Hotel Kolping - A Review

While I’m on the long train ride from Bratislava to Prague, I’m getting more hotel reviews in. Next up, Kolping in Vienna, Austria.

Kolping was a hotel of contrasts. It had some very good qualities and some rather poor qualities. Let’s start with the good.

The room I was in was much, much larger than any other room that I had stayed in up to this point in Europe. It had sort of a full-size bed, two twins pushed together, and also had a balcony. Let’s face it, the bathroom was almost the size of some of the rooms that I have stayed in here. The room also had a stove, a microwave and a refrigerator. That’s not even counting the balcony, which again was a first for me in Europe.

The hotel was also in a very good location. It was walking distance to the downtown shopping area as well as close to public transportation on a few lines of the metro. I eventually learned that unlike Paris, this was not always the case in Vienna, so having the easy transport close to the hotel was very beneficial. Also, there was a small grocery store just next door, which came in handy with a microwave and a refrigerator in my room.

Another plus was the free breakfast. There were tons of options – eggs, bread, cheese, ham, salami, cereals, yogurt, etc. And of course, Nutella because it wouldn’t be Europe without Nutella. Also, the dining room was ginormous, so there was always a place to sit and eat.

Now, the bad. The staff was only semi-friendly and not particularly helpful. Most importantly, there was no wifi or other internet connection. Free or otherwise. I like to keep in touch, so this was a major pain in the butt. Fortunately, there were a handful of places close by with free internet access – thank you McDonald’s.

Also, I could have foregone having the cleaning staff knocking on my door every five minutes beginning at 10:00 when I was trying to get over a hangover from going out the night before to watch (European) football with some German folks I met the night before. Eventually, I just had to leave, get some grease in my system (I had slept through the free breakfast) and return to get some more sleep.

Overall, it was not a bad hotel for the price – around $90/night, but it really needs to get some web access. I mean seriously folks. In Bratislava, I had free wifi on a boat, ON A BOAT FOR PETE’S SAKE. They really need to hook the place up. Otherwise, it was a pretty good experience – but like Vienna, generally, not all for which I had hoped.