Sporthotel am Semmering

We have stopped here for 1 night in business trip and we have taken option with dinner and breakfast. At beginning we needed to wait 5 minutes for some person in check in but then it was only advantages. View from room and terrace was amazing. Dinner was with some courses to choose. Generally OK. Breakfast quite rich as it was not high season and not so many guests. That's why my colleague could also get a room with view but probably girl in reception even didn't pay attention. This should be corrected for future. We didn't use swimming pool but we were playing ping pong. Maybe hotel is not so new and modern but we were finally very satisfied.

Room and whole hotel is basic and shabby, ruther 3* hotel than 4*. Beds are not so comfy, actually 2 bads joined together which we did not like so much but they don't have other option. Bathroom is very basic and smal, shower extrimelly small. Cleaning lady feels that she should save money on changing towels, so she arrgueed with me about returning clean after taking not clean towels. I sincerelly never had issue and discussion with a cleaning lady up to this hotel. She takes 6 towels, returns 4, without a big pool towels. Than you are chasing her in the corridor for additional 2 and she said I gave you yesterday 2!!! Unbeliavable, by my standards. Spa is not working, we didn't know it. Reception staff, apart from 1 lady, doesn't speak english. Pool area is ok, isolated, but people are not using shower before entering- unfortunatelly. Restaurant is whole different story, superb quality food for dinner. Since we had HB it was worth the money and stay. Actually, I would say that they deserve 1* Micheline. Breakfast not so much, but dinner out of this world. Also terrace view is spectacular.

During my stay at the hotel, there was nothing to complain about. I really appreciate the hotel staff - helpful people at the reception, pleasant and kind waiters, smiling cleaners ... Clean room, excellent food, nice Christmas decorations (including the main terrace) ... and beautiful weather :-)

We originally booked with Hotel Sonnwendhof and the whole booking process was a bit "weird" but that's a long story. Anyway we arrived at Hotel Sonnewendhof only to be told that something (hmmmm....) happened to the room we reserved and that we were being complimentary upgraded to the Artis hotel and we were told it was a "4-star hotel" like it was something we should be stoked about, I informed Alex the hotel owner that I didn't want to stay at the Artis hotel since it's reviews weren't as glowing as his hotel but I was offered only an apology and we were sent on our way. Anyway when we arrived at the Artis Hotel which is actually very close and only about 200 feet up the hill from the Sonnewendhof which I was surprised by. The entire check in process was crazy since Alex had not informed them we were there for 3 nights rather than 2 so we had to sleep on twin beds our first night and were moved to a room with a double bed the next day for the remainder of our stay. I have attached pictures of both. The buffet in the morning and at night are decent and I liked that you had a table already reserved for you so you never had to race around and try and find a table. They have a lot of amenities (pool, sauna, tanning bed, pool table, bowling alley and I even read that they have curling available but we were so busy skiing that we never got the opportunity to try it out. The servers were helpful but there was one lady in particular that was so helpful and always had a smile on her face which made it very pleasant. She worked both the breakfast and night shift in the restaurant and really went out of her way to make us feel cared for. I'm not sure what the price difference is between the Sonnwendhof and the Artis but I would definitely stay at the Artis again.

We stayed at the Hotel for just 2 nights. We arrived quite early (10.30) from Vienna Airport and were allowed to check in at once. Our room had a spectacular view and was a fair size, clean, warm (once we turned on the radiator) and had a good bathroom with great power shower, no bath though. There were some guests who smoked in the bar area but it was not oppressive and smoking was not allowed anyway in the restaurant. The food was limited in choice of main course, but always edible with a good selection to start (including very good soup). The breakfasts were very good and included bacon and scrambled eggs. The staff were ALL (without exception) friendly and helpful at every turn. I had a booked massage which was really relaxing. The pool was a good size and there was no thermal shock on getting in. Semmering is a small resort and has very limited apres piste. The main bar at the bottom of the ski slopes was a short walk and always lively and reasonably priced for drinks. I would not hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone keen to visit this area of Austria.

I was friendly welcomed by a kind receptionist named Ms.Orsolya, my room was cosy and warm, the biggest surprice was the amazing tasty food ( 4-course dinner). The view from the restaurant was breathing. I enjoyed the pool, steam bath and Sauna. The location is great as well. I can only recommend and will come back soon.