Saalbach, January 2013.

Got back from Saalbach last week and our group had a great time. The skiing was fantastic, the apres just as good. Put it this way we all want to go back again. Our hotel the Berger Sport was a huge disappointment, fantastic location but not a 4 star hotel in a million years. To think we paid quite abit more to stay there than we did to stay in the Postwirt in Soll the previous 3 winters was a joke. All the hotels in Saalbach itself are close to lift. The furthest to us was about a 7 minute walk and the closest about 75 metres!! :-)
I know Saalbach as a resort is more upmarket and you pay accordingly. To help folk gauge it, we were paying no less than Euros 4.50 for a large beer. So much Apres to speak of. Our mature group liked a few light ales in the out door Eva bar to chill out then to Costelo's for a live band and bop.!!! :-)

I remember the horrendous decor of the Berger, walked in and walked straight out again! We were in Hotel Austria mid way between the two resorts.

The decor was something to behold but the size of the rooms and the quality of the fittings for a 4 star was bordering on a rip off. Food, location were excellent and to be honest for a singles trip it would be fine but not for what we forked out for. Our organiser is going to be putting in a massive complaint to Crystal because if that is how they gauge the ratings of the hotels they use we will shop elsewhere for our custom.

Scarlet Fez wrote:The decor was something to behold but the size of the rooms and the quality of the fittings for a 4 star was bordering on a rip off. Food, location were excellent and to be honest for a singles trip it would be fine but not for what we forked out for. Our organiser is going to be putting in a massive complaint to Crystal because if that is how they gauge the ratings of the hotels they use we will shop elsewhere for our custom.

Just checked trip advisor and the Hotel does have mixed reviews, you can't take trip advisor 100% ( Human nature being what it is) but it is a good Barometer :thumbup:

Scarlet Fez wrote:The decor was something to behold but the size of the rooms and the quality of the fittings for a 4 star was bordering on a rip off. Food, location were excellent and to be honest for a singles trip it would be fine but not for what we forked out for. Our organiser is going to be putting in a massive complaint to Crystal because if that is how they gauge the ratings of the hotels they use we will shop elsewhere for our custom.

Wow
I'm really surprised as Saalbach is regarded as a fairly upmarket resort, and Austrian rooms generally are large.

Give crystal some stick but don't expect more than a £50 voucher to spend on another holiday in return :wink:

Tony when I say upmarket it is more expensive to go there than Soll which is what I have gauged as our barometer on for the last 3 years. To be fair the whole resort was visibly more afluent than Soll. The price of drinks and food on the mountain was noticably more but not silly French prices. Don't get me wrong we loved Soll and I would highly recoomend the Postwirt hotel. The Berger is rated on trip adviser as the 4th best in Saaalbach and there are alot to choose from. It was an old building which I would imagine may have been one of the original hotels in town as it had WC's on each floor, to go with the small bathrooms in the small rooms. In other words many moons ago the rooms that had no bathrooms have had them put in which will be why everything was small. With a group of 12 I would like to think they may worry about losing our custom or is that me being silly? :-) I won't hold my breath.

All's not well on the Austrian front me thinks -)

Not at all Ian, poor hotel, fantastic resort amd skiing. Let me think, whats more important? We are already planning to go back to Saalbach next January so it cannot have been that bad.