Hotel Alpenland

The hotel has been redecorated since our first visit and the lounge/bar area is quite contemporary whilst still having a genuine Austrian feel. The rooms are very comfortable and well equipped. The restaurant is excellent with a fabulous choice for breakfast and dinner. It is truly a ski-in/ski-out hotel. Excellent boot/ski storage area. Boots always nice and toasty at the beginning of the day. We like it so much we're off there again next year.

Positives + The Hotel is in a great location - easy to ski in and out and close to two of the main gondola's that take you up high into the mountains. Obergurgl on the whole was a superb resort for skiing & friendliness and I'd recommend it to anyone. + The food is really delicious - plenty of choice for breakfast, including fresh pastries and Julius Meinl coffee on tap. The evening menu changes daily and was amazing each night. The only negative thing to say about the food is that you are asked to make your evening meal choices during breakfast. It's not nice to have to think about eating beef at 8am ... Negatives - Our Junior Suite felt dated and was missing some of the basic amenities that you would expect to find in a 4* hotel room - a bath, but no bubble bath to put in it (and reception wouldn't provide us with any when we asked), no robes, and no slippers. We later found out that you are charged 3EUR to hire these. - The main disappointment though was the attitude of the hotel manager. Every staff member that we spoke to was delightful, but the lady manager was absolutely awful. Drinks do not come included in Half Board, so one night, we just asked for tap water with dinner. The next day, we were presented with a bill for 9EUR60, for 2x jugs of 'Service Water'. Naturally we questioned this with the waiter and were told to speak with the manager. The manager (lady) was so incredibly rude, confrontational, abrupt and just generally awful in her response, it was shocking. She should not work in hospitality. Rather than apologise for the confusion, and give us a calm explanation (all we were after), she was immediately combative, raising her voice to tell us first that the water was special alpine water and better than anything in a bottle so that's why they charge for it; then that she pays for tap water all over Europe and has never received water for free and started looking down her nose saying 'well clearly you don't visit the sorts of places that I visit'; and then changed her tune, saying that it's the service that costs 4EUR80 per jug, not the water. We kept just trying to explain that the only reason we questioned it in the first place was because in England, tap water is free, so we just wanted to make sure that we hadn't been charged by mistake, but she wouldnt listen and just kept raising her voice to talk over us. It was so rude and really put a sour taste in our mouths for the rest of the day. Overall it is a shame that the week was spoilt by the manager and some small issues with the room, as the rest of the resort and hotel location are excellent.