Hotel Sacher Salzburg — Hotel in Salzburg

(I thought I would try to start contributing again as I have benefited from other’s opinions on TA.)||Hotel Sacher Salzburg:|I was straining my brain, wondering if the Hotel Sacher was absolutely perfect, then I thought of one thing they missed. The room service menu did not have a cheese plate. I had to talk to the restaurant directly to have a room service cheese plate delivered. ;-) Otherwise the Sacher is practically perfect with old world attention to detail and service. I had to find one least negative as I am not sure this is a personal review as much as it is a love letter. ||FRONT DESK, HOUSEKEEPING etc. |All those areas are covered by one word: service. The Sacher truly is a “high service” hotel which takes care of their guests. The service level almost takes a bit of time to get accustomed to since, even the top brands such as Four Season, Waldorf, and Ritz Carlton have let service slip a lot in my opinion. Have a special occasion? Front desk took care of that. Mild allergy to down pillows? Housekeeping was ready to take care of that immediately if needed. Room service breakfast? Taken care of quickly. Need a bellman or simply someone to help your at the lobby door? Always available. Quick question about a nearby event. Concierge is literarily right there.||Do you remember turn down service? At the Sacher it really means something. Try to plan it into your day if possible. Although the hotel was quite full for the music festival, they made a person feel as if they were the only guest. It almost restores a person’s faith in luxury travel the way it was before Covid.||ROOMS|I can’t remember all the details that made our room so special including the 2 sizes of slippers, stocked minibar, discreet fruit and chocolate plate, and luxury fixtures and furnishings in the bath including a pillow for the tub. We went with a junior suite and were very happy. I noticed the room was exceptionally well soundproofed and although our room was on the upper floor atrium we never heard a sound. ||DETAILS|I loved the attention to detail in the Sacher. While getting ready for my room service breakfast, I looked out the peephole and noticed the staff changing the spring flowers on the 4th floor (3rd floor in Europe) banisters. Other small details included small daffodils planted on your terrace railing flower box. The named suites were charming. The bellmen and the doormen were not just excellent, they were smartly uniformed and a pleasure to be around. The bellmen and doormen efficiently and gracefully managed the small loading zone in front of the hotel, turning a negative into a positive and charming point of service.||I was thinking of the hotel staff’s uniforms recently. Even the room service waitress was smartly dressed or perhaps costumed. There was one smartly dressed young bellman and I wished I had something for him to help with in order to simply interact with him. ||BREAKFAST|Don’t know. We had room service breakfast every morning. We loved our room and it accommodated a room service table nicely. There was a music festival going on and attending evening and night performances made it difficult to get started early in the morning. ||PUBLIC SPACES|The lobby and other areas are small in scale on the ground floor but also makes staff contact easier. It gave me a chance to discreetly mention to staff and management how “we were greatly enjoying our stay.” The two restaurants, the 3+ room lounge, the large cafe and terrace make for outstanding public spaces and makes it regretful that you cannot visit every public space even during a long stay.||I wish my old knees could handle the stairs more because the walk up the atrium stairs from the lobby to the top floor is beautiful. ||THE AREA|We think the location turned out nicely. The Sacher is half a block from the Mirabell Palace & Gardens which was a must see on our list. We were told you must attend a concert at the Mirabell Palace and that was great advice. It is only a beautiful walk across the pedestrian bridge to the old town area. The separation is nice, because as you know, the old town area is very crowded with pedestrians. The only negative is the car and trolley traffic around the front of the hotel. The double windows and doors completely eliminate any sound however, if you like to keep your balcony door open to enjoy the fresh air and views of the city, you also have the traffic noise in the front of the hotel. The river view on the other side is spectacular and their terrace restaurant is a great place to spend time with a glass of sparkling wine or a unique dessert and coffee. I wish I was there now enjoying a chocolate milk ice cream float.||SUMMARY|In my opinion, the Sacher Hotel truly is a “high service” hotel. And as mentioned above, it almost restores a person’s opinion about...

A beautiful hotel in the best possible location if you have a room with a view to the Salzach river. Then you can sleep with open windows, enjoy the view and walk to town within 5 to 10 minutes. We spent 4 nights here and enjoyed our junior suites tremendously. The ambience is classically elegant. The room had an electric fireplace and the bathroom had a TV screen in the mirror. Since the bathtub had a pillow, it was possible to relax in the tub and recline against the pillow while watching TV. The rooms, bathrooms and everything else in the hotel was very clean. It was nice to enjoy a small meal and a glass of wine in the cosy lobby with live piano music, but the breakfast buffet and the gourmet restaurant are not up to the expected standard. Every single morning we had to wait for things like the juices and the scrambled eggs to be refilled - 9 a.m. seems to be peak breakfast time but the staff doesn't seem to have caught on yet. Some of the food in the Zirbelzimmer was good, but some was not. For example, they had crispy Swiss hash browns called Rösti on the menu and we got a slice of hashed potatoes in the form of a thick pie which was undercooked and in no way what a classical Rösti is like. The waiter said he was sorry, but that is how the kitchen makes Rösti. Also quite a few of the staff in the lobby and restaurant were rather young and inexperienced which is not what you expect from a hotel with such fame. We watched as a couple asked a waitress what the opening hours of the cafe were while she was getting ready to bring cake to guests. She asked them to please wait, she would be right with them. They said they just wanted to know the hours. Again - this time in a somewhat condescending tone - she said if they could just wait she would be right back, she must serve the cake first. When the waitress came back the couple was gone. She put her hands up in the air and looked flabbergasted. We told her that she should have just told them the hours. She claimed that it was not possible to hold the cakes and tell them at the same time. We couldn't believe it because the time it took to argue with the couple could have been used to mention hours. Or she could have said that she needs to check what the hours are. Then it would have made sense. Another experience I would not have expected in a 5-star superior hotel was that my heating system was out of order and I couldn't reach anyone at the reception desk or from housekeeping. I had to go down to ask them to check on the heating system which wasn't that bad, but was is that an hour later I had to go down again because nothing had been done and then I had to go after another hour at which time I said in no uncertain terms that I expect something to be accomplished by the time I return in the evening. When I returned, a portable radiator was sitting in my room without a note of apology or an offer to move into another room. Not really what I am used to by other hotels like the hotel Imperial in Vienna or the Brenner's Park and Spa in Baden-Baden. I do want to point out that we nonetheless did enjoy our stay and that most of the staff was very friendly and helpful. I do want to make special mention of Cara Kirchoff, the quality manager. She is a very competent and caring professional who deserves utmost praise. It would go beyond the scope of this review to mention what she all did to help us and our family in May of 2017. I wish I could have thanked her again personally with a bouquet of flowers but when I asked at the front desk the receptionist said that she was...

My visit to hotel Sacher was the most disappointing experience so far... I never would have expected such a service from a place which is supposed to give par excellence service.I went there in August 2023 while I was visiting Salzburg because I wanted to try the Sacher torte. But I guess, my experience has marked me so much that I think I am almost disgusted by this cake. I went to the restaurant first, whereby there was a notice which asked you to wait for the staff to take you to a table. There were two women before me and I patiently waited behind them. A waiter came out and he politely told us that the restaurant was preparing for evening service for the hotel residents, but that we could go to the bar/cafe instead. I walked to the bar/cafe, and again there was the same notice, but no one to receive me. And while afterwards I read online that you need to book for your table to get there, what I found appalling was that there were waiters walking among the tables, serving the other seated clients but no one came to the entrance to even acknowledge my presence or to simply indicate to me about what should be done. They simply ignored my presence, even if quite a few of them noticed me at the entrance. I waited for some 20 mins or more. So suppose I had a reservation, but because the waiters would not acknowledge me, how would they know if I had a reservation or not. After getting this treatment, I exited the bar/cafe, I went round the hotel and met the doorman to whom I explained my disappointment and he told me to go to the terrace bar which is on the other side. Once there, I met someone whom I suppose was the Maitre d'Hotel and I explained to him my situation and I asked to speak to the manager (like a freaking Karen). The Maître d'Hotel was kind enough to hear me out. He tried explaining that the hotel was in the midst of some celebration and was fully booked. But what I do not understand is why was this was not told to me when I waited so long at the entrance of the bar/café. While I do believe that my skin colour might have had something to do with the refusal to acknowledge my presence in the cafe/bar, I will be politically correct. I believe that if the personnel treat potential clients like this, then I do believe they need a refresher course in hospitality school At the end of the day, it is just two pieces of chocolate cake with apricot jam in between. A piece of Hotel Sacher's torte is not worth ruining your vacations in Austria. Believe me, it will leave a...