Hotel SPORTALMMM — Hotel in Altenmarkt im Pongau

The Altenmarkt room was nice, although the view wasn’t as spectaculair as the hotel’s website lets you believe. Garageparking was practical.||I'm not going to mention the lack of massages because the masseur left in the winter, even though the hotel website was still advertising for the summer! Nor am I going to complain about a bathroom spotlight that didn't work for a whole week. I'm not even going to complain about the absence of the famous bartender and the bland prosecco we received from the owner, Mr. Dolschek. I'm going to talk about the poor dining conditions in this (winter) hotel and the lack of (competent) restaurant staff in the summer. To be perfectly clear, this is what struck us during our stay. I can hear you asking: why did you book this hotel then? Well, if you look at the hotel website, everything looks so great, even if you read the reviews on booking.com and other sites, it all looks great. This review is unemotional, just the hard facts.||We booked an eight-day stay at this hotel in July 2025. One of the main criteria for choosing this restaurant was the many positive reviews about the dinner; comments like "culinary delight, Michelin-worthy, exceptional dinner, etc." This is also what the hotel advertises on its website: "The highlight of the day, however, comes in the evening: the menu. Pardon me, I mean: THE MENU!" Well, "the menu," and I'm being very generous, was absolutely not a culinary delight; it was more like something you would serve in grandma's (Austrian) kitchen—no finesse, no presentation, nothing with an international flavor. Dishes like: cold cucumber soup (at 12°C and rain), Viennese schnitzel, overcooked scampi (3 pieces), or a few pieces of meat in tomato sauce (called goulash), and much more. That said, the worst is yet to come: the service.||There were two waitresses, one friendly, patient, and polite (name Edit) and the other quite the opposite. We were having a five-course dinner with a salad and cheese buffet. We always have a bottle of wine with dinner, so we like to enjoy our meal at our leisure. Every time we finished a dish, it was immediately cleared and we were asked if we could have the next one. If we said yes, the next plate arrived literally a minute later, so my partner and I always asked to wait 5 to 10 minutes. This was very much to the dislike of a certain waitress and she served the next plate up after 2 minutes, never a cheerful word or a smile, nothing. Even when we passed each other in the hotel she turned away, just to avoid saying hello. On the fifth night of our stay, after we had already eaten two dishes in record time, we asked this waitress to wait 10 minutes before serving the soup, and she said, "Okay, I wait”. Two minutes later, she came with the soup and placed the plates on the table. We reacted immediately, saying that was way too early! She picked up the soup plates and said, "Okay, I'll take it back." And then she said something (I think) in Hungarian, and just by looking at her, you could tell it wasn't polite! We were stunned and absolutely not amused. We immediately called the owner and said we wanted to speak to him the next morning. The next morning, we explained to Mr. Dolschek everything we'd experienced over the past five dinners: about Grandma's kitchen, the incidents with the waitress (named Zsuzsa), and we made it clear that this waitress was no longer welcome at our table. Regarding the kitchen problems, Mr. Dolschek told us that his nephew (the chef) was on vacation and that no replacement chef had shown up, and that another one didn't meet the requirements and had been fired. Mr. Dolschek then told us that his niece (Liesl) was now cooking in the kitchen. Liesl is the hotel's arrival and departure coach! We now understand why we hadn't had a culinary delight! I'm convinced we were the only customers aware of this situation. But then the bombshell hit us, and we knew it was a lost cause. Mr. Dolschek told us that this waitress (Zsuzsa) had been his partner for the past 10 years! He couldn't believe his girlfriend was acting that way, because she also wants the best for the hotel, and then he apologized on her behalf. Clearly the case was closed for Mr Dolschek and we, the customers, well we just had to accept this I guess.||For Mr Dolschek the case was closed, but for his girlfriend it cleary wasn’t!||That same evening, at the restaurant, we were confronted by the presence of the waitress and several friends or family members having dinner at the table across from us! They were loud and exuberant, really trying to provoke us. They were constantly watching us to see how we would react; we'd never experienced anything like that before. And Mr. Dolschek, well, he stood there and watched, how beautiful love can be. Not a good move commercially, but hey, what the heck, there will be new customers next week anyway, right Mr Dolschek?||The next morning my wife and I took some luggage and coats to the car in the hotel garage, as we were leaving the next day. Suddenly, a side door of the garage opened, and Mr. Dolschek walked in with a stupid plastic bag in his hands and asked, "So, where are you going”? Clearly under the impression that we were leaving the hotel without paying our bill. REALLY??? Again, we'd never experienced anything like that before!||The next morning we left Sportalmmm and I never thought I would say this, but I was happy to leave. Never...

Desværre kommer denne anmeldelse noget sent, da man ikke kan anmelde med mindre end 3 mdr mellem tidligere anmeldelse af samme hotel. Anyway, det var vores prebooking oplevelser, her kommer selve opholdet. ||Valget af Sportalm skyldes flg. ||Gourmet, WiFi, røgfrit og welness. Det var vigtigt at vi kunne booke en hel "pakke" ski området. Pauschale inkl. Halvpension, afternoon Snack (Jause) og liftkort inkl.||Maden er absolut fantastisk. Morgenbuffet er mere end "Reichhaltig" som de siger i Østrig. ||Aftenmenuen består af 7 retter inkl. salatbuffet og ostebuffet, der vælges suppe, hovedret og dessert fra menukort ved morgenmaden. ||Eftermiddags snack er ren hygge og ganske varieret. Man kan springe denne over, men på den anden side, så ville vi hellere snuppe en hurtig suppe i det fri, og vende hjem til den hyggelige dagligstue med udsigten til pisterne, for at indtage vores eftermiddags drink(s).||Værtsparret er usnobbede, der hersker en familiær og humoristisk atmosfære og alle er super profesionelle og top service mindet. ||Værelserne er skønne, her er rent og luft til loftet, dele af hotellet er tilbygget men alt er holdt i en rustik men dog meget moderne stil. WiFi fungerede fint på 3. sal, hvor vi havde en værelse Zauchensee på 24 m2 med udsigt mod pisterne, man kan spare lidt mønt ved at booke uden balkon, men så ligger rummene mod "bjergsiden" ||I værelset findes badekåbe og slippers til det daglige dampbad- eller saunabesøg, der foregår i den dejlige welness afdeling, som findes i kælderen, heldigvis kan man komme her til med elevator. I kælderen findes desuden ski kælder samt ski opbevarings rum. Her er masser af siddeplads til alle gæster, hvilket ofte plejer at være mangel på mange hoteller. Har man lyst til et slag bordtennis findes her desuden et bordtennis bord. ||Tilbage til welness.. Masser af rene håndklæder, shampoo eller showergel og te bar står til fri afbenyttelse, ønsker man kolde alkoholfrie drikkevarer så findes disse på køl, og her noterer man bare hvis man tager for sig af skabets indhold. ||Man kan bestille massage og andre terapi former i receptionen, hvor man også køber mønt til det mindre spabad i welnessafdelingen. ||Vi kan varmt anbefale dette hotel der som mange andre hoteller ligger midt i Zauchensee's fantastiske ski område, her er ikke langt til børnebakken fra parkeringskælderen, der leder til og fra skikælderen. Ved godt skiføre som der oftest er i Zauchensee, vil man kunne glide meget af turen fra og til hotellet. ||Vi glæder os til vores andet ophold...

Wir waren im Juni übers Wochenende im Hotel.

Gleich zu Beginn waren wir sehr erfreut: Als wir das Hotel betreten wollten, war draußen eine schöne Tafel aufgestellt, darauf ein Begrüßungstext mit unserem Namen.

Nachdem wir das Hotel betreten hatten, wurden wir auch von der Rezeptionistin und eigentlich auch Managerin/Bedienung herzlich empfangen (eine Allround-Frau). Wir haben sie in der kurzen Zeit unseres Aufenthaltes sehr lieb gewonnen.

Was noch sehr cool war: Wir wurden trotz später Stunde an einen sehr schön angerichteten Tisch gebracht, wo wir ein exzellentes 4-Gänge-Menü genießen durften, obwohl eigentlich keine Abendbrotzeit mehr war.

Später kam dann auch der Hotelchef zurück von Besorgungen. Dieser war ebenfalls sehr höflich. Noch beim Essen konnten wir bei ihm einchecken und die Formalitäten klären.

Es war wirklich sehr angenehm, wie mit uns umgegangen wurde.

Nach unserem Dinner gingen wir auf unser Zimmer. Dieses war modern eingerichtet und zudem sehr sauber. Der Schlafkomfort war auch super; wir haben über Nacht wie auf Wolken geschlafen. Zudem war es sehr ruhig, von dem Flur oder anderen Zimmern drang kein Geräusch zu uns vor.

Am besten war dann der Morgen: Man konnte bei uns auf der obersten Etage auf den Balkon gehen und direkt auf den grünen Berg mit den Kühen schauen, ein sehr toller Anblick :)

Eigentlich gibt es nichts zu bemängeln, außer dass es schön gewesen wäre, eine kostenlose Flasche Wasser im Sommer täglich aufs Zimmer zu bekommen, was in anderen Hotels eigentlich Standard ist.

Außerdem hätte ich mir eine Abtrennung auf dem Balkon zu unseren Nachbarn gewünscht. Über diesen konnte man problemlos die anderen Zimmer erreichen. Daher sollte man nachts im Sommer nicht das Fenster offen lassen. Was bei einem Zimmer ohne Klimaanlage schon schlecht ist. Wir hatten die Balkontür abgekippt, komplett geöffnet wäre aber besser gewesen.

Also würden wir uns wünschen, dass einfach eine Abtrennung zu den Balkonen installiert wird, was umweltschonender als ein nachträglicher Einbau einer Klimaanlage wäre :)

Zwischen Mittag und Abendessen gibt es auch einen Snack unten im Restaurant. Dort gab es bei uns Kaffee und Kuchen, was auch sehr lecker war.

Trotz des fehlenden Wassers und der kleinen baulichen Kritik fanden wir den Aufenthalt sehr schön und werden sicher wiederkommen und hoffen, dass das eventuell bis dahin...