VAYA Post Saalbach

Nice hotel with friendly staff. For over €400 half board per night we hoped for a little more. It’s in a great location, very clean, spacious room, Mountain View’s, friendly staff and nice main courses and deserts. However the starters and breakfast options were a bit repetitive. The restaurant areas are split up and we were surrounded by large groups so a bit noisy at times. Pool area is rather limited and there is no lounge area just the bar. €8 per day for outdoor parking seemed a bit much also. Overall a pleasant stay but at this price point it didn’t feel like great value.

Short version- this is not worth the money, it’s really a very poor experience particularly for the cost, The waiting and housekeeping staff are great, very polite but the culture instigated by management is really poor. We chose this hotel to spend Christmas, and frankly it was ruined for us. We felt so unwelcome in this hotel that we went to other hotel bars and restaurants where staff and food was great. (Eva bar and hotel staff were great, as was 2 Marie’s at Gappmeister and BlackBox at Kohl Mas hotel. Best food and service at Gold and Pepper) Longer version- We’d chosen Vaya as some friends had stayed in Solden and recommended it. However, it seems that this is a franchise rather than chain of hotels, so standards must be very different from one hotel to the next. The photos and promotional materials give a false impression and management don’t care about client experience at all! We’re a family of four (2 adults & 2 teen kids) and a couple who stayed for a week over the Christmas period. When we booked we specifically wanted a hotel with nice communal areas, open-fire, cosy, swimming pool, gym, etc, etc, and the photos and website details of the hotel seemed to have all of this; but the marketing is much better than the reality. First impressions are important and unfortunately, our first impression wasn’t the best. The reception staff weren’t welcoming at all and having checked in, we had to settle the bill-up front (always a bad sign) they just gave us the room numbers and pointed us to the general area of where our rooms were. No offer of help with bags, no “welcome to our hotel”, which was a shame. There are no communal areas to sit and relax outside of room, which is a shame. Particularly as there was no space to sit in our room, and as we were with friends all expecting to celebrate Christmas together. There is a bar area but the seats aren’t comfortable, it’s cold and is closed until 3pm. There’s a comfortable seating area adjoined to the bar but staff did not allow us to sit there, even on Christmas Eve/day. Really frustrating on Christmas Day to be told that there was nowhere to sit other than in our room, particularly as we’d spent so much money to stay here. Christmas decorations were minimal with a Christmas tree in the hallway and then some baubles strewn around randomly. Food at the hotel - breakfast was passable, with hot and cold buffet options, but most things were over-cooked and very dry. Evening dinner consisted of 2 x soup options and 3 main course options (1 meat, 1 fish, 1 veg). We ate twice at the hotel, and both times food was so very poor that we ended up eating at local restaurants. None of our party finished their mains on either days, and yet the food manager (who took our plates) didn’t even ask whether the food was ok, and then didn’t enquire as to why we were choosing to eat outside the hotel. The last straw for us was when we asked for some cheese at the end of the 2nd meal,

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL , you couldn’t get it more wrong if you tried . So many points to list I don’t know where to start . It seems the issue is with the management and not the waiting staff who are delightful . We were greeted with can you pay your balance on your bill ? You then drag your cases “ yourself “ through the snow to the entrance “ unlabelled “ by the boot room where the door doesn’t open , you take this route because the internal route is too difficult with cases ( porters !! ) . Having dragged our cases through the boot room which a guest suggested as an alternative ( obviously no staff on site ) to the defunct door we found our rooms . Totally without greeting or presentation of room or facilities . I’ve had better greetings in Youth hostels 30 years ago . This is day 1 , ours day 2 experience was even worse ,