Le Meridien, Vienna

...and my second stay in Le Meridien hotel. Too late in the year to take a beach holiday for less than a grand each but needing a break after 6 months solid work, I decided to go back.


Journey
We flew Austrian Airlines from Heathrow (Terminal 2 - Very quiet & we managed to check in with no wait at all) to Vienna airport, a 2 hour 10 minute journey in a tiny little Fokker plane. We were almost on the back row on the way ...
...food was supplied by Do&Co, a European restaurant chain, but I declined it on both legs. On the return journey we were sat in the middle of the plane and the temperature was much better. Check in at the airport was a little slower than on the way out but still only about 10 minutes wait.
We took a taxi from the airport which worked out at €45 & €40 on the way back. There is a bus service & CAT train which I imagine are much cheaper but our ... more

This was my 2nd visit to Vienna and my second stay in Le Meridien hotel. Too late in the year to take a beach holiday for less than a grand each but needing a break after 6 months solid work, I decided to go back.

Journey
We flew Austrian Airlines from Heathrow (Terminal 2 - Very quiet & we managed to check in with no wait at all) to Vienna airport, a 2 hour 10 minute journey in a tiny little Fokker plane. We were almost on the back row on the way & found the heat from the engines quite intolerable. The food was supplied by Do&Co, a European restaurant chain, but I declined it on both legs. On the return journey we were sat in the middle of the plane and the temperature was much better. Check in at the airport was a little slower than on the way out but still only about 10 minutes wait.
We took a taxi from the airport which worked out at €45 & €40 on the way back. There is a bus service & CAT train which I imagine are much cheaper but our bags were heavy & I didn't fancy walking to the hotel from the station/stop

Location

Vienna's centre is surrounded by the ringstrasse, a 6 lane road, so once you're in the centre its difficult to stray too far. We were on the openstrasse part which is SSWest of the ring road. " minutes over the road and you are on the main shopping street which leads to the town square (5 minutes walk) so perfectly located really. Behind the hotel is the museum quarter so shopping or culture were both nearby.
Arrival
The outside of the hotel doesn't really look much, a couple of alarmed doors & an automatic revolving door which plays sloshing water sounds while you're in it. Inside as a little more impressive, lots of sofas & a couple of pieces of art (like magic eye) where you have to stand back behind a red floor marking to see the picture. The bar/restaurant is curtained off at the back where the sofas are rather than having a wall; it gives the room a much bigger feel. There's also a PC set up with free internet but you had to be lucky to catch it free or risk using it late at night after a few drinks
Check in was very quick and easy, they took my credit card details and gave me a card which I could use to charge bar bills to my room. The key card had been designed by a Japanese artist & could also be used to gain admission to a local gallery (this is probably a seasonal thing so don't expect it if you're reading this in 2008 onwards). The receptionist was very jolly and seemed to find everything we said hilarious which was odd but nice. 3 very fast lifts led to the upper floors, all with the sloshing water effect noise in them & bar/restaurant menus on the walls.

The Room
I had upgraded from a regular room to an executive room for an extra £5 per night because they wouldn't guarantee a huge bath in the normal rooms, other than that I couldn't tell any difference in the room from my previous visit. We were on the 5th floor & down the corridor & down another corridor & up some stairs & down the corridor & round the bend. This meant we had a view of the inside of all the rooms above the restaurants skylights.
The bed was Queen size & very comfortable, set behind was an etched glass screen, 2 side lights & bang in front was a LCD TV fastened to the wall. Unfortunately the TV programs were very foreign so we only had a choice of CNN & MTV Europe(endless repeats of European music awards). There was a little figure hugging armchair, a chaise langue, desk & wheelie coffee table with half a dozen magazines which were there more for effect than of being any use to visitors. All the usually hotel stationery was provided at the desk.
The bathroom, the bathroom, the bathroom - a huge claw foot bath, opaque wash bowl & wet room with 3 water jets rather than just the shower head. Shampoo, moisturizer, conditioner, mouthwash, cotton buds were all provided along with flip flop slippers & bath robes. Toilet roll quality was the main thing that let down the bathroom, not the roughest possible but definitely not the quality my ### is used to.
The mini bar was free!!! & included 2 still waters, 2 sparkling, orange juice, apple juice, 1 beer, diet coke & coke. We managed to almost empty this every day so it did save us buying bottles of water for the room ( we did drink tap water in restaurants-its quite safe). There's a kettle, 2 types of Nescafe, teabags, hot chocolate & plenty of sugar If hot drinks are more your thing.
Other room features included
A choice of 4 types of pillow (ring reception to order)
Couple of apples
Windows which open
Smoking room option
Ironing board & hair dryer

Food And Drink

Bar Shambala - The hotel bar is a little soulless but offers a good selection of cocktails & for me, being able to smoke indoors is a boon. There are a couple of booths which would fit about 8 people & the rest of the bar is just chairs and tables, unless you want to sit up at the bar. They will bring your drinks over & as in all bars in Vienna we went in, theres a complimentary bowl of nibbles (nuts or wasabi covered nuts). You can order bar snacks or there is a restaurant with a menu by Michelin star celebrity chef Michel Rostang. We didn't eat there on this visit but I did last time & it was very good & not too expensive.

Leisure Facilities

There's a small gym in the basement with 2 treadmills, 2 bikes, 1 step machine & 2 cross trainers. All the usual weight are there & you can have a personal instructor if you want. The pool is about 12' x 20' so not really big enough to swim in but it does have handles on the side so you can kick against the jaccuzi like jets that pulse every 5 minutes in various parts of the pool - or just go in the Jacuzzi. Steam and sauna rooms were quite small & expect to see other people strip off completely when they go in! Changing rooms were a tad small but there were never many people there when I went so it wasn't too bad. All these facilities are free & you are given a locker key in exchange for you room key, towels & sun(?) loungers are abundant.

Departure

We filled in a quick checkout form hich was dropped off the day before we left so all we had to do to check out was drop our key cards into a Perspex box on the reception counter. The bill follows in the post so if you have any drinks charged to your room from the bar you don't see it until you have got home. They store your bags for you free of charge & if you tell them when you are returning they will make sure theres a cab waiting for you (although there were always plenty of cabs outside whenever we went out for the night)

Problems

We did have a couple of problems during our stay though & I didn't feel as if they were dealt with as efficiently as they were on my previous visit. Our key cards reset themselves twice ( we weren't the only ones, I saw other people complaining), which isn't such a big issue if your room is near the lift but we were quite a walk away & it was annoying having to go back to reception to get them fixed. The other issue was potentially more embarrassing - We were there for 5 nights & 3 times the cleaner ignored our do not disturb sign & walked into the room without knocking at 8.30 & once the mini bar filler upper walked in. I spoke to reception about it but they didn't seem to think it was much of an issue & simply said " they would speak to housekeeping" It didn't happen on the last night/morning otherwise I would have really blown my top. After overhearing a conversation in a bar we found out there were some EU representatives in Vienna that week & we clicked that we had seen lots of security guards milling about the hotel - perhaps this is why we were not so important to them (still no excuse really)

Summary

A very nice hotel, I would still go again despite my couple of gripes although its not as nice as it was the first time I went. All the staff speak multiple languages which makes life easier & the location is perfect.

***update***

last week i received a letter apologising for the intrusions & a free room upgrade for my next stay 

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