This place is stereotypical for many a tourist destination - acceptable, but pricey without much attention to detail... the guests come anyway.
We stayed there for one night stopover in Jan. 2012, because it was conviently located from the highway. The whole place exuded an early 80ies charme, if you can call it that. It does have an elevator, just big enough to move a baby in it´s stroller. The room was o.k., clean but quite small. Recent years must have seen a few half-hearted makeovers (flat screen TV, new tiles on the bathroom floor and updated showers), but not enough to give our room on the 2nd floor a distinct modern feel. You need a login code for the free internet, worked alright, a bit slow. The baby bed put in at our request was about as old as the rest of the furniture. It worked alright for the night, but it made the room even more crammed. I am uncertain if I would want to spend my holidays as a family in such tight quarters. The beds were too soft for my taste.
Overall, a double for 120 Euro wasn´t exactly cheap, and the shower "kit" (a few pieces of soap and a mounted shampoo dispenser) showed the same disappointing half heartedness breakfast did. Breakfast was served in buffet style. Cereals, bread, some meat, a few jams and other portioned spreads, yoghurt, a few veggies, two types of fruit. The meat cuts were the cheap type, as was the orange juice, cheese was in short supply. And why did something as easily supplied as milk have come as UHT? An absolute plus was the friendly young staff at breakfast, who went beyond the call of duty. The restaurant wasn´t open at the time, but from the menu I´d expect average Austrian fare.
The bus line no 4 leaves a few minutes walk from the hotel and takes one into the city center frequently. All in all I´d consider it an option for a short stay, but for a nice holiday... keep shopping around. I have had better for less.
- Hartlwirt Hotel Salzburg
