Wedelhütte Hochzillertal — Restaurant in Zellberg

Location – Stunning perch a top of the Marchkoph peak.|---- |Rooms – Luxurious accommodation with distinctive styling.|----|Food – True gourmet delicacies and an perhaps one of the best wine cellars on any mountain and accomplished mixologists.|----|Service – This is a bit of a tricky area, but I want to go into some detail because (a) we had a bit of a mixed experience, and (b) I see that many other TA reviews are mixed on this aspect as well (with most of the surprisingly large number of “Terrible” ratings due to Service). I will mark down "Service" to 4, but I can't help but give it a "5" overall because the property and overall experience was so exceptional.||From our own experience, the staff service throughout the stay was exceptionally fine. - friendly, helpful, attentive, knowledgeable. HOWEVER, we did have one quite substantial breakdown in service which started the whole visit off on a bad footing. We had an incredibly difficult and stressful time getting to the property primarily because of quite poorly written instructions. Unfortunately, the manager made it worse by (a) not being available by phone to assist on the day, and (b) blaming us for “not reading the directions well enough”.|• No phone support – The final communication said “if you have any questions, just call,” but the manager explained that her offer only applied to calls before the day of arrival and not ON the day of arrival without ever specifying that (go figure). You don’t know what you don’t know and when read the instructions they made sense and we didn’t have any questions till we actually tried to use them and discovered how faulty they were.|• Customer not right – The manager said that any problem must have been our fault for not reading the instructions properly (I subsequently sent her a two page email with every error and omission in those instructions).|• Foreigners Not Accommodated – She was surprised that we had not visited the place before for lunch (90%+ of the overnight guests find the place for lunch and then decide to spend a night there some time). She said “You mean you just booked this place from another country without ever having been here before??” (hmm…yes I guess I did).|What I put this poor response down to (and maybe explains many of the other poor reviews) is the following:|• Passion Defense – For the management, this is not just a job, but a passion project. I find that sometimes such stewards can get a bit defensive of their product/service.|• Stress – Literally thousands visit the Wedelhutte daily for food and refreshment (and they were short staffed on the day we arrived). Not an excuse, but an explanation.|• Language – Most tourist places we have travelled are staffed by individuals with very strong English. In particular, the Germanic countries have a reputation for strong English skills. HOWEVER, we hit a number of substantive communication difficulties in the Hochzillertal ski area because of language limitation. Roughly, one-third of staff had excellent English, one-third had basic conversational English which struggled with complicated subjects (like helping us with directions), and one-third had limited English. Don’t count on just asking for help if you have difficulties as you may struggle to get the information you need or accurate information.|• Few Outsiders – Vast majority are people who have already stopped by for a coffee or lunch (as noted above) so the problem was relatively uncommon.|A few tips and alerts for prospective guests…|Directions – The directions that Wedelhutte provide you are seriously flawed. See my “enhanced” directions t bottom especially if you have not been to the Hochzilletal area.||WIFI – Their Wifi is a bit like a Dungeons and Dragons ordeal to get onto…|1. Their Wifi lulls you into a false sense of security because they give you 30 minutes of free wifi without authenticating, but then it suddenly drops you.|2. Their security has an extra layer of complexity with a landing page requires you to go through a number of extra steps to authenticate…|3. …which means that you can’t “Share Password”|4. Related to #1, their room instructions to figure out actually the secret keys to authenticating are ONLY IN GERMAN. So, are few tips…|o “WLAN” (a dated technical term) is what they refer to it as.|o “Benutzername” is “Username” in German|o “Passwort” is “Pasword” in German|Room Phone – Not sure why the rooms have landline telephones. It was difficult to figure out how to use. And when we tried to call reception, no one was there (turns out no one is hardly ever at reception).||Cash – I was surprised how many places on the mountain preferred or even were “cash only” (but in the two cash-only places we stopped at, they relented and agreed to take our debit card when we were about to walk out).||ENHANCED DIRECTIONS TO WEDELHUTTE||WARNING: Wedelhutte is a unique property in unique location with UNIQUE ACCESS to get to it. YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO SKI TO THE PROPERTY.|There are TWO ways to get to Wedelhutte depending on whether you are able to (and want to) ski to the resort to get there or not.|INSTRUCTIONS FOR PEOPLE WILLING TO SKI TO WEDELHUTTE:|1. ARRIVE AT “HOCHZILLERTAL/KALTENBACH” GONDOLA. Hochzillertal valley station: Postfeldstr. 7, 6272 Kaltenbach, Austria|2. (for guests who require ski equipment) SKI EQUIPMENT RENTAL: If you require ski equipment, this can be rented at Sport Stock at the station at the base of the gondola or another (smaller) Sport Stock outlet at the “Mountain View” station at the top of the gondola.|3. SKI PASS – Get a ski pass for the period of time you plan to ski (note that if you do not plan to ski on the day of the arrival EXCEPT for the small amount of skiing that you need to do to get to Wedelhutte), then you do not need to pay for a pass that day. Just inform the various lift/gondola operators that you are staying at Wedelhutte and they will let you on without a pass).|4. SILVER GONDOLA - Take the elevator at Sport Stock and enter the gondola station through the exit doors (informing the gondola operators that you are going to Wedelhutte). There are two gondolas. Take the SILVER gondola on the right hand side WITH YOUR SUITCASES and SKI EQUIPMENT (READY TO SKI) to the “Mountain View” station (its name on the piste map, but some people may refer to it as the “Summit Station” or “Central Station”).|5. DROP SUITCASES – Immediately on disembarking the gondola car in the gondola station, walk directly across the landing platform where you will find a room behind some silver doors. Go into the room and there are containers. Put your suitcases in the container marked “Wedelhutte” (be sure to take any important items that you require with you out of your suitcases as your suitcases will not arrive at Wedelhutte until 5:00 pm).|6. SKI BLUE ROUTE #14 to the SONNENJET LIFT|7. TAKE THE SONNEJET LIFT to the top|8. SKI BLUE ROUTE #12 to the WEDELEXPRESS LIFT|9. TAKE THE WEDELEXPRESS LIFT to the top|10. SKI (easy) RED ROUTE #13 to WEDELHUTTE.|11. WALK DOWN TO THE EQUIPMENT ROOM (either walk on the snow around the left side of Wedelhutte, or take the stairs inside) to deposit your ski equipment.|12. GO TO RECEPTION on floor 0 to check in.|INSTRUCTIONS FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO SKI TO THE RESORT (either because they can’t ski or don’t want to ski on arrival)|1. ARRIVE AT “ZILLERTAL ARENA”.|2. (for guests who require ski equipment) RENT equipment at one of the Arena outlets.|3. TAKE the shuttle bus up the mountain road to the ZILLERTAL SHUTTLE gondola.|4. TAKE the ZILLERTAL SHUTTLE gondola to the top which is the Wedelhutte area.|5. TELEPHONE Wedelhutte to come and collect your bags.|6. WALK down the snowy slope...

Location – Stunning perch a top of the Marchkoph peak.|---- |Rooms – Luxurious accommodation with distinctive styling.|----|Food – True gourmet delicacies and an perhaps one of the best wine cellars on any mountain and accomplished mixologists.|----|Service – This is a bit of a tricky area, but I want to go into some detail because (a) we had a bit of a mixed experience, and (b) I see that many other TA reviews are mixed on this aspect as well (with most of the surprisingly large number of “Terrible” ratings due to Service). I will mark down "Service" to 4, but I can't help but give it a "5" overall because the property and overall experience was so exceptional.||From our own experience, the staff service throughout the stay was exceptionally fine. - friendly, helpful, attentive, knowledgeable. HOWEVER, we did have one quite substantial breakdown in service which started the whole visit off on a bad footing. We had an incredibly difficult and stressful time getting to the property primarily because of quite poorly written instructions. Unfortunately, the manager made it worse by (a) not being available by phone to assist on the day, and (b) blaming us for “not reading the directions well enough”.|• No phone support – The final communication said “if you have any questions, just call,” but the manager explained that her offer only applied to calls before the day of arrival and not ON the day of arrival without ever specifying that (go figure). You don’t know what you don’t know and when read the instructions they made sense and we didn’t have any questions till we actually tried to use them and discovered how faulty they were.|• Customer not right – The manager said that any problem must have been our fault for not reading the instructions properly (I subsequently sent her a two page email with every error and omission in those instructions).|• Foreigners Not Accommodated – She was surprised that we had not visited the place before for lunch (90%+ of the overnight guests find the place for lunch and then decide to spend a night there some time). She said “You mean you just booked this place from another country without ever having been here before??” (hmm…yes I guess I did).|What I put this poor response down to (and maybe explains many of the other poor reviews) is the following:|• Passion Defense – For the management, this is not just a job, but a passion project. I find that sometimes such stewards can get a bit defensive of their product/service.|• Stress – Literally thousands visit the Wedelhutte daily for food and refreshment (and they were short staffed on the day we arrived). Not an excuse, but an explanation.|• Language – Most tourist places we have travelled are staffed by individuals with very strong English. In particular, the Germanic countries have a reputation for strong English skills. HOWEVER, we hit a number of substantive communication difficulties in the Hochzillertal ski area because of language limitation. Roughly, one-third of staff had excellent English, one-third had basic conversational English which struggled with complicated subjects (like helping us with directions), and one-third had limited English. Don’t count on just asking for help if you have difficulties as you may struggle to get the information you need or accurate information.|• Few Outsiders – Vast majority are people who have already stopped by for a coffee or lunch (as noted above) so the problem was relatively uncommon.|A few tips and alerts for prospective guests…|Directions – The directions that Wedelhutte provide you are seriously flawed. See my “enhanced” directions t bottom especially if you have not been to the Hochzilletal area.||WIFI – Their Wifi is a bit like a Dungeons and Dragons ordeal to get onto…|1. Their Wifi lulls you into a false sense of security because they give you 30 minutes of free wifi without authenticating, but then it suddenly drops you.|2. Their security has an extra layer of complexity with a landing page requires you to go through a number of extra steps to authenticate…|3. …which means that you can’t “Share Password”|4. Related to #1, their room instructions to figure out actually the secret keys to authenticating are ONLY IN GERMAN. So, are few tips…|o “WLAN” (a dated technical term) is what they refer to it as.|o “Benutzername” is “Username” in German|o “Passwort” is “Pasword” in German|Room Phone – Not sure why the rooms have landline telephones. It was difficult to figure out how to use. And when we tried to call reception, no one was there (turns out no one is hardly ever at reception).||Cash – I was surprised how many places on the mountain preferred or even were “cash only” (but in the two cash-only places we stopped at, they relented and agreed to take our debit card when we were about to walk out).||ENHANCED DIRECTIONS TO WEDELHUTTE||WARNING: Wedelhutte is a unique property in unique location with UNIQUE ACCESS to get to it. YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO SKI TO THE PROPERTY.|There are TWO ways to get to Wedelhutte depending on whether you are able to (and want to) ski to the resort to get there or not.|INSTRUCTIONS FOR PEOPLE WILLING TO SKI TO WEDELHUTTE:|1. ARRIVE AT “HOCHZILLERTAL/KALTENBACH” GONDOLA. Hochzillertal valley station: Postfeldstr. 7, 6272 Kaltenbach, Austria|2. (for guests who require ski equipment) SKI EQUIPMENT RENTAL: If you require ski equipment, this can be rented at Sport Stock at the station at the base of the gondola or another (smaller) Sport Stock outlet at the “Mountain View” station at the top of the gondola.|3. SKI PASS – Get a ski pass for the period of time you plan to ski (note that if you do not plan to ski on the day of the arrival EXCEPT for the small amount of skiing that you need to do to get to Wedelhutte), then you do not need to pay for a pass that day. Just inform the various lift/gondola operators that you are staying at Wedelhutte and they will let you on without a pass).|4. SILVER GONDOLA - Take the elevator at Sport Stock and enter the gondola station through the exit doors (informing the gondola operators that you are going to Wedelhutte). There are two gondolas. Take the SILVER gondola on the right hand side WITH YOUR SUITCASES and SKI EQUIPMENT (READY TO SKI) to the “Mountain View” station (its name on the piste map, but some people may refer to it as the “Summit Station” or “Central Station”).|5. DROP SUITCASES – Immediately on disembarking the gondola car in the gondola station, walk directly across the landing platform where you will find a room behind some silver doors. Go into the room and there are containers. Put your suitcases in the container marked “Wedelhutte” (be sure to take any important items that you require with you out of your suitcases as your suitcases will not arrive at Wedelhutte until 5:00 pm).|6. SKI BLUE ROUTE #14 to the SONNENJET LIFT|7. TAKE THE SONNEJET LIFT to the top|8. SKI BLUE ROUTE #12 to the WEDELEXPRESS LIFT|9. TAKE THE WEDELEXPRESS LIFT to the top|10. SKI (easy) RED ROUTE #13 to WEDELHUTTE.|11. WALK DOWN TO THE EQUIPMENT ROOM (either walk on the snow around the left side of Wedelhutte, or take the stairs inside) to deposit your ski equipment.|12. GO TO RECEPTION on floor 0 to check in.|INSTRUCTIONS FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO SKI TO THE RESORT (either because they can’t ski or don’t want to ski on arrival)|1. ARRIVE AT “ZILLERTAL ARENA”.|2. (for guests who require ski equipment) RENT equipment at one of the Arena outlets.|3. TAKE the shuttle bus up the mountain road to the ZILLERTAL SHUTTLE gondola.|4. TAKE the ZILLERTAL SHUTTLE gondola to the top which is the Wedelhutte area.|5. TELEPHONE Wedelhutte to come and collect your bags.|6. WALK down the snowy slope...

I spent a week in the Wedelhütte with my daughter over New Year's Eve.

I booked the junior suite.

Let's start with the good things

First of all, a compliment to the waitors , super friendly and hard-working.

The wine list is huge, really great, and the Somalie woman knows her craft!

Definitely recommended for wine lovers!

The location of the Wedelhütte is simply great, and the view from the room was a dream, which was also the main reason for booking there again.

The rooms are very clean and look very new.

The infrared cabin in the room is a really great thing that I used almost every day and which overall makes a positive contribution to the price-performance ratio.

Now for the not so good things.

The food!

As I am a trained chef myself, love cooking and run several restaurants, I am not overly critical but rather cautious with my statements. I know how hard it is to always deliver consistently good quality. but unfortunately it was really noticeable that the kitchen was completely overloaded or/and the chef had no taste buds!

there was always a 4-course menu in the evening, often it was a wannabe creation that often just looked good, sometimes not, and almost always tasted completely bad or of nothing.

Unfortunately you're stuck there and have to eat it, you can't just go out to eat somewhere else.

in a week there wasn't a single dish that I said was really good!

often the beef for the main course was unfortunately much too well done (well, if you like it, it's good, but I would have liked it pink, you didn't have a choice.

the soup between courses was almost always something with too much cream... why??? apart from the mushroom comsume, which was good. But I'm still not sure if it was homemade.

The breakfast is rather spartan, which I really didn't understand, and on top of that it was supposed to start at 7:30 but it was never completely prepared before 7:45,

and if you ordered eggs from the kitchen, it sometimes took half an hour for 2 fried eggs, which is not acceptable if you're there to get to the slopes early!

It was my second stay, and last time i remember the food was good not like this time..

On New Year's Eve there was a special with oysters and champagne and caviar, I heard from other guests, we would not have been invited but paid for everything.

that brings us to the next point, communication.

after I was told the first time when I asked on the phone that I should read the arrival information from the email confirmation (it's difficult to search through an email when you're on the motorway and unfortunately you can't get up the mountain due to flight delays and traffic jams)

as a tip: whats app group with all active guests (not just as an advertising group, or housekeeping puts information in the room after cleaning if it should be analogue)

Rooms: as mentioned above, the rooms are nice, but unfortunately all the furniture was missing from the terrace, which unfortunately deviates completely from the pictures on the website/booking page.

also ,we asked on the first day that the sofa bed be made up as a bed and reminded them again on the second day but unfortunately it took 5 days, which was not OK!

Internet: catastrophic!!

In the room there was only internet in the front part but not in the lounge area or in the bed.

That doesn't have to be the case anymore, does it?

tip: starlink... and a better mesh system

Pls Note: i did upgrade the reviou from 3 to 4 stars, still i think its not a 4 but rather a 3.5

We did enjoy our stay regardless, but from a 5 star it is just realistically away!

So no telling of...