The atmosphere in this hotel is anything but friendly. In fact i would suggest that intimidation is used by the owners and seniot staff to keep customers under control and maintain profits. True our room was large if dated with a comfortable bed but the bath was dangerously slippery and a request for a meagre bath mat was ignored. Even after I injured my knee on the slopes one was not provided and nearly all of our showers were taken next to the sauna and not in the room. Food was no more than adequate and the service was very poor and seemed to be linked to the buying of drinks.

I have skied in Niederau off and on for over 30 years and have stayed several times at the Harfenwirt. Herbert Thaler, the owner is an excellent host. The new rooms are excellent, they were built in 2008 and are spacious with good balconies. The view towards Niederau (facing west) have a better view, in my opinion. The older rooms are still good and those facing the ski slopes are better, on the front of the building. The a la carte food is very good, traditional Tirolean dishes; those on half board are also well provided. The new wing includes a good indoor spa area with pool, sauna etc. My only slight criticism from this trip was the breakfast which although substantial, is rather like a motorway service station and lacks service and the fruit juice is at best, poor as it was heavily watered down. Despite that, it is an enjoyable place to stay and with good snow, as it was last week, the location is great with skiing literally on your doorstep for both beginners and more advanced skiers as well. I will be back.

After experiencing a wonderful skiing holiday in Feb 2011 as a party of 11 staying at the hotel harfenwirt, we immediately booked for this year (2012). The hotel was so clean, friendly and offered and met all of our requirements for an amazing and wonderful holiday. Herbert was welcoming, amusing and all the staff were great. The skiing and ski school was located across the road and was ideal for our requirements as our party was a mixture of experienced, novice and skiers of a range of ages. Friends that we met in 2011 who were staying at the sister hotel (sonnschein) are joining us this year at the harfenwirt. We have only a few weeks to wait and are excited about our return to a wonderful austrian location. Look out Herbert, we will be with you soon.x

We spent a week at the Harfenwirt with our 8 month old baby and overall, we felt it was good value for money. We paid slightly extra for a superior room (only £30 or so more) and this was great for us - it was really spacious, with lots of room for the baby and wonderful views of the mountains from the balcony. We used the pool twice, and this was a really good facility to have, especially with a baby to entertain. The hotel is well located for the slopes, lifts, bars etc. There were some negatives though. We found the staff at the hotel to be rather unfriendly much of the time. They don't seem to have a particularly customer-focused ethos - for example, they wouldn't provide free tap water with meals (even though we were paying for beer and soft drinks at the time). Also, although the food wasn't expensive, we felt it was of poor quality - oversalted, overcooked vegetables, not very healthy - though to be fair, the same could be said of much of the food we had in Austria. Maybe it's what they think skiiers want. Overall, we'd probably stay here again, if we couldn't find a better deal at another hotel (everyone staying at the Hotel Sonnschein seemed very happy!)