Review: Rathaus Wein & Design Hotel, Vienna, Austria

Austrian-style wine & design, that’s the concept of this nice four-star hotel, located behind the Ring and only just a five-minute walk away from the MuseumsQuartier, the Volkstheater and the subway stations Rathaus (U2 line) and Volkstheater (U2 and U3 lines). It’s hard to find an establishment at a reasonable price in the Innere Stadt – the historic Vienna, so you have to cheat a little bit. The Rathaus Wein & Design Hotel offers spacious rooms at competitive rates and allows you to rejoin the main attractions of the Austrian capital by foot.

I explored four cities during my eurotrip in Central Europe but Vienna is the only one where looking for an accomodation was as hard. It’s quite an expensive city and you have to resort to some tricks in order to find accomodation without sacrificing the contents of your wallet.

After a few sleepless nights hours on TripAdvisor, I came across this very well ranked hotel, no. 2 in Vienna when I booked my room. It besides holds one of the « Traveler’s choice award 2014 » in the « Luxury » group. The Rathaus Wein & Design Hotel offers moreover several packages at the best rates to make your stay profitable.

I contacted the friendly and very professionnal booking team who was particularly thoughtful concerning my requests. This is how I could get the package « Loooong Weekend » for four nights (3 + 1 complimentary from 17 to 20 August and from 26 to 27 August) even if the four nights weren’t consecutive.

The hotel has 39 rooms, each of them devoted to a Central European wine ; you will learn everything on it during your check-in, and discover a bottle in your room. Wien – Vienna in German, is the anagram of Wein – wine in German, so the Rathaus Wein & Design Hotel does not trifle with wine! A welcome drink is also usually included in the packages offered on the website and the wines are Austrian. They know a lot about wine at the Rathaus Wein & Design Hotel, you can trust their recommendations with your eyes shut and your taste buds wide open!

The hotel is established in a former apartment building around an elevator that stopped at all the floors in perfect silence. A hushed atmosphere reigns all over the place and all your preferences will be accomodated in order to arrange a customized stay and a perfectly suitable room for you : shower or bathtub, red or white wine, courtyard or street view… Don’t hesitate to be vocal about your wishes! The smallest rooms are 26 square meters, we are far from the Parisian hutches sizes.

The classic double rooms are covered by strange cabalistic signs painted from ground to celling with neutral shades of white, beige and powder pink. The whole thing sometimes lacks warmth (the bare floor doesn’t help) but becomes more soothing thanks to the uncluttered panelling: bedheads or bathroom partitions, for example.

The bathrooms would deserve to be equipped with a double vanity unit, but the spacious Italian-style shower with a heating underfloor is a real delight. I could notice a growing trend in luxury hotels of Central Europe: open-plan bathrooms or with glass walls. But if you don’t like it, just let it know before your reservation, there are always « classic » bathrooms available!

Besides, the hotel offers all the conveniences that are expected from this type of four-stars hotels: bathrobe, slippers, minibar, safe, flat-screen TV, complimentary mineral water, etc.

The perfect breakfast is an ode to Viennese delicacies! Served from 07:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. during the week and until noon during the week-end and holidays, they will soothe every hunger.

The establishment offers a selection of fresh home-made pastries, viennoiseries, brötchen, fresh fruits, müeslis, seeds, groundnuts at will show an high interest for the healthy concerns of customers today. The salted buffet displays a rare diversity of dishes and if it’s not enough, the kitchen team will make no difficulty to prepare all your morning cravings.

Well, the Rathaus Wein & Design is a perfect Viennese pied-à-terre, which can be recommanded without any reservations! Chic without ostentation, the design is not intimidating here. Everyone will take care of you!