Im Palais Schwarzenberg

Faded Nobility

The Palais Schwarzenberg is the former residence of the Schwarzenberg family (parts of the palais are still inhabited by the family), it is a relatively nice castle close to the Karls church and next to the Belvedere Castle. The first impression, unfortunately, is a large public parking lot directly in front of the palais. The building itself is partly renovated, the front is painted in a rather pleasant pale yellow and grey, apart from the main building the castle has two side wings. The reception is to the right of the building and quite nicely furnished, if you walk straight through the reception, you will reach a lovely terrace with a view of the hotel park. There is also a quite nice terrace restaurant. I only know the more traditionally furnished rooms of the main building (the right side wing has some modern designer suites), there are about 4 rooms on each of the three floors (there is also the ground floor, which has the public rooms), they are furnished relatively simple, apart from the one or two lovely old pieces of furniture in each room. The wallpaper is cloth and looks quite smart, but in our room was quite dirty on one wall. The bathroom is medium-sized with a comfortable bathtub and lots of marble. The public rooms include a comfortable fireplace room as well as a nice bar and the room where you find the breakfast buffet (which is nice, but during the 6 days we were there, it was exactly the same every single day - some variation would have been nice). The hotel has some gala rooms for festivities, which are rather grand and all in all the ambience is quite nice and noble, but on some points fading (i.e. the dirty wallpaper, buildings only partly painted). Also, if you go there, request a room with view on the park. Ours looked out front and it was quite loud outside (cars, construction, music...). The Palais Schwarzenberg is a nice enough hotel, but it didn't quite offer what I had expected from its reputation and price.

Unique Quality: We absolutely enjoyed the friendliness and efficiency of the staff. Everybody was really polite and friendly in a very natural and pleasant way, everything was taken care of quickly and well - this is one of the best staffs I have ever encountered in a hotel. - Another nice aspect is the private park which offers a restful environment after a busy day of sightseeing. - The food was okay but highly overpriced.