Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Clean, comfortable, relatively cheap and good location |
| Disadvantages: |
Garish decor, feeble looking breakfast |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
The task to make into a home our new flat in Maribor, Slovenia continues but not with the pace we had hoped for. Having ordered various pieces of furniture we were left with a weeks wait for them to arrive from the store in the capital - by what means they were making the two hour journey I'm not sure! We decided on a couple of days in Graz to occupy some of that time and arrived in the Austrian second city without having booked
accommodation in advance.
Fortunately there is a small tourist information office in the booking office at Graz Hauptbahnhof (Central railway station) where the staff can helping with accommodation enquiries. However, we decided to use the "self-service" free computer information terminal that gives information on all aspects of tourism in the city - restaurants, museums, public transport and so on.
Of the cheaper
hotels listed, Hotel Strasser appeared to have the most convenient location just minutes from the train station and only a short walk or a tram ride.to the historic centre of Graz. We were even able to check room availability using the terminal and though Strasser is not one of them, it is possible to reserve rooms via this system if you wish to be certain the room will still be available when you arrive at the
hotel.
The distance of the hotel from the station was even smaller than we had expected and we did, for just a moment, wonder if we were doing the right thing; after all hotels by stations often have bad reputations and can be of a low standard. The hotel is right on the street and Eggenberger Gurtel is a fairly busy road. However, as soon as we went into the building we realised that the traffic noise was minimal.
Our initial impression was mixed. It was certainly clean and warm and very comfortable although the décor is more than a little excessive with a lounge area and open bar beside the reception desk crammed full of leather chesterfields of various sizes. The walls were painted different colours but always bright - usually a burnt orange or a dusty green - and nearly all available wallspace was covered with all manner of paintings - bold and colourful abstracts, garish still life works and even some hideous animal scenes featuring frolicking bears or beasts from the African plains.
Checking in was simple and the friendly receptionist stoically endured my attempts to converse in German. Although check in was not officially until 2.00pm and we arrived around noon, we were able to take possession of our room. We were given a keycard each and directed to the second floor. The stairs to the floors are sort of "outside" the main building - that is they are on the corner of building and a glass door separates the stairs from the corridors on each floor which should mean that you aren't disturbed by the noise from people going to other floors though in fact the sound of the glass door slamming as people come and go on the floor is just as bad.
After a few attempts we managed to gain access to the room. The bathroom was on the left as you entered and a giant double bed dominated the sleeping area. In fact there was so little space that one could only just pass in front of the bed to get to the other side and in doing so had to take care not to bang one's head on the giant television that was sitting on an arm jutting out from the wall. Quite why there had to be such a large television in a small room is beyond me.
Continuing from the public areas the room was painted a garish orange with some kind of eighties paint effect. In here there were only three paintings - maybe they had run out after the free and easy picture hanging elsewhere in the hotel? There was just enough hanging space for a couple of days of clothes and a small set of drawers each side of the bed; in an attempt to perhaps provide a working space there was a small table and one dining-style chair though there was no task lighting and the main light was not particularly bright.
The bathroom was spotless and a cupboard under the washbasin held extra towels which are always welcome. The shower was described as having massage jets which were turned out to be so powerful it was like being stabbed with needles! However, the water was always hot and the pressure was good. Shampoo and shower gel were provided in dispensers attached to the wall inside the shower unit but were cheap smelling and the shampoo was not good.
Breakfast was included in the price of the room and was served in a fairly large room behind the bar area. It was a standard continental buffet although to me it did seem a bit sparse. When we went down we were the only people there and the trays of sliced meats and cheese were almost empty though there was sufficient for us. The bread baskets were also quite low. There were two kinds of cereal and a selection of butter, honey and jams. Both kinds of fruit juice were flavourless though looked to contain suspect colouring and although there was a fine selection of teas, the coffee was pretty poor and from a vending type machine. Overall breakfast was adequate but filling up the bread, meat and cheese might have made it look less pitiful. During the time we spent eating breakfast no member of staff came into the breakfast room to see if we had everything we needed.
In the evening we had a drink in the bar before going up to the room; again the service was friendly but the atmosphere was deathly, the seats weren't that comfortable and the lights were far too dim. The prices were a little more than in town but not as expensive as many hotel bars.
After a good night's sleep in a very comfortable bed we were ready to cram in some more sightseeing and the receptionist happily pointed out somewhere we could safely leave our bags until we came back to catch our train because check out time was 11.00am.
One last thing endeared me to this hotel though I would not expect it to be the deciding factor for anyone other than myself. We have decided that for the present we won't get a TV for our flat in Slovenia so I had not seen any TV news for almost a week when we arrived in Graz. I was delighted to find that in addition to a couple of German and Austrian channels, the hotel had Serbian TV and the breakfast news on that channel is compulsive viewing - itmakes Borat look like a consumate professional! I always make a point of watching TV from Belgrade whenever I am in the former Yugoslavia and I was thrilled to be able to catch it in
Austria too!
If you like luxury then Hotel Strasser is not the hotel for you; it is described as a two star hotel but I have been in plenty of three starred hotels that were no better than this. Hotel Strasser is a basic, clean and comfortable city hotel in a great location for travellers. In a city where accommodation can be expensive this usefully placed hotel offers good value for money.
Hotel Strasser
Eggenberger Gurtel 11
Graz 8020
Austria
+43 316713977
Check in: 2.00pm
Check out: 11.00am
Price: in January 2008, double room with ensuite facilites and breakfast 70 Euro.
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