Vaya Post Saalbach

One of the best ski hotels I have ever visited. And that says it all given the fact that I’ve have been skiing for approximately 50 times in my life. The luxury yet warm and friendly hotel is located right in the middle of Saalbach and all ski-lifts are just 250-350 meter anyway from your front door. Breakfast is divers and tasteful and the 4 course fine dine dinners are simply lovely. The rooms are large, modern and luxury. The staff is super friendly and professional. The spa and pools nice and relaxing….. But it’s pricy. Maybe too pricy… it that goes for all 4 and 5 start hotels in the Saalbach Hinterglemm region…

The hotel was clean and comfortable but the food was terrible. When raised with the manager, he seemed very disinterested with our comments. Many other diners had the same opinion as us. The restaurant staff were lovely. We asked reception to help connect to the internet so we could chill one evening and no help was forthcoming. A maintenance man appeared the next day and was extremely rude. Very disappointed!

The location is great and room was nice but food was awful. The waiting staff in the evening were lovely but reception and maintenance staff were experienced were not very helpful. One member of staff was downright rude. Could be a great place to stay but so much room for improvement.

We were 3 grownups and a child. We ordered the menu of the night plus a burger for the child. 4 dishes plus salad/cheese from a buffet. Only 1 of the 4 dishes was at acceptable quality. The ramen soup with shiitake mushrooms had no taste. Almost like hot water. The tuna was dry and also with little taste. The apple based desert simply just didnt taste well. And the burger meat was raw in the middle. The maindish with duck was ok.

We are traveling as a group of three families, including 5 children, over the New Year's break in Saalbach. Conscious of the difficulty in finding a place for dinner over this peak period, we have made dinner reservations for all our days in Saalbach well in advance (since early- to mid-November). Earlier tonight we arrived at the Vaya Post for our reservation and were confronted with the most abhorrent, rude and unprofessional behaviour I have ever come across in my 47 years of traveling all over the world. Upon entering we were greeted by a front desk member of staff named Deborah who, following some discussion with her colleagues, proceeded to inform us that no reservation had been made and that we need to leave as there is nothing they can do. She also specifically informed us that they do not take reservations for non-hotel guests, but only work with their own clientele. She then proceeded to totally ignore our protests -and exhibition of all the email correspondence we had with the hotel, which I am attaching to this review as confirmation- and said that we had to leave immediately. Following our -by now, clearly well-deserved protests- she proceeded to go hide in a reception back room, and an extremely rude colleague of hers (named Roman or something similar) confronted us to tell us that we had to leave immediately, as his colleague felt "threatened" by our protests. Our requests to speak to the manager were met with the unique response that "it is his day off to spend some time with his family", so no escalation path was provided. Refusing to leave the premises, Roman then proceeded to also hide in the back room and -I guess once it became apparent that we had no intention of leaving- things started to take a different turn. For some reason, the entire front-desk staff -whose job is to deal with clients- decided that their best course of action would be to bring out the chef (!!) to talk to us. Thankfully, in this person (whose name I unfortunately do not remember) we finally found someone who (a) clearly realized how this was all the property's fault, (b) was willing to try to find a solution, and (c) was extremely polite and open to hear us out, as well as look at the email proof that we had. Once this person showed up, holed-up Deborah also re-appeared (though not tough-guy Roman) and started saying that she never said that they do not accept non-hotel guests (despite the fact that 11 people in our group clearly heard her say it), but refused to acknowledge anything else wrong with her entire treatment of the situation. The chef then informed us that they would do their best to prepare a table for us (even though it was that difficult for Deborah a short 10 minutes ago). For a second I was tempted to let them prepare the table and then let them know that we were all leaving (as it was by now clear that we wanted nothing to do with the establishment), but purely due to how nice this single person was, I let him know that I really

Great hotel, fresh towels and bed made everyday, breakfast was decent could do with a bit more variety, you order your dinner from the 3 options while at breakfast there is a fish option, a meat option and a vegetarian option, the starter is a buffet and desert will vary each night. The bar staff and restaurant staff were absolutely lovely and the service was fast, they were very accommodating to my dietary requirements being lactose intolerant I had no issues. The reception staff are all helpful and friendly. We used our joker card to go up some of the cable carts. Parking is available but not many spaces, thankfully we managed to get one everyday. The spa was well looked after and clean, there were towels available down there and there was a robe and slippers in your room that you can take down, there was also fresh fruit and some infused cold water down there. The sauna and steam room are nudist no under 16s. The location was great and there’s things to do nearby. The views were incredible too. Would love to go again.

Unfortunately our family (7people) did not feel welcome at this hotel. It is very well photographed which may lead you to believe it is nicer than it actually is. The room was spacious and clean. Food was good but the staff attitude was so poor. The reception staff were very good but the waiters/bar staff were so grumpy and rude. 2 in particular. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say it may have been a language thing but I honestly don’t think it was. You just know when someone doesn’t not like or want to serve you with friendly attitude. So disappointing after spending so much money and Austria is normally so much more friendly. The hotel could do with looking at their staff and try to improve if possible and it is lacking in a lounge area suitable for relaxing and those with children and family. Sitting in bar area with restaurant style tables/chairs not comfortable

We have booked accommodation for a family of 4 and have been assigned an apartment at the “Apartment House Schattberg”, Vaya Post Saalbach. The moment we stepped inside, we could not believe our eyes: sewage smell inside the apartment, dust on all the cupboards and flat surfaces, dirty wooden floors (kids socks were black after 5 minutes), cheap (not alpine classic and rustic) furniture, extremely small (2 people can not walk around the room at the same time), no day light and very dark inside, even when all the lights are on…what an absolute disaster. How is it possible that such an establishment can receive local authorities approval to accommodate guests and can be accredited as 4-star hotel? To paint a clearer picture for the unfortunate people considering staying here: you arrive at this 4-star accommodation by walking through a bike repair shop, with the dodgy-hidden entrance door to the building at the back of the repair shop, while slaloming through dirty bikes and bike parts. No elevator of course, dark, smelly interiors and corridors, with garbage bags abandoned on the bottom of the only staircase, no natural light and the building is surrounded on the street by bike repair shops, giving it a very industrial feel. I have to give up instantly my male pride and ask my wife for help with our large luggage pieces, up the stairs. We paid good money, travelled 6,000km, only to arrive at the scene of what would appear to be the staff accommodation building, from a developing country, 100 years ago. We’ve been told that the pictures on the website accurately and realistically portray reality. The carefully selected lawyer language used by the receptionist, means we were not the only ones complaining about these sub-standard rooms and it is probably a frequent occurrence in the daily operations at Vaya Post Saalbach. We were hoping to discover a chic, rustic place in the Alps and ended up in the worst possible location, closer to a dungeon feel, than treasure home in the Alps. We unpacked and left immediately for the outdoors. We returned from a long hike extremely hungry, but dinner was another disappointment: very pretentious presentation, however the veal was tasteless and overcooked, while the fish was not fresh and smelly. Instead of executing simple local dishes, the chef ventured into an area where he lost control of balancing the flavors, making the food untouchable. I was very hungry, so I ended up eating my kids pasta ( simple and delicious- pasta/tomato sauce), went to my room and I would have checked my emails, but the WiFi was at one line only, that is ON for 10 seconds and OFF for 10 minutes. I’ve been planing this trip for my kids for one year and now, while I’m resting in the bed writing this review, I’m trying to figure out what have I done wrong in the recent past, to receive such a punishment from above. Lord have mercy, 5 more days left…

Superb hotel right in the centre of town. Staff were absolutely lovely and couldn't do enough to help...I'll try to name check them, apologies if I miss a few, Clarrisa, Jenni, Victoria and the others were all brilliant. Nothing was too much trouble. Half board: buffet breakfast, omelettes cooked to order, so much choice. Evening meal 4 courses, main course is 'a la carte' with a choice of 3 dishes. Spa spotlessly clean, great sauna and dampfbad (supposed to be naked, but not enforced); 2 small relaxation pools - not big enough to swim in, but enough to relax after a day of skiing. We had a large suite (separate bedroom); beautifully appointed and huge bathroom. Loads of storage space; TVs in both rooms. Tea/coffee making facilities. The supermarket is 10 metres from the front door should you want to enjoy a wine or beer in your room, that said, the bar prices at the hotel are reasonable. If I could make a micro-criticism is that the dining room was very, very warm. On balance, a gem of a hotel made all the more special by the lovely, super helpful staff.