Heritage Hotel — Hotel in Hallstatt

Waiter named "Gyorgy" from the Cafe & Bar was absolutely the rudest and most racist waiter I've met. In all my years of travels, this has to be the most shocking, appalling, unpleasant experience ever at a dining establishment.

Let me share the factual account of what happened when we arrived at Heritage Hotel’s restaurant before I share my thoughts on the incident.

My husband and I were on our honeymoon trip and arrived at the restaurant at 7pm (we were guests of the hotel btw, and decided to dine at their restaurant for dinner).

We were greeted by Gyorgy with a “Good evening”. We responded back with our greetings as well. I said “Hi”, followed up with “do you have a table for 2?” and my husband greeted him with a “Good evening”.

Gyorgy then repeated himself again with “Good evening”. At this moment, both my husband and I were a little confused but we didn’t think much of it and he, being the one who was standing closer to Gyorgy, responded with “Good evening”.

To our shock, Gyorgy once again repeated himself with another “Good evening”, and his tone and non-verbal expressions were as if we did not reply to his earlier greetings to his satisfaction.

We were upset at this point but both my husband and I just responded with another round of “Good evening”, this time from the both of us, and he showed us to our table.

My husband and I were angry, bewildered but decided to ask Gyorgy on why he repeated himself so many times in hope that he had a good reason for that and that we were not going to be angry at him unfairly.

His reply was that because he said good evening to us and we did not greet him back, to which we replied that we did and elaborated how I said hi, and my husband said good evening. He then said that one of us did not say good evening. He had the tone of a proud and arrogant man throughout as if he was right and we were wrong.

We were totally flabbergasted with his reply and attitude and decided to leave, to which he said to us ‘Fine, it’s okay. You can go’, again with that huge arrogance and condescending tone. Of course, we left and went to another restaurant nearby of Seehotel Gruner Baum which treated us as any restaurant should, and we had a very pleasant experience there.

That was the factual account. This is simply preposterous for any place who wish to treat their customers/guests, as their customers/guests. I infer that he demanded that we both greet him “Good evening”. But what kind of expectation is that? And so what even if we did not? We still did greet him, which we felt had nothing wrong at all as it wasn’t rude or disrespectful in both language, tone, and body language.

The hotel stay and the service at the concierge was totally fine. They were all good. But for this experience we had at the restaurant, I’d have given a 0...

This place is probably the best in Hallstatt (haven't stayed at all of them). This hotel has three separate buildings, and we stayed in the main building, right across from where the ferry docks on one of the two main squares. I thought it'd be noisy, and mentioned this concern to the receptionist, and she just kind of laughed and said don't worry- noise is not a problem in Hallstatt after about 6 pm (when all the daytrippers leave). The main building is the most modern of the three, and is where the restaurant is, and where the buffet breakfast is served. The other two are higher up on the hill away from the water front. One of them looked older, more like it belonged in the village, and quite romantic.|Our room was extremely comfortable despite some quite warm days. At night it cools off and as mentioned is extremely quiet (and surprisingly bug-free) so you can open windows. |Our room had a small balcony and overlooked the lake. The view was one of the most beautiful of any hotel we've stayed at in Europe. The other two buildings looked like they also have great views. It's obvious why Hallstatt is so popular. The entire village is like out of a story book.|Bed was extremely comfortable and all sheets and towels were clean and fresh. Best drinking water you could want right out of the tap. Plenty of hot water. There was a fridge in the room, great for cooling off drinks from the grocery store at the other end of town (about a 15 minute walk).|Service at the hotel was excellent. Extremely friendly receptionists helped us plan day trips and gladly answered questions about all local transportation.|The restaurant was excellent, with definitely the best views of the lake in the whole village of any of the "nice" restaurants. Dinners there are pricier than most other restaurants in town but food quality was quite good and the service very friendly and efficient. However, the 5 euro per person "cover charge"- this is on top of the regular service charge included in most Austrian hotels- seemed stiff, even given the location and beauty of the restaurant. There were other nice places in town that had this charge, but it was only half.|The buffet breakfast was absolutely fantastic. A huge variety of breakfast (and lunch) foods. Hot eggs, breakfast meats, dried hams and salamis, yogurts, cereals, breads, etc. A delicious tray of hot grilled vegetables were probably the healthiest thing we ate in four days in Hallstatt.|This hotel was pricier than others "nice" hotels we looked at, by about 25-50 euro a night, but we felt it was...

I am writing to formally express my disappointment regarding our recent stay at Heritage Hotel Hallstatt. Given the reputation of your property and the premium rates charged, we had expected a comfortable, welcoming, and well-managed experience. Unfortunately, what we encountered was far from satisfactory.

Upon arrival at Hallstatt, we were instructed to get down at the station. To our surprise, there was no shuttle service available to pick us up. When we contacted your staff for assistance, Ms. Carla was extremely rude and dismissive over the phone. Instead of arranging any immediate solution, she informed us that we would need to wait for one to two hours, which was highly inconvenient and disappointing. Ultimately, we had to arrange and pay for a taxi ourselves.

The problems did not end there. At check-in, Ms. Carla’s attitude was once again unprofessional—she was rough, arrogant, and showed no willingness to assist us. Despite the fact that we had booked three rooms well in advance, she was unwilling to accommodate our request for rooms on the same floor. Thankfully, Ms. Julia intervened, and with her kind and professional approach, she managed to arrange two rooms together. We greatly appreciated her effort and courtesy, which stood in stark contrast to Ms. Carla’s behavior.

Throughout our stay, however, Carla continued to show a lack of basic hospitality and attentiveness whenever we approached her for assistance. Such disregard is unacceptable in a hotel that charges a significant amount for accommodation.

Adding to our disappointment, the rooms provided were unclean and poorly maintained. We found cobwebs and dust, which gave us the impression that proper housekeeping and upkeep standards were not being followed. This lack of cleanliness made our stay extremely uncomfortable and far below the standards one would expect from a reputed hotel in a destination like Hallstatt.

Due to these reasons, we made the decision to cut short our holiday and check out one day earlier than planned. It is deeply regrettable that what was supposed to be a memorable holiday in Hallstatt was spoiled because of the poor service, unfriendly attitude, and inadequate maintenance at your hotel.

As paying guests who chose Heritage Hotel Hallstatt with high expectations, we feel that the quality of service and accommodation we received was not at all in line with the premium rates charged.

We hope you will take this feedback seriously and address these issues to ensure that future guests do not go through a...