Gentle Hide Designhotel — Hotel in Salzburg

World traveller here - but first-ever hotel review because you shouldn’t ignore the bad reviews.

While some of the bad reviewers’ comments are probably exaggerated, we had a genuinely poor experience at this hotel which is run more like a B&B in some key respects rather than a boutique hotel.

Some notes for your consideration, and I hope the hotel management take this review as an opportunity to reflect and potentially improve (rather than act defensive and try and belittle me as they seem to have a track record in doing both on Google and in person):

You don’t have control over the temperature / AC in your room - the temperate in our room was stuck at a very high 25-30°C during our stay as the AC was centrally controlled by management and couldn’t be changed for individual rooms. Management’s suggestion was to open the window to let cool air in - which is obviously not feasible at night when wanting to sleep to due to street noise and risk of burglary as we were on the first floor.

Netflix was not operational on our TV - but other streaming services are.

Not drop off spots available for luggage via taxi.

If you have queries or concerns, on-site employees cannot resolve problems. Instead, management demand to arrange an in person meeting at times that suit them which means you may be expected to cancel your holiday activities for that day.

Pre-arrival self-check in was advertised as saving time on arrival and avoid discussions with staff - but this was not the case. We still had to check in like any other hotel - and the staff were slower than usual and tried to pressure us into waiting at the bar before she would check us in despite the room already been available...

Gentle Hide is a lovely boutique hotel with everything you need for a break in Salzburg. The staff were friendly and happy to advise on places to visit. ||The room was small compared to some places we have stayed in the past, but very comfortable. Let’s face it, we spend most of our days out and about so size, in this case, doesn’t matter. Coffee facilities are not provided as a matter of course but were provided upon request. This is probably because they provide access to espresso (via the bar) as part of the cost of the stay. ||Breakfast was great, plenty of choice at the buffet and you can order some additional eggs (scrambled, fried) if required. ||Location wise, the hotel is a short walk from a number of the main sites in the Altstadt (old town). If driving, they do not have parking but will give advice on where to park. My tip is to park in the Paracelsus Bad (Swimming Complex) car park, definitely the cheapest (approx €22 overnight). We tried the Mirabell Car Park on the first day we arrived and ended up my paying €40 when we picked the car up the next morning. A little tip that worked for us was that we returned from day trips after 18:00; at which point the parking around the Makartplatz (around corner from hotel), was free until 08:00; at which point I moved the car to the car park for a couple of hours while having breakfast. please note that there aren’t many spaces around Makartplatz so this may not work for you. ||We did have a minor issue while we stayed at Gentle Hide, but the measure of a good hotel is how they handle a concern. The team at the hotel, dealt with it impeccably and therefore I have no hesitation in recommending...

Lovely hotel - modern and clean! But our stay ended on a sour note with our checkout person and breakfast set up woman at 6:45 am on 9/9/25. When we asked her where the cab the arranged for us would pick us up, she pointed to the back. So we went around back - but no car could go back there. I went back in again to ask her, she ignored me for several minutes while I stood at the counter - looking directly at her while she was preparing something. The woman setting up breakfast walked past and stood behind the counter and ignored me also. I finally asked her to go ask the desk attendant to help me. Again, she just pointed in back with no specific guidance and said the cab would pick us up there. So we tried again and there was no place for a cab to drive. So my wife back in and this time the cab pulled up right out front to pick us up. We had walked back and forth three times with all of our luggage and didn’t need to do any of it. On top of that, before all of this happened, I went up to the automatic coffee machine at 6:40am - it was on and working but both the desk attendant and the breakfast lady, at the same time, said “no, it’s not ready, breakfast is at 7”. Really? $350/night and I can’t use the free coffee machine for 15 minutes and I’m leaving for the airport right now? I wouldn’t have posted this review, but I couldn’t find a way to leave a message directly for the owners. I’m not a fan of this kind of scathing review, but it was obviously too very rude employees not being helpful. Otherwise the rest of the people were super friendly and we loved the place, so that’s why I’m still giving...