Hotel Pension Baron am Schottentor

Hotel Baron am Schottentor was quiet at night despite its central location, and that made it easy to sleep well. I stayed two nights while visiting Vienna. The room was clean, comfortable, well kept and had what I needed for a short stay. It was an easy, pleasant visit, and I’d consider staying again or recommending it to someone visiting the city.

I was just grateful the bed didn’t have bed bugs, because I disliked everything else about the property. The room was dusty, the shower sink drained terribly, the mirror was worn, and the latch on the room lock was flimsy. Shower pressure and temperature kept changing. The toilet sink drained fine, but had no warm water or soap, even though the shower room sink had both. Nothing looked like the Booking.com photos. The pictures make the hotel seem like it occupies the whole building, but it doesn’t. They also use a wide-angle lens, so don’t expect those big, open spaces. The walkways are dark and smell of cigarettes. The hotel isn’t at ground level, so you have to haul heavy luggage up a flight of stairs to an old-looking elevator and ride to L1. That could be hard for anyone with back problems. My triple room, #109, was on the reception floor. The corridor was extremely narrow, about the width of a door, and opening the room door blocked it completely. I’ve attached photos for reference. Since Booking.com doesn’t allow video uploads, I’ll also post the video on Google review so people can see what they might encounter before booking.

The location is outstanding, 11/10. The rooms get 7.5/10. The bathroom is so tiny that I doubt a big person could use the WC. There’s no AC, just a fan. Service gets 9.5/10, though reception closes a few hours earlier than its stated closing time.

The location was the only real plus for the price. It was easy to walk into the old town, and though I was wary of the shops in the building at first, there’s a beautiful church and a nice hotel across the street. I never felt unsafe. We didn’t use much public transit, but it likely would have been easy. Still, I found the stay very disappointing and can’t recommend it. I should have realized something was up because it cost much less than other hotels about the same distance away. I thought we’d found another great deal, like ones we’ve had elsewhere. The online photos are misleading. In person it looks very different and is incredibly run-down. The grand staircase shown isn’t the main entrance. The hotel is three flights up in a strange office building, and the elevator is painfully slow. You can’t get there without taking stairs, which was okay for us but useful to know. The lobby was dark, hot, drab and shabby. Our room was more pleasant than the lobby and spacious, but still disappointing. The bathroom lighting was terrible. The wall-mounted hair dryer worked sometimes and failed other times for no clear reason. When I needed help, nobody was at reception. The room was clean in some ways but not others: sheets and towels were clean, though not fluffy, and there were dust bunnies on the floor. Noise was one of the worst parts. Because it was hot and there was no AC, we had to keep the windows open and rely on the fan. Our room faced the larger nearby street, and Charlie P’s bar was loud until 3 a.m. even on a Sunday. The buildings seemed to amplify the sound in the room. It was either extremely noisy or very hot. WiFi was useless. It only worked occasionally in the foyer of our room, not in the main part, and kept dropping out. Even when connected, it was extremely slow. Reception was open only 9-5. That would have been fine except we were always out then and couldn’t get help when needed. The staff were nice, though.