Location

Hotel Am Konzerthause is situated in a good location. Located in 3rd District – Landstraße, Hotel Am Konzerthaus Vienna is near the sights in the Historic City Centre of Innere Stadt of Vienna. The hotel is also very well connected with tram lines that ply through part of the Ringstraße, where most landmarks such as Belvedere Palace, St Charles’s Chuch, the Vienna State Opera and Parliament Opera are situated. There is a subway (U-bahn) station about a 3-minute walk from the hotel, allowing us to visit further away sites (such as Schönbrunn Palace and Stephansplatz). In terms of amenities around the hotel, the nearest supermarket is about a 7-minute walk from Hotel Am Konzerthaus. Other than the in-house restaurant, we found some restaurants near the hotel.

The Suite

We stayed in the 56㎡ Maestro Suite, the highest-category room in the hotel. At the time of booking, we found the rate of the Maestro Suite cheaper than the smaller standard Suite, so we figured it made sense to book the Maestro Suite. There is only one Maestro Suite in the hotel.

Entryway

The entryway to the Maestro Suite does not have any furnishings; it merely acts as a pathway from the main entrance to the rest of the suite. Here is where the door to the powder room is located. It is a pity that the entryway was not fitted with hooks allowing us to hang our winter jackets.

Powder Room

Nestled at the entryway is the powder room. Fitted with a toilet bowl and a small sink, the powder room is brightly lit with the ceiling light and the two other lightings at the mirror. This powder room not only provided us with an alternate place to use the toilet if we were too lazy to walk into the bedroom to use the toilet in the bathroom from the living room, but it also allowed the other guest to use the toilet if the main toilet in the bathroom was occupied.

Living Room

The living room is where we first saw tributes to the Capital of Music dotted in the ornaments around the suite. From the entrance, the bright red high-back armchair in the living room corner immediately caught our eyes. Despite the weird location (the chair is positioned to face the rest of the living room), I thought this chair was a great place for us to place our backpacks and to sit while looking out of the window at the street scenes of Vienna. I thought the decor of the suite looked beautiful. The charcoal colour walls painted with blue flowers and the diamond-shaped mirrors sparsely occupying parts of the wall were tastefully done. The floral theme is not limited to the mural on the wall, we also spotted flowers on the coffee table, the work desk and the small table at the far end of the living room. The living room is also furnished with a light grey armchair, large enough to sit three comfortably, and can be converted into a sofa bed to house another two guests in the suite. Between the red chair and the sofa are two coffee tables, one larger than the other. Other than a vase of flowers on this coffee table, the hotel also placed a bottle of wine in a saxophone-shaped wine holder, paying tribute to the musical theme in the suite. A large flat screen TV is mounted onto the wall inside a metallic ring opposite the sofa. Despite the many channels on TV, only a handful are in English, limiting the entertainment we can enjoy.

A work desk is placed behind the sofa. Topped with a black marble top, the spacious work desk gave us lots of space to do our work on. Besides the electric kettle, Hotel Am Konzerthaus Vienna also equipped the Masestro Suite with a small Nespresso machine. I like the musical note teaspoons at the mini bar, yet another way the hotel reminds us that Vienna is the capital of music. A mini fridge with complementary drinks and snacks is hidden in the cabinet beneath the work desk. Behind the work desk is a small round table accompanied by two chairs. We used this dining table as an alternate place to stow our smaller items. It is interesting to find a functional vinyl player placed on top of a small table sitting in this corner of the living room of the Maestro Suite. Hotel Am Konzerthaus Vienna placed some vinyl records on the two racks mounted on the wall beside the vinyl player. These additional classical music records are playable, besides being ornaments.

Walk-in wardrobe

The Maestro Suite has a walk-in wardrobe next to the bedroom entrance. Fitted with three large panels, the wardrobe space in the suite is very generous. The two wardrobe panels on the left gave us ample space to hang up to one week’s clothing, but the number of hangers the hotel provides limits the amount of clothing we can hang here. The in-room safe is found on one of these shelves, which I find a little too high to access. The inside-most wardrobe has a five-tier shelf design that vastly increases the number of things we can put away in this part of the wardrobe. The three sliding wardrobe door panels are fitted with full-length mirrors, which not only allowed us to check our dressing but also made the walk-in wardrobe appear larger than it is.

Bedroom

The bedroom felt rather spacious as there was no unnecessary furniture that swallowed up precious space in this part of the suite. The king bed, placed against the wall with a dark grey leather cushion headboard, provided excellent sleep quality on the firm mattress. The pillows on the king bed are a tad too soft for my liking. Fortunately, Hotel Am Konzerthaus Vienna has an extensive pillow menu, and I was able to select a firm neck support pillow that left me feeling refreshed every morning. The two stool-like bedside tables provide a small area for us to place our lifestyle devices to be charged overnight. Not installing a bedside lamp and mounting the reading light on the headboard was a great decision made by the hotel, as it meant more space for us to place our stuff. I find that installing the light switches and power outlets on the side of the headboard was a great idea as it made the headboard look clean.

The bedroom is also fitted with a TV mounted onto the wall facing the king bed, which allows us to lie on our beds and watch TV programmes. However, like the TV in the living room, we can watch very limited English channels on the TV. I like how the hotel tastefully placed a music sheet stand with a music score in the corner of the bedroom next to the TV, reinforcing the suite’s music theme. I also like how the hotel designed the lighting in the bedroom. Instead of having lighting hanging from the wall, the hotel has lighting fitted onto the headboard of the king bed and behind the ring panel surrounding the TV. Surprisingly, these lights were sufficient to illuminate the bedroom.

Bathroom

The Maestro Suite at Hotel Am Konzerthaus Vienna has a huge, well-designed bathroom. Using black tiles for most of the bathroom gives a classy and luxurious feel. A black door that leads into the toilet cubicle is sitting immediately after the entrance to the bathroom. Despite housing only a toilet bowl, I thought the cubicle was sizeable. Another glass door to the right of the toilet leads to the walk-in shower. Hotel Am Konzerthaus Vienna also allocated a good amount of space in this walk-in shower, fitted with a rain and hand-held shower head. There is a ledge carved into the wall at the walk-in shower that gave us space to stow our facial washes and dental kits. The water pressure from the shower heads is good, and the hot water heats up pretty fast.

A relatively large area to the left of the toilet is occupied by the sink area, where the hotel fitted his and her sink with a generous amount of countertop space. Bathroom amenities are placed in the centre of the two sinks. However, dental kits and shavers are not provided by default. I am not too sure if they will be available upon request. The other weird thing I found in the bathroom is that only the right sink is equipped with hand soap, while the left sink only has body lotion. Despite predominantly using black in the bathroom, I found the sink area very well-lit. A large bathtub sits opposite the sink, by the wall with the toilet. The bathtub is perfect for soaking away the fatigue from exploring Vienna.

Service

I found the service in the hotel to be lacking. Staff does not seem to display interest in providing good service. It felt like they were merely doing their job, processing check-ins/check-outs and clearing tables. Despite walking past the reception area daily, none of the staff were interested in greeting guests. Despite staying at the hotel’s only highest-tiered suite and my friend being the highest-tiered member of the hotel group, the staff did not give any mention of my friend’s membership status. We even had to enquire about the complimentary breakfast on weekends (which was part of the benefit) as the staff checking us in did not seem interested in providing such information. A staff member we observed was very friendly towards Western guests but was cold when attending to Asian guests. The only saving grace was Sebastian, who was genuine and the only one we found providing any service. One of my friends commented about the toilet in her room. Sebastian patiently listened and even showed her the room before helping her swap her room. He also recommended places to dine and how we could get there. Sebastian was the only one at the reception who would always greet guests whenever we or other guests walked past the reception. Such greetings were absent when Sebastian was not working.

Breakfast @ Apron Restaurant

Hotel Am Konzerthaus Vienna serves daily breakfast in the Apron restaurant, the only restaurant in the hotel, located on the ground floor. The selection during breakfast was rather simple. The hot food selection has five options with the usual eggs, bacon and beans in the buffet section, while the cold food selection has a good variety of greens and cold cuts. The bread is also served at the cold food selection. While thin in the variety of food available during breakfast, the delicious taste of these foods more than makes up for it. The croissants were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, and the bacon and eggs were well seasoned.

Overall

The hotel is in a good location, with public transport just a few minutes walk away. There are several reasonably priced restaurants around the hotel that open pretty late. The suite was very well appointed and tastefully decorated. The Maestro Suite paid tribute to Vienna being the music capital of the world by having small ornaments placed around the room. The bed is very comfortable, and the pillow options are excellent. The Hotel Am Konzerthaus Vienna staff seemed only interested in providing minimal service. I would have thought service was non-existent if not for Sebastian, the only employee interested in ensuring guests were taken care of.