Hotel Elefant

The room was nice, and the hotel restaurant was fantastic, as I mention in my separate review. The staff were professional, pleasant, and great to deal with. The location is right in the heart of the old town. My only reason for giving four stars is the room size. It was cruise ship small, maybe even smaller than our room on our last cruise. We didn’t bring much luggage and still felt cramped. If you travel with a lot of bags, make sure to ask for a larger room.

Staying in an economy room without breakfast at Hotel Elefant was good value for the location. Being right in the middle of the Old Town made exploring easy, with everything in Salzburg just steps away. The hotel is historic and clean, and its reliable lift was especially important for my mobility impaired father.

I came for the restaurant because the menu showed it was one of the few places in Salzburg where a solo diner could order the much-talked-about Nockerl. Almost everywhere else limits it to two people. The food and service were good. The downside was being seated alone at a small table right by the door, where I got a blast of cold air each time it opened. Solo travelers can bring in money too, so don’t dismiss us.

Update January 22nd, 2026: The hotel still hadn’t responded about the overcharge documented below. I finally got through after leaving multiple messages and was very disappointed, especially by the claim that this was about an incident from December, as if I hadn’t contacted them within hours of leaving and tried several times in different ways since. Very bad business model. We stayed December 1-3 and booked directly with the hotel. The location was great, and we had a nice stay overall. The reason for my original 2 star review was the breakfast charge. I booked the breakfast included option, and when I checked in I double checked with the person at reception. They looked at our reservation and told me breakfast wasn’t included, and that it would cost an extra $25 euros per person per day. With the room already costing so much, we decided to eat out instead. I thought I might have made a mistake, since our friends staying with us had breakfast included and ate at the buffet all three days. They said it was lovely, and one of them is gluten free. After checkout, I checked my reservation and it clearly said we’d paid for the breakfast buffet. I contacted the hotel that day, politely explained the mix-up, and asked for a refund since we’d been given the wrong information. Our friends told us guests had to sign in with their room at each breakfast, so I asked the hotel to check the records. They replied briefly that we’d eaten breakfast there and signed in. That wasn’t true. We paid 50Euros/day for breakfast we didn’t eat, and bought breakfast down the street all three days. I tried calling five times, but each time I was put on hold and the call disconnected at the 5 minute mark. Richard and Robert responded to my emails. Our friends also emailed them a week ago. They said staff would surely remember them eating alone because of his food allergy, and that they were standing with us at check-in when we were told we didn’t have breakfast included. They got no response either. Double check your information before you pay. Sadly, we didn’t look at the paperwork until we were already on a train leaving Salzburg. I asked the hotel to get back to us, but heard nothing. The owner responded a week ago saying they’d look into it, then nothing more. I first reported the mistake on December 4th, 2025. Three weeks went by with no response, so I changed my rating to one star. By December 29th there was still no reply. In 12 years, I’d never left a bad review before. I was disappointed because they could have fixed a mistake and left me saying, “They made a mistake but fixed it, no problem.” Instead, what I tell people about the hotel is very different. The hotel's later response was addressed “Dear Ms. and Mrs. Boyd” and signed by Michael Sommer, Front Office. It said the stay was around two months earlier and the specific situation was hard to remember. He said he generally works conscientiously and checks booking details carefully when guests ask about included breakfast, so he assumed he had correctly told us that it was included and shown in the booking information. He added that if there had been a misunderstanding, he didn’t understand why we hadn’t asked for clarification during the stay or at checkout, since the confirmation clearly showed breakfast included.