PH Vienna

Time passes and the week before our departure we decide to leave a day early. Checking out the options, I again consider whether to stay elsewhere for that first day or stay at the PH. Again I think about the RC and the other options. But the prospect of not moving wins so I end up booking a regular king room on points at the PH. Money saved is money that MrsFDW can spend elsewhere. I reach out to the hotel and ask mention that I have two bookings, one for a suite and one for the first night in a room and if possible if they would accommodate me all in the same room (suite). They agree to my request and the front office manager mentions that he will be on duty when I arrive and would love to meet me. In emails with the concierge I attempted to book a car transfer which went something like this.

Me: I’m arriving on XXX day on flight LH XXX at XXX. I would like to book an

E-class transfer please.

Them: Ok that’ll be 55 euros and all we need from you is a final confirmationMe: Ok, that’ll work.

So I’ve thought that I’ve arranged my transportation. But apparently I have not.

Other conversations I have with the concierge include:

Me: It’s my anniversary on Oct XX, can you recommend any a restaurant please. We tend to like Italian, but really are okay with anything. I would like some place casual, with good simple fresh food.

Them: here’s a list of Italian restaurants

Me: Okay how about non Italian options

Them: Consider Silvio Nickol in the Palais Coburg (Michelin starred restaurant- not casual or simple)

Me: nevermind, I’ll figure out myself

That’s interchange made me think that they really didn’t even read my request too thoroughly…

So in summary on pre-arrival:

• good experience with front office/reservation about handling of our reservation
• poor communication with the concierge

Our flight into Frankfurt was delayed so we ended up missing our connection. Once we landed I immediately called the PH and talked with the front desk.

Me: Hi this is FDW we missed our connection. Please don’t send the car yet. I don’t know what flight we will be one but I will call back.

Them: Ok

After we sorted everything out, I called the PH back and they transferred me to the concierge. Who told me that it didn’t matter because they did not have any transportation arranged. Apparently sending all my flight info and sending back what I thought was an Ok; was not a final confirmation in their book. Ok I can maybe get that but a little initiative to perhaps followup on my request would have been great. Thank goodness our flight had been delayed because I would have shown up at VIE without any transportation. With two hours notice they were able to arrange transportation. We were met by the driver outside security who walked us past the curb, past short term parking, into a parking garage and down into the rental car area. Apparently out car was parked in the Sixt parking lot, which I found to be a bit weird. Standard E-class; driven by executives and cab drivers all over Europe. Upon entering the smell was that smell of air fresher covering up cigarette smoke… likely the car hadn’t been smoked in but the driver was probably a smoker. My wife and I have sensitive noses so it was almost nauseating. A nice touch was that there were two water bottles waiting for us…. Except for that they were empty. Fortunately the driver did notice that and rectify the situation. VIE is a pretty short drive to the PH and when we pulled up it appeared that there was only one doorman and he was tied up with a trolley full of luggage. So we maneuvered our luggage up to the front desk. After giving our name, the agent asked us to leave our bags and follow him to the room to complete the check in. A quick tour and explanation of the hotel and we were lead to the room. Our passport and credit card information was taken and then the agent asked us what we wanted for our Diamond amenity. He stated that since it was late it would come the next night (which was fine) and did we want a bottle of wine or champagne or something sweet or something savory. Given that we aren’t huge wine drinkers we asked if maybe we could have something sweet and perhaps a pot of tea. He explained then that breakfast was served in the Bank from 6:30-10:30 but I did have to prompt him if it was also available via room service.

So in summary on arrival:

• Poor communication with concierge
• Poor outsourced transport service
• Excellent in room check in

Absolutely gorgeous renovation. Beautiful soaring ceilings in the public spaces (especially the Bank). I loved the option of having a stair case that stretched the entire height of the hotel- I don’t mind walking and they were a plus. One thing to note that even to get to the elevator from the front door there are a fair number of stairs so keep that in mind if mobility is an issue. I’m sure that they have some sort of accessibility somewhere (side door?) but they didn’t seem obvious to me. I liked the cigar and whiskey lounge a lot.. Very masculine, very old school feeling.. Cozy. I didn’t care too much for the pearl I think (which was downstairs).. Felt very closed in with low ceiling heights. It probably had a normal ceiling height but with the other ceilings so tall it seemed quite low. Probably one of the biggest pluses about this hotel was the location. Very very close to everything. We walked a whole ton. Close to all the major sights. Very convenient. IT’s also close to a number of underground stops as well. We ended up using their city bike option too; with a station close by. It’s a great way to see the city and Vienna is bike friendly. I would have loved to see the PH offer bikes like their Washington and Tokyo counterparts (two cities with less affinity for bikes than Vienna) 

The Park suite is beautiful. Tall ceilings, great bathroom.  Top notch hot water and pressure (hot water available very quickly after turning on). A very very nice dressing room, which was great because we were there for 6 days and spread things out a bit. Blauise mautin amenities. The bedroom was a bit tight but perfectly fine. The bed was the standard Park Hyatt combined mattress/box spring.. Not quite as plush as I would have liked but still comfy. The large double paned windows were nice. I wake up early/suffer from horrendous jet lag and loved reading on the couch in the living room. In room coffee was the Ily Francis Francis.. while I prefer Nespresso this would be my second choice. Wifi connection was solid but the speeds were merely ok. (4 Mbps down). We managed to stream a TV show without any difficulties. I checked at all hours the speeds and never managed to get anything more or anything less. So, it was definitely a solid connection but nothing impressive (I got the same speeds using my 3G sim) There are a couple of quibbles I’d like to point out.

• Control panels were everywhere to control lights of sort. Call me old fashion but I like light switches next to reading lights or lamps. I hate having to figure out which button turns on what. And, I couldn’t figure out how to just turn on an individual light. Plus I couldn’t figure out which button actually did what. For instance, if I turned off the light in the bathroom it actually also turned out all the lights in the bedroom, much to my wife’s fury. I couldn’t seem to figure out how to turn the bathroom light out without turning out the bedroom lights. In no world does it make sense that the bathroom light control also controls the bedroom lights. In addition, I couldn’t get the shades to work in the master bedroom for the first 3 days. There was a button on the control panel that appeared to be for the shade but nothing happens when it’s pushed. It was only on the 4th day that I realized that the shade was actually controlled by a shade…. A bit strange to have everything else motorized (blackout curtains, shade in living room) and then leave this to the old fashion way.
• One blackout shade didn’t fully blackout… didn’t appear to be mounted corrected
• Only 1 plug converter (that I found in the dressing room)
• No shaver plug in the bathroom
• Lots of channels on TV; almost all seemed to be the news in about 90 different languages.
• Bose Bluetooth speaker in the bedroom but no clock. I’ld rather have a clock instead of relying on my cell phone for the time. And, I know there are some folk that don’t travel with a phone.
• I think our room had two fireplaces at some point.. It would have made the room incredibly cozy to have had a gas fireplace.
• The bathroom had amazing tile work; really nice attention to detail. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to get the bidet to work (just out of curiosity). No instructions and didn’t want to spray the water everywhere. Should have gone with Toto.
• Tub had the awesome temperature select buttons, but was a bit narrow.

In summary my thoughts on the room

• Great bathroom and absolutely beautiful suite
• Control panel absolutely confusing
• Attention to detail? Blackout shade poorly mounted, manual operated shade. No shaver plug no clock

Living Room

Bedroom

TV in bedroom

Bose bluetooth speaker. Clock would have been better.

Bathroom

Shower

Bathtub

Tile Work in bathroom- seemed to match up all over the room

Dressing Area

Control Panel. Note the shade button doesn't do anything

Black out curtain that didn't fully black out. There was actually a piece of velcro that held the curtain over. Maybe duct tape would have fixed it...

Diamond breakfast option was either for breakfast served in the Bank restaurant or via room service. The first 3 mornings we opted to have breakfast in the Bank. The buffet is small but stocked with the essentials: juices, cereals, fruit, pastries, cold cut meats, cheese, two types of salmon and a small selection of hot plates (sausage, bacon, mushrooms, potatoes, and tomatoes). In addition, it was possible to order hot dishes from the menu through the waitress. Here is my biggest problem with the breakfast menu: the lack of breakfast entrees. The menu was pretty basic. The options were: waffles, French toast, pancakes and eggs cooked to order. Eggs benedict wasn’t listed as an option and there wasn’t any sort of savory type entrees offered. I like being able to order something like that (what comes to mind is the Migas at the PH Istanbul). And the hot dishes are pretty small. Not a huge deal but when it came to ordering room service it was the same deal. The first time we ordered room service my wife ordered the waffle and that’s all that came was a waffle. So I would advise when it comes to room service to really spend some time to order exactly what you want. I did find it odd that they didn’t read the order back but the orders all arrived accurately and within the time period promised. And they did a solid job with the poached eggs, which I always find to be a hard thing for room service to get right (often arrive overcooked). All and all breakfast was solid but rather uninspired. It actually got a little old by the sixth day. I’m a whisky guy and I very much liked the whisky they had on offering… prices were actually quite reasonable…

Nice sized fitness area that I actually did manage to use (thanks jet lag!). Nice modern equipment with TVs but I found it a bit odd that they only stocked sparkling water. The pool is awesome. It’s kept at a great temperature for just pooling but if one was to do laps it would probably be a tad on the warm side. I loved the glass tile bottom. Once more, stairs to navigate from the spa reception to the pool.  Spa prices seemed reasonable for a hotel of this caliber (expensive but to be expected). I didn’t check out the steam/sauna option but there did look to be some sort of massaging spa shower as well as an ice fountain area. 

Service

There’s going to be a lot here so I’ll break it down into categories.

Front office/check-in/check-out: Things I liked was fairly good pre-arrival communication with the front office resulting in our accommodation in a suite the entire stay. That was awfully generous. In room check-in was great, especially after our delay in arriving. On our anniversary I went out and bought flowers, and after asking they provided a vase. They were also quick to get me coffee capsules after I had only been provided with decaf (more on that later…)

Not so good was the diamond amenity delivery. We were offered either points or the amenity and we selected the amenity. We were asked our preference (settled on something sweet with hot tea) and then told because of the late hour it would be delivered the next. The next day came and went and there was no sign of the diamond amenity. On the third day I decided to ask the front desk about the diamond amenity again. They asked if I would like something to drink or something sweet or savory. I opted for something sweet. When it arrived later that day, it was 5 mozart chocolates. Probably the lamest attempt at an amenity I’ve ever seen. I saw a box of 6 of these chocolates for 2 euros (it might have been 2.50…). Nonetheless on initial offer I do recall hearing something about a bottle of champagne.. this seemed actually downright insulting…  Another service not so ideal was after working out one morning I went by the front desk and asked if housekeeping could bring us two additional pillows later. I specifically added that my wife was still sleeping so could they please bring it by when they serviced the room… About 30 minutes later the bell rang with our pillows… waking my wife up. Check-out was fast and accurate without any issues. 

Concierge: I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned my misadventures with the concierge on the airport transfer and the restaurant, but I had one further interaction with them. I asked them to try to make a reservation at Walter Bauer, which ended up being full. They, however, did not take the opportunity to suggest other options, which I think would have been very proactive.

Food and Beverage: service was fairly solid at breakfast. Requests for my poached eggs with salmon and spinach with hollandaise sauce were handled easily. One weird thing is that my napkin kept falling on the floor when I went to go to the buffet. Instead of placing it back on my chair, the server would take it. However, only once did they replace the napkin after taking it.  I did have an espresso order forgotten; but to be fair, the waitress got yelled by the next table over right after I placed the order. I only ever ordered one drink in the bar. And it was to go (well I wanted to enjoy it in my suite). Thankfully this didn’t seem to bat an eye.

Housekeeping: This is probably the biggest disappointment. Superficially they did a fine job. But in reality they missed a lot of stuff. My empty whiskey glass sat on the desk in spite of 2-3 services. An empty room service coffee carafe also received similar treatment (or mistreatment). The first morning I had set an espresso cup down on a window sill and it left a little stain. Such stain remained for the remainder of our stay, suggesting that the window sills hadn’t been dusted during the duration of our stay. Never once was the water in the coffee machine replenished. Finally the most disappointing was turn down. It was probably the most superficial turndown I had ever received; akin to something I would see at a basic Hilton. Towels were refreshed, the bed was made and turned down, and the shades closed but that was it. Water was only left maybe 2 of the 6 nights (maybe more on this later?). One morning I woke up to a lot of noise and realized that while they had shut the shades, they had left a window open during turn down.  Many hotels seem to leave the room service menu and slippers near the bed during turn down but not here.

Minibar: why do I include this separately? Because apparently the minibar was serviced separately. That included the coffee and tea. Bear in mind that the minibar was one of those automatic jobs I think. So, including the twice daily housekeeping service there was also someone in and out the room performing minibar service. I didn’t realize that this was the case until one afternoon when we stayed in and left the DND sign on. So, we didn’t receive any coffee/tea replenishment that day. Two afternoons later, we stayed in but decided to leave the DND sign off. Sure enough about 4 PM there was a knock at the door and a gentleman who said minibar. One thing that was strange is that he wasn’t in uniform (he wore black jeans and a black and white striped shirt that was untucked) and didn’t have an ID badge. But, he did have a cart of minibar supplies. Compared to the professional attire worn by everyone in the hotel he looked a bit out of place. I suppose its common for hotels to have a separate minibar service, but given that the minibar is automatic it could have alerted them when the minibar needed service and that housekeeping could have handled the coffee and tea replenishment. Speaking of the replenishment, it was hit or miss whether we would have the appropriate teas replenished (we prefer mainly the green/jasmine options but after the first two days we never saw them again). Finely, as I alluded to earlier they only gave us decaf capsules one day. 

Finally, at no point during our stay was there any mention of our anniversary. I know that the diamond line has placed a note in the file and I had made an inquiry with the conceirge about an anniversary dinner. I've often recieved a note, or even a little treat from many hotels on special occasions and the PH Vienna showed zero recognition. Even a simple thanks for spending your anniversary with us would have been nice.

I think that perhaps I had some issues to complain about. Honestly I thought about it but part that deterred me was the fact that I had used points+cash to book the room and a DSU. For Vienna, our room was an absolute steal. It’s like buying a Hyundai and getting a Rolls. Did this deter me from saying anything? Yeah I think so. I’m not sure if I was treated any different because of how I booked or if what I observed is an endemic problem of the hotel, but either way it doesn’t bode well for the PH. The hard product is pretty nice. The hotel itself is beautiful, the room quite nice but with some of its quirks. The attention to detail and service at this hotel really drag it down and soil the whole experience unfortunately. If I was in Vienna again and paying for a room I would most definitely not pick the PH.  And, there in lies the problem: PH should try to convert award stays into revenue stays. But, more times than not I’ve found that that’s not the case. I think the Istanbul outpost is one of the few that fit the bill. I’m not sure who PH considers their competition to be but most FS tend to blow the PHs away and the room rates aren’t terribly different. It’s a real shame because the PH Vienna has a great hard product and if the soft product matched then it would be an unbeatable product in Vienna…

Four Seasons Prague.. a world of difference... but this new format is quite time consuming so it might be a while...