HOTEL Das Central - Alpine . Luxury . Life Sölden

This hotel is, as the name suggests, right in the middle of Sölden. The reception staff were very helpful at check in. The bedrooms and bathrooms were modern and very restful with Nespresso machines and replenished capsules. The restaurant was wonderful for breakfast and dinner. A wonderful salad bar followed by 7 courses. There is now also a Michelin starred restaurant but we didn’t try this on this stay. There are two spa areas, the most modern one is on the higher floors with a beautiful pool and outdoors whirlpool. There are saunas with beautiful views. This one is clothed and also allows children. On the lower floors there is the original spa which is “ textile free” and adults only. Both have sauna rituals. We used both every day. We also had fabulous massages with Johanna and a brilliant facial with Anna. For skiers there is an incredible minibus service which takes you and picks you up from any ski location in Sölden. An excellent stay and would highly recommend .

The Central advertises itself as a luxury hotel with gourmet cuisine/gourmet breakfast and spa experience. With the expensive room prices and their promises, our expectations were high. The stay left us with mixed feelings. What we liked: -Great new spa on the top two floors with spectacular infinity pool (even if there are far too few loungers) -Existing spa in the basement is well maintained, large and offers plenty of loungers - Modern lobby with bar and lounge - Large ski room with lockable ski locker for each room with heating for the boots -Free ski shuttle to cable cars, runs throughout the day as required by guests - Friendly staff from reception, the restaurant, the driver to the cleaning staff -modern, stylish room furnishings (we had the renovated junior suite Gaislachkogl) This did not meet our expectations, especially for a 5 star hotel: -No one showed up on arrival to help us with our luggage -Our junior suite Gaislachkogl nr. 231, was on the 2nd floor with a view mainly of houses and not mountain view (only from the balcony). The room was rather dark. The balcony was tiny, with no chair/table, only a small railing to the neighboring balcony -The coffee machine, coffee capsule and cups were missing in the room (which is advertised as an included service). We received the machine on request. 3 Nespresso capsules are free per day, each additional capsule costs € 2.20 each. We found this embarrassing considering the room price (+ 700 euros per day with breakfast). - Breakfast was not a «gourmet breakfast» as advertised by the hotel. The buffet quantity and quality was just ok. The bread rolls were dry, as was the cheese, the pineapple on Monday morning were those from the day before, the sweets were ready-made products. As a hotel with gourmet cuisine, we would have expected home-made bread or home-made sweets, for example. - Cover service is only available on request and the bedtime treat was - a Raffaello. For a hotel that describes itself as a gourmet location, we would have expected a home mode greeting from the kitchen. No free bottle of mineral water for turndown service -The bath towels in the room are thin and anything but fluffy -In the new spa there is no tea, juices or nuts/fruit -At check-out, we got a wrong bill. The already payed 1st night was charged again and a bill from the bar which was not from us was also charged to our room. The hotel does not live up to its standards for a 5 star hotel, also in view of the high room price. We had the feeling that the hotel cut the service to save money in several places. The price-performance ratio is not good. We would not stay here again.

What a place! Went for a weeks family skiing and this hotel delivered everything we required. From the fantastic breakfast and evening meals to the spa which made us not want to ski, the gym, relaxing yoga classes, heated ski lockers, everything was just lovely. However without question it is the staff that make this place extra special, David our waiter was faultless, correctly predicting our preferences, knowledgable about both food and wine and a real joy to discuss our days with. What a credit to this hotel he is. Other stars in the week deserving of praise were Daniel in the restaurant who did a great job of looking after us, the bar staff who provided endless English breakfast tea, the chaps that helped us with our skis and drove us around everyday, to our wonderful room maid who made our room so comfortable to come back to. It isn’t very often you can come back off holiday without any grumbles, but this was one. Thank you to everyone.