I was very satisfied with a recent week-long stay on the seventh floor of the Vienna Marriott Hotel (the central one on Parkring; there are two others away from the center of the city), remodeled a few years ago. The staff was invariably friendly and helpful – in English, a language very widely diffused in Vienna and the lingua franca for non-German speakers (there were both Japanese and Taiwanese tour groups staying in the hotel, and some Arabs, French, and Spaniards-I’d say that most of those being served in English in the hotel and in central Vienna museums and restaurants and stores are not native speakers.)
The hotel is 500 meters from the end of the express train from the airport (and other subway lines), about the same distance from Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s cathedral). The Kartnerstrasse (shopping street) is even closer. The opera house, Belvedere Palaces, the Hofburg (in which the Weltmuseum and Ephesus museum are housed), the Kunsthistoriches Museum (housing the Hapsburg emperors’ art collections), the Naturalhistoriemuseum (hosing the Hapsburg emperors’ natural history collection), the Albertina Museum, the Leopold Museum, the Sezeccion building, etc. are all within 750 meters (the entrance to the Belvederes is at the far end of the palace complex, so may be slightly farther). In short: Great Location!
Though to have a view of the Stadpark and beyond (to the mint) requires overlooking the (Parkring section of the) Ringstrasse (Ring Road), the double-paned windows blot out most traffic noise. The thermostat worked well with half-degree (C)) settings.
There is an ample desk with a computer hookup (I used WiFi, which was fast) a lamp and two plugs (for which we borrowed AC/DC adapters). There is free WiFi in the lobby and two terminals with Internet connections in the executive lounge.
The room had a luggage rack, a triple closet (with a dozen wooden hangers) and various shelves, but no drawers for clothes (there’s a small desk drawer and drawers in the bedside tables, one with a Bible and a Book of Mormon), a safe, two robes and pairs of slippers, an ironing board and iron, hairdryer, Kleenex, mouthwash, cotton buds, shampoo, conditioner, bath gel, lotion, and a packet of bath salts. In addition to the desk chair there is a stuffed chair with footstool with a table and floor lamp beside it. There are lots of mirrors, including a shaving/makeup one. No bidet. The toilet paper dispenser was a very awkward and long backward reach.
There was a minibar (that remained unopened and, thus, cannot be reported upon). The hotel also has a cocktail lounge and the tv movie rentals include adult ones.
The bedside lamps are augmented by small spotlights. (Are such thin adjustable necks still “gooseneck”?)
I don’t like shower-baths with glass extending half the length. The tub was quite narrow. Hot water came rapidly.
There are no towel racks for the bath towels (three hand towels have one). I liked the white terrycloth robes, found the heavy sliding doors on the triple closet difficult to sort out.
The breakfast buffet includes four kinds of cold cuts, four kinds of cheese, four kinds of cereal (including granola), four kinds of dried fruit, three kinds of jelly, three kinds of juice (orange, grapefruit, and some yellowish “vitaming” drink) apples, bananas, prune plums, scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage. There is a machine for various coffee and milk confections and hot chocolate,
Breakfast is available in the executive lounge (and on the mezzanine level above the lobby) 6:30-10:30 AM. From then until midnight, the fruit, soft drinks, some pastries, and some cookies are available, and there are two computer terminals that are very little used. Weekdays, there are three German-language newspapers, USA Today, and the Herald Tribune (now the nternational edition of the New York Times). We also get a photocopied news digest some time during the night.
On the king-size bed were three pairs of pillows (large and normal-sized, not the usual extra-long European). We traded the heavy comforter for a topsheet.
Several days we arrived back in mid-afternoon and found the room had not been made up yet. More annoying was maids wanting to turn down the beds at 6 plus or minus half an hour. Who has gone out to dine so early? Judging by observation of restaurants within walking distance of the Marriott, not many diners!
The Marriott pool (in the basement) is 21m x 10m with a large stairway bisecting the 10. The water is not hyperchlorinated. The Austrians (I think they are local) I’ve seen swim at an enervated pace. I swear I could not stay afloat moving so slowly except in salt water. The Jacuzzi has had some Japanese patrons. Those using the extensive gym equipment (and locker rooms) are, I think, local club members.