VAYA Zell am See

The staff looked after our big group brilliantly, and the food was great. We stayed on half board, with fresh, varied breakfasts and good dinners that always had plenty of choices. The rooms had plenty of space, comfortable beds, and hot water. It’s also very easy to get onto the mountain, with ski-in/ski-out access, ski school, rentals, and gondolas all within 100m. A really good stay, made even better by the staff.

The friendly restaurant staff, decent breakfasts, and the ski slope right beside the hotel were the only real positives for me. They don’t make up for how poor the rooms, cleanliness, and service were for the price. The room looked nothing like the website photos and felt old and neglected, from the worn furniture to the walls. The bathroom was in especially bad shape and clearly needed renovating. There was a persistent unpleasant smell, and we found insects in both the room and bathroom, which left me seriously concerned about hygiene. At night there seemed to be nobody working. If you lost your room card or it stopped working after going outside, there was no one to answer the phone or let you in. That happened to our friend, who had arrived a few days before us. With nobody responding and no way into the hotel, he had to find another hotel and pay for a temporary room for the night. That felt unsafe and completely unacceptable. This was one of the worst accommodation experiences I’ve had, and it absolutely wasn’t worth the money. I wouldn’t recommend staying here and wouldn’t come back.

The dinner service was friendly, and the staff seemed to be trying their best. Still, we left disappointed with the room and the lack of follow-up. It looked much older than the rooms shown when we booked, and the bathroom was in particularly poor, outdated condition. We brought this up on our first day and explained that the room didn’t match the booking description or our expectations. We were told the complaint would go to the manager, but nobody got back to us during our week-long stay. Based on that experience, we won’t return and can’t recommend the hotel.

The runs leading back to the hotel are black and red, though you can take the cable car down instead. We stayed for a week in early March for skiing, booked through Sunweb, and were very impressed. The hotel is genuinely ski-in/ski-out. Our room was spacious and comfortable, everything was clean and worked properly, and the indoor pool was a welcome way to spend the time between skiing and dinner. It wasn’t too busy. Breakfast buffets were great, and dinner was wonderful, with meat, fish, or vegetarian dishes to choose from at breakfast.