-Sacher-Wien-Vienna-Austria

• Spanish Riding School https://www.srs.at/en/

• Schönbrunn Palace https://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/

• Albertina Museum https://www.albertina.at/en/

• Hotel Café Royal London https://www.hotelcaferoyal.com

• Vienna International Airport https://www.viennaairport.com/en/passengers

• Lauda Motion Airline https://www.laudamotion.com/la/en/

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