Inside Altstadt Vienna: The Boutique Hotel Guests Return to Again and Again

Vienna’s Altstadt Hotel was originally set up as a business hotel, designed to remind travellers ‘where they were’ and not just in an anonymous hotel room. The owner, Otto Wiesenthal has succeeded in spades - some visitors have returned over a hundred times! And, months after my visit there, countless images of the room, the artwork, the hallways and even the breakfast room consume me.

The Altstadt is a family-run hotel started by Mr. Wiesenthal 35 years ago. It consists of sixty-two suites and rooms (some privately owned), located in the Neubau era of Vienna’s 7th District. Although a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World today, the hotel’s location was not seen as a desirable part of Vienna a few decades ago. This has all changed, and trendy bars, restaurants, coffee shops and art galleries now abound.

It is truly a family hotel, and staff, many who have been there for decades are part of the ‘family’. It was for its character and personality, and also for its sense of place, architecture and design features that the hotel was awarded a Michelin Key in 2024.

ABOVE: The corridor between rooms festooned with art. (RIGHT) The stairwell linking floors in this former elegant townhouse.

The hotel building was an elegant townhouse 100 years ago, and all five stories are connected by magnificent stairwells. Each room has high ceilings and owes its unique character to designer furniture, artistic lighting concepts, and of course, the carefully curated artwork. 

Art is a constant here, as the numerous hallways are festooned with art pieces from the owner’s collection. Even tiny, well-placed windows offer interesting views of the architecture in the neighbourhood. It’s truly like living in an art gallery.

Our room, The Library, included a thousand-plus volume library, looming over our bed, supported by a 100-year-old book gallery.

The Library Suite

The Library room had a very comfortable Queen bed with Italian silk/linen cover. A very spacious room, it was flooded with natural light, and lots of room to do yoga on the supplied mat.

Not only is each room different from the other, they are very, very different. The Greta Wiesenthal suite celebrates this unique dancer from life in Vienna’s twentieth century. She revolutionized classical ballet and the waltz here. A piano and dance lithographs highlight the suite’s cultural character.

Wiesenthal Suite

There’s even a Freud Suite, a nod to perhaps Vienna’s most famous resident of the 20thcentury. You are likely to get a more authentic Freud vibe here than at the Freud Museum, since the museum has few Freud artifacts and is as much a tool for understanding Vienna’s history in the 1930s.

Air conditioning is turned off when not needed and local and sustainable food is the norm. Vegan and gluten-free choices are available for breakfast, and there is afternoon tea from four to six every day.

The breakfast area, a series of salon-like rooms has the feel of a classic sitting room, complete with current newspapers and magazines.

Breakfast involves perfect European service, reminding us that Vienna was declared a UNESCO heritage site for its cuisine and its ‘service’.

Breakfast salon/reading room

Visiting the terrace on the top level gives you the feeling that you’re living in a real apartment, which in fact, you are! One half of the spacious rooms here are privately owned. You share the green oasis with them, reading a book or enjoying a drink from the honour-system bar.

The reception, although tiny, is open 24/7 and they really want to help you, offering advice on restaurants and whatever else might pop into your head.

The hotel is well situated, a five-minute walk to the Museums Quarter, which includes Leopold Museum and sixty-odd museums and cultural institutions. You are located close to the Volktheater subway station and a ten-minute walk from the Ringstrasse Boulevard.

The Neubau District where the hotel is located.

Guests can request the same room, but when I return, I’ll go with the Andy Warhol room and its “I slept with Andy Warhol” theme!

We enjoyed a coffee tour in the adjoining Spittelberg District and a food tour in the main part of town.

For the coffee tour, see Rebel Tours https://en.rebeltoursvienna.com/home

Try a food tour with Anna Loves Vienna https://www.annalovesvienna.at/english/food-tours/

Hotel Altstadt https://www.altstadt.at/en/

ALL PHOTOS BY CAROLE JOBIN