ThWilmesi

Well I also would like to join the club of the Bristol - Lovers.....

I was staying there last year in June and had a wonderful experience and was very nicely traeted as a Platinum Level member, got a wonderful upgrade to a huge suite with a direct view on the Vienna opera, even with a small stepout possibility....

The restaurants at the hotel just wonderful with extremely good service - and what the heck - an old elevator - well it is an old hotel and the keys honestly who cares....

I would at everytime return back to this hotel.

Seattlenerd

General observation, not aimed at anyone on this thread in particular, but a bit of travel philosophy that seems apropos to the discussion.

One thing visitors to a historic hotel in Europe have to realize is that -- if they want a U.S.-style hotel experience -- they should not stay in a historic European hotel. Or a bed-and-breakfast, a small boutique hotel, or probably anything other than an Americanized chain.

Stepping back a bit, having stayed in several of the Starwood properties that are "Luxury Collection" and/or in historic properties in various cities, to me part of the appeal is that these aren't cookie-cutter properties. They do, and will, have quirks. Service should never be one of them (and I agree with concerns about quality of service, whether expressed in this or other threads), but facilities likely will be. But hey, this is a country or city's history you're a part of, and that's what makes it worthwhile, be it Vienna, Madrid or San Francisco.

When I travel to Europe (or anywhere with a strong local history) for personal reasons and sometimes even on business, part of the appeal to me is that I want to feel as though I've been where I'm going, right down to the local flavor of the lodging.

That's getting an authentic travel experience, as long as it's safe and, well, bedbug-free.

Philosophizing mode off.

SportsTech

based on everything in this thread, including Windflyers observations. We will be there in late June, and hope to enjoy a couple of nights at a classic old hotel. And I'm really hoping (well, my wife is, anyway) that the concierge can scare up a couple of tix to the Opera - I'm sure it will be expensive, but they haven't been available online for months so I'm guessing the brokers have purchased them all.

We don't need a suite, but we DO need good service and advice, it will be our first trip to Vienna and neither of us speak much German/Austrian.

Seattlenerd

We had excellent luck buying last-minute Opera tickets, starting at 9am the day before for the next night's performances right across the street at the ticket office. A flat 30 Euros each. The Rick Steves Austria book has details -- much less expensive than other options, except the standing room tickets.

SportsTech

Thanks for the advice, I'll certainly try that first. The only online sources are listing tickets for E150+...

fet

Please write the report re: your Bristol stay. We are scheduled for three nights there in the second part of July. Will be interesting to know your experience. Cheers.

luxury

I always fax my ticket requests to the hotel Concierge directly and follow up by phone. Last June, when I took my Mom to Vienna for her first visit, we stayed at the Bristol (that is the stay where we were upgraded from Penthouse Jr. Suite on Star points to the Prince of Wales Suite!!) I faxed the Concierge about 2 months prior to the stay to have them book the Season Finale Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic. The Concierge said no problems. At check-in, he came to me and handed me two tickets to that Concert, ninth row, centre orchestra section, and cost roughly 90 Euro each.

The Imperial / Bristol Concierges are very well connected in Vienna and they should not have any problems in scoring you Opera tickets, provided that you are willing to pay. Best seats for a popular Opera like Carmen are around 200 Euro each, a steal compared to Covent Garden.....

SportsTech

Also excellent advice. I think I'll try to confirm tickets to the Opera for Saturday night in advance, and take my chances with either the Volksopera or KonzertHall (Mozart program) on Friday evening.

Thanks, all! Now, I need to decide where to stay for an evening in Salzburg: Goldener Hirsch or Sheraton Salzburg?

Steve23

I was at both last winter (I purposely switched mid-trip so I could weigh in on this issue). I was Platinum at the time and staying on points and free weekend nights (loved that promotion).

Bristol: Got upgraded to a large room, with a hallway and two bathrooms. Room was very nice, well-decorated, and both the friend I was with and I were enarmored with the heated floors in the bathroom. Completely free bottle of wine waiting in the room on check-in, plus my Imperial torte platinum amenity. Staff was friendly and helpful, not snotty at all about the fact that I'm young (and look younger) and was staying on free weekend nights. Had a drink at the bar (due to buy one, get one free coupon given at check-in) which was pretty empty, so no atmosphere to speak of.

Imperial: No upgrade, room was kind of small but normal for Europe. Also nicely decorated. Imperial torte on check-in, which I think was in addition to my platinum amenity, but can't remember at this point. The shower had minimal water pressure, which I remember being frustrated by. We got room service dessert once, which was OK but nothing spectacular. We preferred the torte. Staff was definitely snotty and stuck-up, especially when we asked about standing room only tickets for the opera.

Overall: The hotels are a block away from each other, in an excellent location a block from the opera house and right by a metro station. There's no big difference between them, so I'd just go with whichever one was cheapest. If prices are exactly the same, I'd go with the Bristol because it's a half a block closer to the metro station. Seriously, they're that close to each other in my mind.

Hope this helps!

number_6

Actually most of the rooms at the Imperial are much nicer (bigger and more lavish) than any of the non-suite rooms at the Bristol -- so in general there is a big difference between them. The Imperial does have a few inside rooms which are their cheapest category (these rooms were originally servants quarters, back in the days when guests traveled with a retinue of servants), and those rooms are comparable to the Bristol. But that is less than 5% of the hotel, and its nice to make some rooms available at half the regular room rate (I suppose less nice from the free night redemption standpoint). It sounds like you got one of those special rooms, from your description.

ThWilmesi

You might be able to get your tickets on your own, you can order any vienna opera tickets also online on their own booking site, should save you quite some money.....have fun - I was at the same time as you in Vienna last year - you will love it.

Only thing to remember - the Vienna opera houses don't have aircondition - it may get very, very hot, just be prepared

Cheers


Thomas

Non-NonRev

The best seats for performances that are part of one or more subscription series are long gone (some of them probably to the concierges at the Bristol and Imperial, no doubt).

The Staatsoper website links to culturall.com, the online ticketing agency for the major Vienna stages. You can play "what-if" and see how many tickets are available in each price category (including exact seat locations). Here is the schedule for the remainder of June (I think after June 30 the house is dark, as the orchestra goes up to Salzburg for the Festspeile):


http://www.staatsoper.at/Content.Nod...hau.php?month=


Note that there are links of short video clips of many of the productions.

There some pretty strong casts - whatever you choose should promise an excedllent evening.

Seattlenerd

That's exactly why we risked buying the last-minute opera tickets from the box office, which sell only from 9am until 2pm the day before the performance. At that time, they were 30 Euros, any available seat, no matter what the original price. (And these aren't the three-dollar standing room seats, of which there are about 500 for any performance and go on sale an hour or so before the doors open -- the SRO positions, on each level, are fine if you only want to catch an hour or so of an opera, just for the experience.)

We got the last-minute seats and wound up seeing a great performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute from 13 rows back, main floor, center. Sixty Euros, total cost.

Yes, it's a risk -- there's nothing available for a sold-out performance, of course. You should also confirm opening time of the box office and current price for these last-minute seats, perhaps even with your concierge if they're really up on things. But it's great fun and a bargain, too.

Oh, and if you get a chance, do the day-time tours of the opera house. They have English-language tours, they're interesting, though they aren't always held if they interfere with rehearsals.

WindFlyer

Not to feel myself alluded to or anything

I agree with your points; and was quite prepared for whatever unique experience The Bristol was going to offer (as a point or reference, I was coming from having stayed at the Goldner Hirsch in Salzburg and some rather quaint Gästhofs in Hallstatt and Melk ). I was somewhat disappointed by my overall experience at the Bristol, and this disappointment simply became greater after reading this thread and finding out that my experiences were different than the majority's.

Perhaps the concierge's matter was what I liked least, as the other things like quirky elevators or having to wait forever to get your key more often than not are minor annoyances that one gets over pretty quickly.

As for the future, I would be glad to give the Bristol another chance. I'll just have to make sure I go there in slow season

WindFlyer

It was when I was there just last week