What a wonderful hotel. It is in the heart of the city right along the river. The train station is a two minute walk and the pedestrian district is about a 3 min walk from the hotel. Very modern, free wireless internet in the room. That is very unusual for Europe. Bed was great - no crack in the middle of the bed. Very nice bar and restaurant. The Villach Brewery is 1 block away.

I was staying at the Holiday Inn for a meeting and I was totally impressed by that hotel and the area. A great design, friendly staff and fantastic food. I have decided to come back soon with my family and spend a weekend there.

Having read the previous reviews, I was looking forward to my stay, but my conclusion was that this hotel was just too quirky - a triumph of design over practicality. Let me say, though, that the beds were comfortable, there were lashings of hot water, the breakast was fine and the staff were friendly and helpful. I arrived with a large group of about 130 people and the first problem became apparent immediately. -the two lifts were hopelessly inadequate, such that many people, myself included, chose to walk with luggage to the 4th floor rather that endure the interminable wait in the queue for the lifts. This drew attention to another problem - no doubt intended as a security measure, the room key-card is needed to open the door onto each floor landing and to operate the lift. So, if you're sharing a room, don't let your partner go off with both keycards - many of our party did, to their regret. Our room, (415) was a large corner room with a lovely view but it felt claustrophobic because just inside the door was an excessively large fixed desk with an angle-poise lamp. This may be fine for a single business person but for leisure travellers is just a nuisance. On arrival we found it necessary to rearrange the furniture because to accommodate the desk, the easy chair was blocking the door to the minibar and making it impossible to walk round the bed. The lighting was unusual - why does anyone want a red spotlight in a bedroom? - but the operation of the switches was almost impossible to fathom. Several of the switches were master switches which seemed to turn all light s on or off - great if you've got into bed and forgotten to turn off the light by the door but we couldn't work out how to have just one bedside light on. The result when one of us got up during the night was a disturbing and dazzling display of lights. If you thought of creeping to the bathroom to avoid disturbance, it was still impossible because the bathroom walls , including the door , are all glass, so if the bathroom light is on, the bedroom is lit. The bathroom itself had a lovely heated floor, but the thickness of the bath sides made me think it was positively dangerous getting in, and especially out, you need exceptionally long legs to avoid injury. The shaving mirror has wires coming out of it, but we couldn't find ou which switch or combination of switches to use. Maybe it's geared to a shaver being plugged into the socket, so hard luck if you wet shave! The toilet door doubles as a towel rail so it's not obvious that it is a door at all. That door opens outwards into the bathroom and the bathroom door opens outwards into the bedroom, so one has to be very careful not to send one's partner flying. Perhaps most irritating of all is the television. There are 2 remote controls and you need to know what sequence to use them in to get the television to work at all. To make matters worse the room folder doesn't even mention television so you've just got to work it out for yourself. All in all the hotel is probably great for singles or for young people but for definitely not for couples and older people., .