We stayed here for the last night of a two week tour of Europe. We paid for a junior suite and paid €369 euros half board. It was supposed to be a highlight finally to our tour, but it was far from a great experience.
Firstly the good:
The bathroom in the suite was fabulous, with a huge bath and separate walk-in shower, two basins and even two toilets. Provision of robes, slippers and accessories was very good. The beds were comfortable, the grounds well-kept and very pretty. The rooms are a bit “Disney” in their decoration, everything looks a bit fake, like it’s pretending to be something it isn’t, but over-all the standard is good. Breakfast was excellent which just about anything you could want on offer.
The bad:
The hotel complex is huge. The staff who greeted us at reception were aloof and unhelpful. They gave us our room key and a map (available in German only) and left us to work out where everything was, when it was open and how to get there. This resulted in us spending a couple of precious hours wandering around aimlessly unable to work out where all the facilities were and what we needed to do to use them. My wife would have liked to have some treatments, but all of the information is in German only and so she had no idea what anything was. The Spa staff’s only help was to tell her that they were very busy and that if she wanted anything she’d have to have it within the hour – they didn’t have time to explain what anything was.
The hotel complex is open to non-residents and the “relaxing” pool was full of screaming kids. We were told that the restaurant near our room was fully booked and we couldn’t eat there. This was particularly annoying as we booked half board in a suite and so had pre-paid for our evening meal. The “Casper” restaurant did have one table left so we ate there (you have to wonder what would have happened if that were full) but children were allowed to run around the tables playing games and screaming, not something that we welcomed. Food in the restaurant was at best mediocre. The waitress in the restaurant was excellent however, the only friendly and helpful member of staff we came across.
Whilst the suite was ok, it had no aircon which is unbelievable for a room costing the best part of €300 a night in a remote part of Germany. There was also no Wifi. Apparently, Internet was available on a cable but that’s not much good if you have an iPhone and iPad and the internet socked I tried by the desk wasn’t connected up in any case.
This could have been a much better experience if the reception staff had taken the trouble to show us where everything was and had explained the protocol for booking/using the facilities. Information should also be available in English as it’s clear from the website that they offer to welcome English guests. Finally, if you’ve booked a room half board, it seems reasonable to expect a table reserved for you at dinner! They shouldn’t be letting non-residents book ahead of guests like that.
All in all not an experience I’ll be repeating.
- Graflicher Park Hotel
