Hotel Pension Haus Arenberg — Hotel in Salzburg

I have really struggled with this review. I had a number of pros and cons with Salzburg Arenburg Haus. On balance, I would say that I would not choose to stay here again. ||||First, the pros: The location is was very good for us. It is quiet and away from the traffic. Pretty long hill to walk down to the road, but manageable (about 15 minutes). The wifi is good, and there are plenty of plugs in the room. Our room had a combo shower/bath, which was nice.||||The price was very reasonable. We made our reservations about three months in advance, when no one was traveling to Europe…It turned out that we were there during the Salzburg Music Festival, and I think the prices for our same room were doubled by the time we arrived. Not sure if that had anything to do with our experience.||||My first couple of impressions were: (1) I had made a reservation 3 months earlier, when Europe wasn’t even open to tourists, and specifically requested a room with a balcony. Instead, we got a lower level room with no view at all. (There is a picture on this review page with sliding glass doors; we had nothing of the kind.) It was a nice size (king + twin bed; no sofa; two chairs with a small coffee table; decent sized bathroom), but pretty simple and a little worn. (2) No air conditioning! I know lots of places in Europe aren’t air conditioned and tried to make it a point to check; however, I (my own fault) had several hotels to book, and I missed this one. Just want to be sure others are aware in case this is important to you. ||||There really are no views from this hotel at all that I could see. We don’t spend much time in the room, so that doesn’t matter too much…but I guess I expected there would be something.||||Also, when we came into the room, it smelled to me the way nursing homes used to smell. And when I took my shoes off, I realized the carpet was damp. Perhaps there is extra disinfecting going on due to COVID, or the room had been closed up for a while due to COVID. But again, not what I was expecting given the 4-1/2* reviews on TripAdvisor. (Not that I ever expect to have wet carpet in a hotel room.)||||With the lack of air conditioning, came the need to open the windows. (Temps ranged from low 60’s at night to over 80 in the daytime.) Pro: There were screens on the windows. Con: The windows opened into the room, about 24”. Each of the two was split vertically in the middle; the two sides swung out, so there were 4 windows opening into the room, from 4-6’ feet high. I was on the side of the bed closest to the windows, so that meant I either closed the windows, or took the chance of walking into the windows, which extended to just even with my side of the bed. I hit my head on them twice during my stay.||||Water: The first night, it was fine. The second night, we literally had nothing but hot water (both shower and sink). My husband found a valve by the toilet, which could be flipped to change it to nothing but cold water; but there was no way to have both hot and cold, or warm. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.||||The bathroom has a pedestal sink, literally no space for curling iron, hairbrushes, etc.||||It was truly a B&B. The couple who owned/ran it were so nice, I hate giving it a bad review. I’m not sure if we just had an off experience, or if others rated it higher out of consideration for the owners. Or, maybe this is the just standard hotel in Salzburg? I can’t say I saw better alternatives when I was looking. It’s a small town, and maybe this is just what you get there.||||Needless to say, I was underwhelmed. Most small places let you pick your room, or at least room type (pay more for a balcony, for example), but here you just pay your money and take your chances. Did not work out well. I guess I would say, I like the hotel, but disliked...

We chose this property particularly because of the stunning views of the surrounding area from the rooms with balconies. In March 2022 I made my booking for 4 nights in a double room in June. At that point it was not made patently clear on their offering on our booking platform which rooms had a balcony or not, so I contacted the property and was advised that they had no balcony rooms left - but that we could have a suite, with balcony, for an extra €15 a night, I agreed to this and the owner confirmed, IN WRITTEN FORM, that this was organised. (Note that their website photos and format has changed since March 2022)||Imagine our crestfallen faces when we arrived and were shown to a room by the owner’s husband, it was at the rear of the property, with no character, view… or balcony. We explained that we’d arranged to have a balcony suite, to which he replied that wasn’t the case, as they were fully booked. ||The owner Gabriele subsequently arrived, and said that there’d been a mistake. The employee who had signed off the communication to us back in March in Gabriele’s name confirming we could have a suite should not have done so. So the owner, who said this ‘mistake’ had only been discovered the day before, decided to give us this apparently much larger room than we had originally booked, for which there would be no extra charge. This room: with no view, the room number stuck on the door with a post-it, bare wires coming from the walls, no balcony. We were calm and polite and expressed our deep disappointment, but it would appear there was nothing we could do - if we left and went elsewhere, we’d still have to pay Garni Haus Arenberg. We sat in stunned silence, and then came a knock on the door.||Gabriele had ‘miraculously’ found that the suite with balcony was going to be available for 3 nights and we could have it from the following day - at an inflated price of course, more than the €15 extra originally quoted back in March. She had us over a barrel, but we took her offer. Things went to plan, we packed up our things after the first night and our bags were moved to the suite, which was indeed lovely, and everything we’d hoped for in the first place. ||The suite appears to have been recently refurbished and was very well equipped. The bed was extremely comfortable and we really enjoyed relaxing in the balcony in the evening. Breakfast each morning was superb, and if the glamorous brunette lady, who was so friendly, was on duty, you were offered eggs. ||We stayed for 3 nights in the suite. At no time was our room serviced - bins remained unemptied, towels unchanged and no replenishment of loo roll. Normally we would ask about this and other things, but since the rather uncomfortable reception from the owner at check in, we felt unable and unwilling to incur her displeasure further. ||Another guest installed their large dog in a ‘tent’ in garden for 2 nights - we were kept awake by it whining. ||In all, this is a fabulous place. But be sure to get what you booked. If you look at the previous two reviews here, they too experienced a ‘mix-up’. Surely this shouldn’t happen? It marred what should have been the highlight...

Thoroughly recommend the Hotel Haus Arenberg for a family trip to Salzburg. ||My wife, daughter (21) and I stayed in Room 4 for 5 nights primarily to run the Salzburg Half Marathon, visit the city and Austria's Lake District. Our two bed apartment (double bed and sofa bed) was extremely clean, comfortable and spacious with a fabulous balcony view of the garden and Austrian/Bavarian Alps beyond. ||After a busy day sightseeing or running it was relaxing to come 'home' to our apartment, than staying in the busy city centre. The breakfast buffet offered a very good range of nutritious options which set us up perfectly for each day's events. The homemade cakes were also delicious. The hotel was in a smart residential district only 15 mins walk from the city centre (or 5 mins if taking one of the frequent buses at the bottom of the hill (not steep) on which the access road to the hotel is situated). ||We often walked along the riverside paths to and from the old/new towns with excellent views of the city. The old town could also be easily accessed across the Mozart foot bridge.||Our host also kindly set us up with a Guest Pass to use public transport for free which was very useful when we needed to catch early morning bus trips or be less rushed for dinner reservations (this also came in handy for catching the bus (No. 10) to the airport on our final day which only took 20 minutes).||Was very impressed with Salzburg as a place to visit. Beautiful, with a fascinating history, excellent restaurants, surrounded by stunning mountains,...