For the next hotel stay of our royal visit to Versailles, I spent a quick night at the 146-room Park Hyatt Vienna, as I was arriving from Paris in Air France’s A220 business class, and connecting the following day to Washington in Austrian’s 787 business class.
Continue reading: Review: Park Hyatt Vienna, Austria (World Of Hyatt Gem)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Ben, do you have any insight into the game Hyatt continues to play with their category 7 free night certificate and whether they have gotten enough negative feedback over it? I personally think Hyatt is making a mistake by moving so many flagship aspirational hotels into this made up category 8 that puts them out of reach from the free night certificate. I think we are due for the free night certificates to be bumped up to a 5 and an 8 and I don’t think Hyatt really cares. It’s shortsighted and makes Hyatt look petty because most people don’t go out of their way to stay at a category 7-8 for just one night. Thoughts?
So glad that you decided to stay here, it's my favorite Park Hyatt in Europe! Yes, much better than Paris Vendome.
My wife and I stayed here for my 50th birthday last year, and we had such a lovely, well-serviced stay. All the staff we encountered treated us with such respect and care—certainly compared to other Hyatt properties that purport themselves as luxury.
On the day of my birthday, we returned from touring the Albertina and eating lunch to discover that the staff had provided a Sacher torte in the room. That small act of kindness really made our stay one that I will never forget.
I miss this hotel, glad it's still checking all the boxes. IIRC the pool is located in the old bank vault. For the pillows, I vaguely remember them having pillow options if you ask (but don't quote me on that).
Wasn't there some drama a while back about the hotel potentially leaving Hyatt though?
Lots of concerns during my stay regarding the gruff Austrian service. These are things international management training should have ironed out. I would not return.
@ Français -- Surprised to hear that! I'm curious, could you give some examples? Admittedly my interactions were fairly limited, but I found everyone to be friendly, and that's what most other reports I've seen suggest as well.
Park Hyatt Vienna or Hotel du Palais Biarritz as the best Hyatt in Europe?
Those are my two picks.
PH Vienna pricing largely seems to match the trend w/ higher end Hyatts, where the category is relatively inflated, but the cash pricing doesn't match, so you're rarely getting a good cpp redemption w/ points, but you're still forking over a good amount of cash.
Similar properties to this are PH Auckland and Bangkok, where the average cpp is only 1.7 to 1.8.
@Ben Thanks Ben for allowing my sense of humor. Long time loyal reader here since your blog is the only one worth reading daily. I have learned so much from your blog but sometimes too much info to remember haha. Like silly me for forgetting to book with Hilton Impressario or Hyatt Prive when staying with cash.
Stayed there in a suite for 4 nights over Christmas. Overall we enjoyed it. The suite was beautiful with attention to detail and luxurious refinements. The location could not be better. The concierge team is excellent.
Breakfast in the main dining room was just ok. Trying to get coffee refills almost required you to trip a waiter and the cappuccino tasted like it was machine made - a sin in a city with a strong coffee culture like Vienna. The TVs are dated with no ability to cast content or use Apple TV, etc. Finally, I felt that service was just 'there'. We returned one day at 4pm and found our room had not been made up and the turn down service is nothing special.
That all said, this is the place to be at Christmas with superb access to all that Vienna has to offer. And again, the suite really was a work of art.
Beautiful hotel. Just taking advantage of your review to add a couple of Vienna facts:
1. Am Hof is the largest open plaza in the inner city (Innere Stadt), the old portion of Vienna enclosed by the Ringstrasse. It was the site of the original Roman military encampment.
2. While most people staying at the hotel would not be taking public transit, to clarify:
a. The CAT train is nonstop from the airport to the Wien Mitte station. For 1/3 of the cost one can take the S7 which uses the same traks, has a few intermediate stops, and takes about 7 minutes more the the CAT.
b. The ÖBB (Austrian Federal Rail) Railjet is nonstop from the airport to the central rail station (Hauptbahnhof), different from Wien Mitte. For a little Viennese atmosphere take the D tram from here which goes along the Ringstrasse. From either the City Hall (Rathaus) or the Schottentor stops it is a short stroll to the hotel.
Austrian hospitality and service is great one of the best in europe, along with France and Switzerland. Why do you want American(or what you call „international“ which it isn‘t) service if you visit Vienna? Maybe you should be open to another cultural experience. I do seldomly get European style service when I visit New York or Miami even if staying with a european brand. I would oftentimes prefer to sit for an hour after dinner, when you are rushed out in the US or asked repeatedly whether you need something when all you need is a peaceful atmosphere to enjoy your wine and san Pellegrino. It’s just not something you can easily train people on.
Service might be less frequent here but usually really friendly and honest without pretending to have the utmost pleasure in serving you. People are also not overly communicative with people they don‘t know but that’s it if you visit frequently your server may recognize you year after year in some of the smaller Austrian ski hotels. And you have people who stay employed with their hotel for decades and not just a few months like in the US.
It is really tough to find people working in hospitality in Europe so you have more of a equal footing service culture which I personally prefer to the US style service.
And if you complain about European service (which I can in some scenarios understand, best thing would be a middle ground), Austria is really not to blame first, as it has a great service culture if compared to other countries. So maybe you should give Austria and the Park Hyatt a second chance as the service there is not best described by what you mentioned.
I just left Vienna and stayed at the park Hyatt. This is the best hotel I have ever stayed at. To boot, all the name brand stores are next door and the prices are less than US prices when you account for the VAT refund. (My wife claims she saved me $1,000 by purchasing a Louis Vuitton bag there). That’s wife math for you.
As an orthodox Jewish person they were extremely accommodating to my specific needs there as well!
Loved my stay here last year! And still craving the truffle eggs. They were so good
There is also a Julius Meinl grocery store one block away if you want some snacks or wine in your room.
"...by European standards"?
Wholly mackerel. Next to the photo showing a bowl of fresh pomegranate seeds and passion fruit you take a snarky swipe at the standards of the breakfast buffet? Are you kidding me?
I guess you would prefer to see a riff on greasy bacon, Velveeta cheese cubes and a sloppy waffle machine.
Jeez, c'mon man.
Why don’t you make a pre-arrival request if you wanted a type or number of pillows? I’m sure they know how to do that and it can be added to your property profile.
@ Cbchicago -- The pillows weren't actually an issue, because there were four of them and I was alone, so I could just use two. Since I hadn't stayed here in nearly a decade, I had no clue what the pillows would be like.
@ gregorio -- I wasn't contrasting it to US buffets. Instead, I said "by European standards" to differentiate it from Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern standards, where you'll generally find the most extravagant breakfast buffets.
My wife and I just finished a 15-night stay using 400,000 points and a Suite Upgrade Award. We stay here every March. The service, room, food, and amenities are extraordinary, and the staff treats you like family. If you love music, art, and architecture, Vienna is the place to go to refresh your creative mind. And, at the Park Hyatt Vienna, it's all outside your door.
It's a lovely hotel for Hyatt loyalists but there are more special properties in Vienna. The Sacher and new Rosewood are my favorites.
Stayed here on my last visit to Vienna. Nice property. My room was an interior facing room so the view was really lousy. The room was very spacious though with a large bathroom. Location is excellent. Also stayed at the Andaz. The Andaz is further out but its out near some attractions and close to the train station which makes for easy daytrip excursions to places like Bratislava. I would stay at either again.
Best public transport access is via CAT or S7 to Wien-Mitte and U3 subway to Herrengasse. Use the eastern exit, cross Wallnerstraße and walk through Haarhof passage to the hotel.