Hotel berhampiran Schloss Damtschach, Wernberg

The positives: room was clean, breakfast is excellent, staff is friendly, free WIFI, nice outdoor seating area. The negatives: horrible location right on a busy highway that creates noise and bad air quality. Staff is not well trained - they sent us to a lunch restaurant that is only open for dinner (good concierge would check online first). The website information is inaccurate. One is supposed to get a welcome drink at the bar - but this is not available. Worse, the website says the front desk is staffed until 11 but when we checked in we were told they would be shutting down at 10. Our colleagues had a car breakdown issue and the front desk blithely informed us that we would have to stay awake and let our colleagues in whenever they arrived. Really? The paying guests have to take over the front desk duties? Especially for a hotel on a highway that caters to business travelers, there needs to be a Plan B for those who unexpectedly arrive late.

EduCARE Hotel is amazing. We didn’t know what to expect before we came and we were very pleasantly surprised. We got more than we thought. Staff is polite and professional. They speak fluently numbers of languages. Hotel is very well organized, it has two billiard tables, one football table, library,… Saunas and very good restaurant. I recommend everyone to take half board. It is worth. We stayed for two nights (far too little). Only thing we missed in hotel were slippers, and since we forgot to teke them from home, we bought slippers in nearby store (KIK). We were there for skiing in Gerlitzen. We could take a ski bus in front of hotel, but we choose tho go with car. Gerlitzen is a really nice ski resort. So combination with staying in EduCARE hotel and skiing in Gerlitzen was perfect.

Ich habe das Hotel gebucht, da mir eine Bekannte gesagt hat - es ist das beste Wellnesshotel in Österreich. Ich kann nun sagen, so ist es leider nicht und ich war schon in einigen Wellnesshotels. Die Lage des Hotels ist super 👍 aber im Winter beim Wellness ist mir dies nicht so wichtig. Kann mir vorstellen, dass die Lage im Sommer wichtiger ist. Das Essen war sehr sehr gut und das Personal sehr freundlich. Die Massage war super und die Angestellten dort auch sehr freundlich und zuvorkommend. Jedoch war es mir im Schlafzimmer und in den meisten Räumen zu kalt. Das Schlafzimmer war sauber und das Bett bequem. Der Wellnessbereich könnte eindeutig erneuert werden und ist ausbaufähig. Es gibt leider nicht wirklich wo sehr warmes Wasser - der Outdootpool war mir auch zu kalt. Und was eindeutig fehlt sind Whirpools und wirklich ruhige Ruheräume, wo die Atmosphäre passt. In den Ruheräume sind überall Liegestühle - dies könnte man auf Matratzen in Nischen oder ähnliches ändern... Wäre viel gemütlicher 👌. Saunaaufgüsse durch Personal habe ich vermisst und ich denke, dies würden alle andere Gäste auch sehr genießen. Saunalandschaft ist toll und auch eindeutig groß genug. Eine Saunabar wäre noch ein Idee die man sich überlegen könnte... Denn für Getränke und ähnliches muss man immer zum Seehaus/Restaurant gehen. Dieser Durchgang ist auch im Bademantel im Winter eindeutig zu kalt. Rückwirkend kann ich sagen das Hotel hat eine tolle Lage und tolles Potenzial - etwas aus dem Wellnessbereich machen zu können.

I will not go into detail about the service, location, or whatever, but I will specifically target the room, because this is not worth an IGH standard. I booked this hotel, because I needed to have surgery in Villach and had to be at the hospital very early in the morning and therefore got myself a room. I will be honest, I took the cheapest room, which was the ”Cozy” and still was 135€ per night for me. When I arrived at my room, I couldn't believe my eyes, it was an adapted conference room, with a pull-up bed. One could clearly see the ”walls” that could be put away and the beamer overhead for presentations. I was just shocked. I will admit, I could have gone back to the front desk to ask them to change the room, but I was kind of nervous and tired, so I didn't do that. And it seems that the hotel was pretty much booked, so I didn't have high hopes for another room... Anyway, apart from this very weird room, also the cleanliness was questionable, the coffee mugs were already covered in dust, the spoons were brown, from past use? As I had to get up very early anyway I didn't mind the preparing of the conference room next door, which involved vaccuming and loud phone calls. If I would have been here for leisure and wanted to get a good sleep in, that would not have been the correct adress. I did tell the hotel about my bad experience and asked them to clarify. Basically they told me that it was my own fault, as I booked the cozy room and that they are indeed cheaper. After consulting the website, one cannot identify on the pictures that the ”cozy” rooms appear to be conference rooms, that can be reused as rooms when needed and have a pull-out-bed. Additionally the ”normal” rooms were just 10€ more expensive, and appear to be nice at least looking at the pics. They did offer me a 10% discount for my next stay. I gladly decline that. Therefore for all others: If you decide to stay at the Voco don't take the Cozy rooms, especially not for that price, its a scam. An IHG hotel should at least have the decency to not sell those ”things” as rooms and certainly not at this price ...

Schönes , modernes Hotel mit sehr freundlichem Personal! Ausgezeichnetes Frühstück ! Das Zimmer war sehr geräumig und geschmackvoll eingerichtet! Sehr zentrale Lage, direkt beim Bahnhof und nicht weit vom Stadtkern entfernt. Garage ist vorhanden.