SO/ Vienna — Hotel in Vienna

My stay at SO/Vienna was great, with the staff, rooms, location and facilities scoring high points throughout.

Staff The hotel has staff who care and will welcome you with a warm smile. Many thanks to Sophia / Sofia and Sinem who checked me in, as well as Adrian at the reception desk and all the other staff who I met but unfortunately never obtained the name of. The lovely staff remembered me throughout my stay, were generally attentive and I appreciated their hospitality!

Hotel facilities The facilities are one of the major selling points of this hotel. A nice spa and gym, complemented by a quiet business lounge and library, with the main attraction centred around a restaurant / bar called Loft situated on the 18th floor.

From the Loft bar, the views of Vienna are stunning. This is where guests eat for breakfast (a continental buffet is served with an a la carte hot item menu) and is certainly a lovely way to spend the morning. It is also a good place to have a drink in the evening, where chill beats are played and a younger crowd gathers to drink, catch-up, and view Vienna by night.

The gym is well kitted out for a hotel, with cardio machines in one section and free weights / weight machines in another. At 9pm on Friday night, I had the whole gym to myself.

Accommodation Rooms at the hotel are situated between the 6th to the 17th floors. We had booked two rooms, one which was called SO Urban (with two double beds) and SO Comfy (with one king size bed), with both rooms being approximately 40 square meters.

The rooms are designed in a modern way. SO Urban rooms which have two double beds tend to be coloured white and SO Comfy rooms tend to be coloured grey. Whilst I liked the rooms, the modern design with a plain colour scheme and limited privacy will not be to everyone’s taste - even in the SO Urban room the design is generally open plan with limited dividers for privacy.

Nonetheless, spacious rooms with a good rainfall shower, comfortable beds and decent air conditioning are definitely a positive. Do also note there were free juices / water in the fridge (refilled daily), and sleep related items offered (some chargeable) including complimentary offerings like a pillow menu, lavender bags and pillow mist.

Location SO/Vienna is situated just on the edge of the touristy part of Vienna (which includes the old town). All you need to do is cross over the bridge and you are there - certainly getting to the centre of the old town will require a reasonable walk but I found the location very manageable. This also means you have fantastic views of the old town and the Stephansdom cathedral from the Loft bar.

Improvements I will say that for certain aspects, efficiency does need to improve at this hotel. I only received a lavender bag after asking staff three times, and I never received any pillow mist - after asking three times I was eventually told they had run out…

A room service order which should have arrived in 30 minutes, came to the room after over 1 hour had passed despite telling staff there were time constraints for check out (fortunately staff extended the check out time as a result).

Finally there was a missing lightbulb in one of the rooms and a broken tap, which was highlighted to reception on the first night. Whilst the tap was fixed the next day (after a reminder to staff in the morning), the lightbulb was never added.

Other points to note include the fact the telephone in my room did not work and was not fixed upon reception being alerted, and one of the night treatment creams freely offered had a packet that was already opened upon delivery to the room.

Whilst these points are minor / sound pedantic in their own right, over the course of a stay this can become frustrating to hotel guests, and small changes such as greater attention to detail should be therefore considered to avoid any mishaps going forward.

Conclusion All in all, a lovely hotel, where minor oversights did not spoil what was ultimately a great stay! Thank you SO/Vienna and I hope to stay again...

Dear SO/Vienna Management, Dear Mr. Klaus,

As a long-standing Accor business partner in Croatia and a returning guest at SO/ Vienna, I feel obligated to formally express my deep disappointment with the quality of service during our recent stay from August 3rd to August 5th, 2025.

At the time of booking, I specifically requested two essential things:

a room on a higher floor, and a baby crib in the room, as we were travelling with our girl baby.

Unfortunately, neither of these requests were fulfilled, nor was any explanation provided upon arrival. While I understand certain requests may be subject to availability, this should have been clearly communicated to us at check-in – not silently disregarded.

On August 2nd at 07:02 (the day before our arrival), I sent an email to the hotel asking several key questions essential for planning our stay:

Whether the hotel has EV charging, to help plan our travel logistics?

Whether there is a swimming pool, as we were traveling as a family?

And to request a pedicure appointment for my wife in advance?

After receiving no reply, I sent a follow-up email on August 3rd at 09:13 – still, there was no response until the evening of August 4th, and only from the spa team, not from the front office. By that point, the majority of our stay was already behind us.

Upon entering our room, we discovered visible hair on the couch from previous guests and stains on the chairs, which is entirely unacceptable for a five star property. I immediately sent an email to the reception reporting this, followed by a second reminder email both of which remain unanswered to this day. Meanwhile, I tried calling the reception three times and let it ring extensively each time no one answered, and no one ever returned the calls. I am happy to provide full documentation of all communications.

Sadly, breakfast service was also far below standard:

On four separate occasions, we were served incorrect orders.

When we pointed out the mistakes, staff members reacted dismissively.

To add to the unprofessionalism, restaurant staff were giving each other high-fives in front of guests a casual gesture, i agree, but not one appropriate in a premium hotel setting, especially when service is clearly lacking.

As someone from the hospitality industry, I find this unacceptable. It is even more frustrating because this was our third stay at SO/ Vienna, and all our previous experiences with Accor hotels have been excellent.

Because of our ongoing business relationship with Accor, I deliberately chose not to raise this complaint publicly or on external platforms. However, this experience forces me to speak up directly and formally, as the service we received simply did not reflect the standards of your brand.

To make matters worse, upon check-out, nobody asked how our stay was, whether we were satisfied, or even offered a polite farewell. We were simply handed the invoice and told goodbye — a missed opportunity for any service recovery or guest engagement, especially after such visible service issues.

In summary:

Our room request was ignored

We did not receive a baby crib

Pre-arrival communication was neglected

Reception failed to respond to calls or emails

The room was not clean 2 times.

Breakfast service was careless and inappropriate

I sincerely hope this feedback will be forwarded to the appropriate departments and that action will be taken to ensure such service lapses do not recur. I remain available to provide any necessary documentation and look forward to...

This could be one of the worst 5 star hotel experience amongst all that we have stayed (we’ve stayed in Emaar / Anatara / Sacher) for past 2 weeks but there are some commendable staff that we appreciate. 2 stars for Porter Ninat and Cocktail staff each

Let’s do start with the good points Porter Ninat took a lot of initiatives from the start of our trip to the end helping us with the luggages.

We were also very warmly welcomed at the cocktail bar with good services and really delicious cocktails served! Mood was really good and overlooking stephplatz scenery

There were a few friendly reception staff but what pissed me great time is one of the staff. My bad / ignorance that I have called the room service for mineral water , assuming that it is complimentary. However on the other end of the call, NO initiatives was taken to inform us that water was chargeable because I called the room service. 3 big bottles of water was sent to my room with a bill , 8 euros each . I told the service staff who brought the bottles up that I wasn’t aware there’s charges and he gave me a “I have brought this up you can’t be rejecting them “ face. I ended obligingly paid for ONE.

Not feeling really good about this whole incident as we went to the supermarket to get 3 big bottles of mineral water at 0.33 euro for each!

So after dinner I went back to hotel and feedback to the reception staff. The reception staff is not the best person to service her customer. She was curt, sacarstic , defensive and totally miss the point. She kept saying because I called the room service and hence there’s a charge. I told her yes no doubt my fault in calling the room service , but there is LACK OF INITIATIVE AND ZERO COMMON SENSE for the staff to even inform / remind the guest that there’s charge on the water over the phone and that it will be complimentary - if I call the reception instead)

Reception staff was super defensive kept repeating and insisted because I called the room service. Okies then pardon my ignorance and hope guests remember to cal RECEPT instead of ROOM SERVICE for free water) Also she was sacarstic saying that if i order alcohol and soft drinks from room service there’s charges . Like duh. I am ignorant but I am not stupid or cheapo

House keeping also not the best, only one towel was replenished (missing one more towel) on 2nd day after we asked for make up room. And once again, they ASSUMED my half used sachet treatment mask was meant to throw away when I put in the shower. Not very nice move.housekeeping took 10 mins to come with the shortfall of bathe towel

Lastly the shower knob sucks. You need great strengths and certain angles - not soapy hands to manovere it. It does make me don’t look forward to bathing every time I step into...