Stayed at the Hotel Karlshof for the second year with three good friends. As many have said on Trip Advisor before, this isn't the hotel for people wanting 5-star facilities; it is however the perfect hotel for people wanting unparalleled service - every one of the staff at the Karlshof are polite, cheerful and willing to go the extra mile to ensure all the guests are happy during their stay. OK, so you can't ski in and out of the boot room and it's not right in the centre of Saalbach but the 200m walk to the Schattberg X-Press lift and the fact that the late-night revellers don't come singing / shouting / stumbling past your window makes it pretty ideal in my opinion.
The personal service before, during and after our stay are exemplary - a lot of hotels would do well to get their training at the Karlshof.

If you are after somewhere thats within walking distance to the lifts and bars but dont want to fork out stupid money (leave that to the Germans), then for Saalbach this hotel is probably the best option. For roughly £50 pppn you get a basic (but clean) ensuite room, good food and extremely friendly and helpful staff. The down sides are that its not ski in/out and the breakfast - whilst okay - is pretty limited and the same everyday. The nearest gondola is about a 5 minute walk, with pistes on the other side of the valley probably another 5 minutes. Not too bad, though after a long days skiing hiking that far in your boots is a little painful.

Saalbach, by the way, is a great resort for intermediates. Dont worry about the resort altitude, we arrived in mid-Jan when it hadnt snowed for a month & was actually raining. Still the pistes all the way to the bottom were good. There's not many apres-ski bars in the town to choose from, Taverne & Bobby's Bar were probably the best & stayed open beyond the point we could remain standing up! Stay off the Stroh 80 though, a local spirit which as its name suggests is 80% volume. Lethal & unpleasant!

We had a very nice vacation on this hotel. The staff was great and freindly, the food was good and plenty. The hotel was very good to adapt the menu, if you have an allegic in the family. The skiing is simply great.

Not going to bore you with a long wordy review. You can spend far more than it cost to stay at this hotel and not get anywhere near the high standards presented here.
The team running it are nothing short of excellent, they are more than helpful and interested in YOU having the best possible stay. They are all well presented, smart and attentive. They should be duly proud of what they have achieved.
The hotel is near absolutely everything, bubble, ski bus for variation, minutes walk from the town centre and is positioned so you not part of the nightly revelers drunken parties and subsequent return, unless you want to be. So you can sleep soundly all night!
The nights out in the town were great but drinks can be expensive, the hotel bar is actually very reasonable, so a great place to start.
Food was very good and the Chef provided us with a varied and interesting menu. I was looking forward to what was on offer. Breakfast, Austrian buffet style.
I finally have to mention the Karlshof challenge, I have found out that Ash lost. Nick won, I hope you bought him a drink with the proceeds. So you don’t wonder, it is to walk up under the Shattberg Express then snowboard/ski down. This is no mean feat.