raven

plenty of threads on this but just got back from staying at the Bristol and would highly recommend it! As other threads note, Bristol cheaper than Imperial but service, room, etc... was great. Concierge was very helpful on switching train tiks, restaurant reservations, and other travel plans. Maybe I got lucky but as a Gold got upgraded to a junior suite on top floor with a little balcony overlooking the Opera House (also used my SPG50). Good location as well.

Seattlenerd

Recommend the Bristol. My wife and I stayed there a year ago (on both ends of an Austrian vacation that had Salzburg in the middle) and both times were very happy with our rooms and the service. On the first portion, a comfortably sized room overlooking the pedestrian mall behind the hotel. On the return, we had a very large room with a balcony overlooking the Opera.

We researched and considered the Imperial, but the Bristol had all the charm and service -- and a fine restaurant downstairs.

The only glitch -- if you can call it that -- was that the Bristol has an older heating/cooling system which is either set to heat or cool centrally. So on a warm October day, which we had, only the heat worked. But that was minor.

We'd stay at the Bristol again. Great staff, too.

Konsultant

One word - Imperial !!!

luxury

I have stayed at both the Imperial and the Bristol. I absolutely love the Imperial for its grandeur and elegance. You can certainly imagine yourself to be a Wurtemburg or Hapsburg during your stay here. The hotel is spectacular at Christmas time. We had booked a Deluxe room and since my travel buddy was a SPG Gold we were upgraded into a Jr. Suite -- a corner suite on the 3rd floor with a view over the Karntner Ring.

This past June I redeemed points for a Jr. Suite at the Bristol when I took my Mum to Vienna to see the Season Finale Philharmonic concert. We used the hotel car service and upon arrival we were informed that we were upgraded to the Prince of Wales Suite. I was SPG basic back then too..... The Prince of Wales Suite is nothing short of spectacular -- the inlaid wood flooring, silk wall coverings, in room technology (Bose speakers in the living room off a Bang & Olufsen control panel, retracting TV in bedroom, stereo music piped into the master bath, mini-Bose system in private gym)... the list goes on. The main salon is in the corner and overlooks the Opera House. The master bath has gold plated fixtures, 3 sets of Bulgari toiletries, a mountain load of fluffy towels and separate stall shower and large Jacuzzi bath. There is also a VERY large walk in closet and a private gym with Stairmaster, LifeCycle and a treadmill, not to mention a sauna. There is also a half bath off the main entry foyer. We were given the 1 BR version of this suite. In full configuration, a library, office, dining room and additional bedrooms are added amounting to 400sq meter, 4400 sq ft. suite. It was indeed, a suite upgrade, and I know not why we were chosen. Nonetheless, we were VERY grateful and made our trip to Vienna simply unforgettable.

You cannot go wrong with either but the Bristol has a slightly more convenient location (not that the two hotels are far apart) for sightseeing, shopping, and of course the Opera. The Imperial is most convenient for concerts at the Musikverein (use the hotel's rear entrance).

AZ Boomer

I called the Customer Contact Center (thanks Starwood Lurker ^ ) and asked about a specialty select award at the Imperial. Decided on the Imperial because of the number of positive reviews (just a few more compared to the Bristol) on FT and Trip Advisor.

Couldn’t believe my ears when the representative told me I had for choices with 14,500 points a night. I had a choice between the Royal Suite (called “The most beautiful and most famous suite in Vienna “…150 sq. meters with butler service) and the Maisonette Suite (bi-level with balcony). What a choice! I must of hit the dates perfectly.

I finally decided on the Royal Suite after consulting my wife (who really makes all of the important decisions and is not so impressed with balconies). My colleagues at work cannot believe the pictures on the website and think I’m getting just an "extra large" regular hotel room. Guess I’ll have to take pictures to prove it.

This will make for an awesome ending to a wonderful second honeymoon. Any suggestions as to what to do in Vienna? Are there things to take advantage of while we are at the Imperial?

Thanks again for all of your help!

luxury

Music, food and pastries!!! I think a Concert at the State Opera House or the Musikverein is a must. We saw the Vienna Philharmonic at the Musikverein as well as a Sunday Mass at the Hofburg Chapel with the Vienna Boys Choir (slightly disappointing as we had expected them to be front and centre for the whole mass -- they did one song at the end; however, you do hear them throughout as they are singing from the top balcony...) A tour of the Hofburg, the Hapsburg's Winter Residence, and Schoenbrunn, their summer residence is worth it. Try the Imperial Torte at the Imperial (the best in my opinion)-- you can have it at the Cafe Imperial which has a most luxurious breakfast including champagne. Try the cakes at the Cafe Sirk in the Bristol for all their different pastries. A must is Cafe Demel in the Kohlmarkt -- outstanding pastries though it is busy. Wienerschnitzel at Figlmuller and Tafelspitz at Plachutta are recommended. Excellent fine Styrian regional cuisine at Steirereck; not to mention excellent Gulaschzuppe (Gulash). Vienna is a lovely city to walk around in -- it is also great for shopping as we found certain items, e.g. Bally shoes and bags, cheaper in Vienna than in NYC and Paris. Enjoy one of my most favourite cities in the world!!

kevinsac

Wow.....what a choice to make! Imperial or Bristol?

My mom was raised in Vienna and Salzburg, so we still have family there; I go back often to visit. I adore the Imperial (I have also been in room 85 and once had the Maisonette Suite....somehow, a bi-level suite is just the bomb IMHO). It's one of the best hotels in the world and the service spectacular. I firmly believe that this should be one of the flagships for Starwood.

Just a tiny, minor step below is the Bristol. I can't point out any specifics--and the Bristol is 3 blocks (or 4?) closer to the Opera/shopping/historic district. I often judge the luxury of a hotel based on bathroom. And next to the St Regis Beijing, I would vote the Bristol's bathroom second best for all Starwood hotels!

Lastly......even though we are talking about Vienna.......someone above mentioned the Golderner Hirsch in Salzburg. For small, quaint hotels, this hotel is my favorite anywhere in the world, not just for the Starwood chain.

Seattlenerd

Four things:

1) Make sure you buy a good tourbook. The Rick Steves book on Austria is excellent.
2) At the Hofburg Imperial Apartments museum (nearby), take in the exhibition on Sissy, the last empress of Austria. Very well done and a great mini-history of the Hapsburgs.
3) Ride the tram around the inner city, with the Steves guidebook to show you the sites for orientation. Very useful and the trams are cool.
4) Definitely take in the State Opera. One tip -- see if you can get last-minute tickets. These are available from 9am-2pm the day before, first come, first serve, and (when we went a year ago), were only 30 Euros for ANY available seat. We saw a spectacular performance of The Magic Flute by Mozart, 12 rows back. (The behind the scenes tour of the Opera is also worthwhile, if you're into that kind of thing).

Have a great time!

ktjan

Does LM or any SPG properties in Vienna has an executive lounge? My guess is no...

Shareholder

I don't believe any of these properties have Executive/Club lounges or floors, though the Meridien and Bristol have Executive/Business rooms. The Imperial is in a class unto itself...

WindFlyer

I recently stayed at the Bristol and, in short, it was a somewhat dissapointing stay... and had I read this thread before, I would be even more disappointed, as my experiences did not mirror those of the posters before me...

For starters, I did not received a Platinum upgrade. I booked a deluxe room and got a deluxe room. This is not a problem in and of itself, so long as the hotel doesn't tell me I'm being upgraded (which it did). The room itself was OK—even if it looked nothing like the pictures in the website. There was a bottle of Imperial Sekt waiting for me at the room ^, and for my amenity I got an Imperial Torte ^.

Now we get to the issues. The elevator was completely quirky and temperamental, refusing to close the doors unless the people inside positioned themselves just so . You had to allow ~5 minutes just to get up or down. The hotel also does not use keycards, but this heavy key-like contraption that you hand over to the concierge everytime you go (in the old-fashined way)... fine, except that the front desk is so tiny, and nearly every single time I was coming in, there was a mob there (people arriving, people departing, etc.) that it would take me about five minutes just to get my key .

The concierge(s) proved to be terrible. They did not complete a single of my requests (OK, they did one, after I had checked out—but that's another story). In each case they talked about how difficult it would be... and when they made no progress, I took care of things myself without a lot of too much effort and time expenditure—maybe they were angling for a larger tip? It was hard to get any information out of them—either to do things myself or to find out how they were doing on my requests.

For the last day of my stay (I was moving to LM up the street) we had agreed on a 3PM checkout. At noon or so as I returned from Schönbrunn and got my key I was asked if I could check out immediately .

IMHO, neither the facilities nor the service were up to a "Luxury Collection" standard. Admittedly, it looked as though the hotel was running at capacity those days, but that's when the truly great hotels shine. The Bristol didn't.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that my e-mail confirmation from the Bristol offered me a guaranteed upgrade for EUR 29 . I probably should have taken it... but sounds like *W is starting to borrow some pages from the UA playbook.

WindFlyer

Having left the Bristol, I went up the street to LM, where my experiences were similar to those of Shareholder, above:

It looked to me as though two buildings were joined together, as there were some differences of level within the same floor... but back to his point: to me what made this hotel a lot better than most Ws was the staff—there was no attitude at LM, even as the hotel was über-cool and with art projects and installations at every turn (the rounded staircase was great!).

As a platinum, I was upgraded to corner suite on Ringstraße, though unfortunately only on the second floor (I was told that one on the fifth floor would not be available until ~5, as another plat would be checking out at four ). Had a welcome letter, sparkling water and petit-fors waiting for me, and for my amenity (on the recommendations of the staff), I chose a bottle of a very decent Grüner Veltliner. The room was beautiful, but it proved to have some problems.

First, the ethernet ports seem to be malfunctioning (the hotel's own tech support was able to locate a working port, but I could not get an IP address on my Mac, and the service provider's support was unable to solve the issue). Fortunately, I was getting a strong WiFi signal from the lobby/bars below, so the management readily comped me WiFi access to insure I would have the free internet access included in my rate ^.

In the evening I noticed that one of the bedside lights would go in and out at whim. Fiddling a little with it, I figured that the problem was in the wall attachment (it's a suspended light). And during the night, every so often a 'clunk' would come from HVAC system; not very loud, but loud enough to keep me up when half-awake. In the morning I noted these things, and I was promptly moved to another suite (not a corner one, but I found this one to be more comfortable, anyway). The staff's and management's handling of all of these things was absolutely fantastic. Well, I found the staff to be fantastic, cheery and engaging in all aspects—they cared and they showed it. Concierge service was very good too!

Maybe they've upped the offerings since Shareholder was there, but my rooms included (in addition to nescafe) ground coffee for the Coffee presses ^, which came in handy one morning; as did throughout the day the free minibar (replenished during turndown service ^).

My second room had plasma TVs in both the living room and the bedroom. I liked the layout of the bathroom better, too. The showers are a stand-alone column in a glass-enclosed room with two nozzles along its height in addition to the overhead one. The controls allow for complete control over which nozzles operate . The bathtubs are modern recreations of the free-standing claw-footed bathtubs of old, but with über-chic fittings and contouring for comfort.

The hotel has a fully equiped gym with cardio- and weight-machines and free weights and trainer. There is also a pool and hot tub, though the pool is not very big (certainly not like the Munich LM's). The sauna and steam room facilities were very very good ^. Unfortunately, the gym/sauna hours are short. There is also a spa, but I can't tell you much about its offerings or treatments.

The LM is great addition to the *W portfolio in Vienna, and for me, it was a welcome and refreshing change after a disappointing stay at the Bristol.

MIKESILV

I suppose what these posts demonstrates is that sometimes its hard to drawn conclusions by a single experience, but I have to diagree with many of the negatives you have listed.

We had two very nice stays at this property in mid April and enjoyed it immensely in fact I would go further to say I enjoyed our stays here more than that at the Goldner Hirsch which was made between the two.

a) We were upgraded to suites on both ocasions, the first on the fifth floor even had a small balcony etc. We selected a bottle of red wine and Imperial torte as plat ameneties, plus we received chocolates and a bottle of sparkling wine in the room.
b) So the elevator was a little slow isnt that quite common in these old hotels? I suggest to you that you have seen real quiry elevators
We were on vacation so 5 mins wasnt going to get me too upset Never experienced any of the so described positioning problems.
c) I found the concierges to very helpful, and one in particular was able to get us a reservation at Julius Meinl said to be difficult at short notice. Plus had a good dinner recommendation in Zum Wiebe Rauchfangkehrer in addition to some nice places in Salzburg ( in addition without me specifically requesting it printed up copies of the OBB schedule after I asked a few questions about the train to and from Salzburg and Budapest).
All this was done without a tip. Notes were left confirming reservations at the front desk and by that time the concierge had already left and i never saw him again.
d) Internet was able to log on to T-mobile - so used my US account, no charge by hotel.
e) Requested and received a 430pm late checkout on first stay.
f) Keys - again very common with small hotels.

You do seem to have always been in an awful hurry though and perhaps you were expecting the W Vienna

mike

WindFlyer

No. I was neither in a hurry, nor was I expecting the "W Vienna" (whatever that may mean). I was expecting an old-style hotel experience (of which I am quite a fan) with good, attentive service and facilities worthy of "Luxury Collection" designation.

All the same, it's annoying to have to navigate your way thru 6-8 people checking in or out just to get your keys—not once, but nearly every time. It is also disappointing to not hear anything one way or the other from the concierge on requests not anymore complicated than what you had...

As you said, it's hard to draw conclusions by a single experience; and the point of my post was merely to show that there can be negative (if isolated, perhaps) situations that occur amid generally positive reviews. Hence the "counterpoint" title.

Just as I do not disagree with or question that you and many others had excellent stays at the Bristol with none of my issues, perhaps you should accept that even very good hotels don't do right every time (particularly if running at capacity) instead of telling me what my expectations were

Seattlenerd

As with other posters here, I've stayed at the Bristol (twice, both in late 2004) and had a good experience. I'd go back in a heartbeat. No problems with the concierge, and I personally wouldn't necessarily interpret many of the other items you describe as issues if it were coming from my perspective.

I will say that much of what you describe is typical of an "old-style hotel experience:" having to leave the keys at the desk (happens a lot to me in European hotels), elevators that are slow, and a small check-in desk.

I'd add that the one glitch we did experience is that in a hotel like this with older infrastructure, either the heat works or the air conditioning works -- not both. We arrived, on our first time, in October and they'd already switched to winter heat, just in time for a late visit by summer. That was the only glitch we noted. Opening the windows was quite a noisy experience.

We didn't see the crowding problem because, well, we were there in the off season and only stopped at the desk to hand in or retrieve our key. But being booked to capacity could possibly account for a lot of what you experienced.

What's an "issue," in part, does depend on one's expectations. That doesn't mean to minimize what you concluded from your stay. From our experience, we were delighted by the rooms, the amenity, the service and the location.