Originally Posted by
Finkface
Thank you both. One more question. The Marriott is 120k points for a two night stay in a deluxe king with no points upgrade to Club level showing so I will have to pay for that. The IRS is half the price at 60k for the two nights or 100k for a Junior suite on the Club level. Now I know the Marriott has a far better location but is it worth more than double over the IRS? Which would you choose of the two above options?
To me, it definitely would not be, but I am particularly fond of the IRS. I had a contract that resulted in several trips to Vienna over a period of years, always staying at the IRS because I could get a train at the Rennweg Station immediately behind the hotel or the tram just outside the front door to connect to the U-Bahn for where I needed to be. Walking to the ring is a little bit of a hike, but not unpleasant. The Belvedere is just around the corner.
On my first stay, I was upgraded to the junior suite, as I was for every subsequent stay, even after the contract ended when my wife and I went for a non-work related trip. I received a hand-written thank you note from the manager for returning and a small gift (dessert, fruit plate, something along those lines). So, to me, there isn't a question of choice, particularly if the IRS costs less.
Note that you said the junior suite was "on the Club level." That isn't quite correct, unless something has dramatically changed since 2019 and my last visit. The junior suites are on the top floor of the hotel building (I think it has 7 floors - on my first trip, the junior suite floor was card-access only in the elevator, but that's changed). The Club is on the ground floor of the building opposite the hotel, about 8 meters or so across the hotel driveway. If you go to the hotel Web site, Picture 1 shows the hotel building entrance on the left (under the awning). The Club is the building on the right, just behind the planters lining the drive. There are some rooms on floors above the ground floor in the Club building, but they were not junior suites the last time I was there.