First Mountain Ötztal

Very friendly staff. Nice rooms and decent food.

Nice village

This hotel is difficult to rate because I have very mixed feelings about our stay. The rooms and facilities were perfectly fine. Nothing luxurious, but exactly what you would expect and need. The location is excellent for hiking, and the food itself was very good, so credit to the chef. However, the “buffet” concept became questionable during our stay. Apparently there were not many guests that week, and the buffet was eventually reduced to one main dish. If that dish is something you do not like, or, as in my case, cannot eat because of an allergy, there is simply no alternative, so no food that evening. That rather defeats the purpose of offering a buffet. Unfortunately, this seemed to be part of a much bigger cost-cutting exercise. At breakfast, the cold drinks became worse every day. On the first morning there was water, fruit water and a multivitamin drink. By day two the fruit was no longer fresh, and the multivitamin drink seemed to be topped up with ice instead of properly refilled. By day three there was only plain water and the same heavily diluted drink. This was especially strange because the hotel has a self-service drinks tap with water, sparkling water, flavoured water, beer and wine. Yet it could not be used in the morning, despite the hotel being advertised as all-inclusive. The tap only became available from 15:00 and was switched off again at 21:00, sometimes even earlier. In a hotel mainly used by hikers who are out during the day, that is not particularly useful. After 21:00 there was supposedly still a bar, but apparently there were not enough guests to justify having a bartender, so in practice you could no longer get anything to drink. That is especially problematic because there is virtually nothing nearby: no bar, no shop, nowhere within easy walking distance to buy a drink. At 22:00, the common areas were locked as well, including access to the toilets in the main guest area. We stayed during a warm summer week, perfect for sitting outside in the evening, yet after 21:00 there was effectively nothing left to drink. Then there was the issue with glasses. Guests are not allowed to take glasses to their rooms. Because the main areas were locked, we left our empty glasses in the only guest area that remained accessible. The next morning, staff complained that we had not cleared them away. How exactly we were supposed to do that, nobody could explain, because all the relevant doors had already been locked. Breakfast itself was another problem. The room opened at 08:00, but by around 08:40 staff were already clearing everything away while people were still arriving and filling their plates. It felt as though guests were being encouraged to leave as quickly as possible. Dinner was very similar. In theory, dinner consisted of soup, a vegetable starter, a main course and dessert. In practice, everything was cleared away again within less than an hour. Dessert was only put out around 30 to 40 minutes after dinner started and was then removed roughly 15 minutes later. Ironically, some guests who had started eating too early, much to the annoyance of the staff, were among the only people who managed to get dessert. Guests who started “on time” at 18:30 sometimes found it had already been removed. After that, the lights went off and the staff disappeared. The lady responsible for reception/check-in was frequently not at the desk either; we regularly saw her outside smoking, walking around or walking the dog. This hotel really has two sides. For the location, hiking access, rooms and food, I would absolutely recommend it. But the service was almost non-existent. At times, it felt as though guests were expected to provide the service themselves, and then were criticised for not doing things that were impossible because the hotel had already locked everything up. That is why, despite the good rooms, location and food, I can only give this hotel 2 stars.

A wonderfully charming 3-star hotel with unparalleled hospitality. The owner is incredibly friendly, making you feel right at home, and the mountain location is fantastic. It's the perfect place to escape the everyday hustle and bustle, and the two saunas after hikes are an added bonus. The spa area is quite new and spotlessly clean.

A very nice, modernized room in the Comfort category. Everyone was very kind, friendly, and helpful. Franz, the all-rounder, was fantastic. Gries is situated a few hundred meters above Längenfeld and is easily accessible via a winding road of about 5.5 km. The temperature difference, however, is about 4 degrees Celsius. Beautiful hiking trails start directly from the hotel.