Hotel Pension Grimus

I've had the privilege of travelling extensively (both domestically and abroad) over the last 20+ years. During this time, I have stayed in budget through to 5-star accommodation, had good and bad experiences and come to realise a thing or two about hotels in general. For example, although I may describe a property as rundown, outdated and in need of refurbishment, others may describe the very same property as having character or old world charm. Who is right? It's a personal view and not worth debating. Hotel Pension Grimus is certainly not a modern or luxury property by any standard. You are paying $600-$1000 per night during peak season for a basic room with ski-in-ski-out convenience. It is at best a 3 star property. The use of the word 'pension' in the hotel's name is quite defining. We stayed in Room 19, which faces a brick wall. No alpine views at all. In fact, you could barely see the sky when trying to get a handle on the weather. If views are important to you, you might be disappointed. There are a number of things that I've found tend to influence whether I stay at a hotel again in future, regardless of whether it's budget or luxury accommodation. And it's not staff, because they come and go so they aren't a reliable measure of what you can expect on your next stay. On the topic of staff, however, I would say those we encountered at Grimus were lovely. For me though, it's cleanliness and functionality (meaning things like appliances, light globes, thermostats, etc. work properly). These two things rank above all else. If I have no option but to pay $99 per night to stay in a budget hotel yet I have a clean room and everything works, I find I get the same basic satisfaction as when I pay $500 per night for a room that's more upmarket, that's also clean and where everything works. Our room at Grimus was far from clean and there were quite a number of things that didn't function properly. The bathroom, in particular, was disgusting. We had a spa suite (yes, with a view of a brick wall). On the corner shelf of the spa bath, there was a used bar of soap and two 3/4 empty shampoo and conditioner tubes. And the outer perimeter of the spa bath was covered in a thick layer of dust and lint. It looked like it had not been cleaned since the 2019 ski season. In addition to this, long follicles of black hair could been seen everywhere - on the vanity, sink, spa and floor tiles. The toilet seat no longer sat firmly in place either, drifting to one side after a short while so that your skin would make contact with the ceramic bowl. Not a pleasant sensation. As another reviewer has correctly noted, the bar fridge (found inside a wall unit) is turned off. To save on electricity? After you've wiped aside the thick layer of dust on top of the fridge to get to the powerpoint behind it and turn it on, what you realise is that it's most likely been turned off because of the noise it makes. It looks like an appliance from the '80s and sounds like o

Lovely old traditional Austria-in-Australia hotel. The rooms and cleaning are a bit tired since expectations have improved and Hans is dead, plus the inevitable updates required of an old, but much loved property. The current manager Lotte (Han's wife) seems to run it on a bit of a tightrope: understandably they can't get decent staff (all the cleaning staff are 3rd world people who have different hygiene standards, and I think Lotte finds it impossible to find good 1st world ones on her lowest-cost-possible wages in Australia, or maybe won't employ enough of them - not sure). I hope her son the Olympian Anton realizes he needs a lot of capital to invest, fix the property and employ 1st world, cleanly conscious staff and pay them more. The location is beyond excellent if climate change doesn't kill the snow on the mountain. Their heyday was the 70s and 80s, I hope they can recreate it (Anton gets it I think via the fantastic coffee - expensive because it's on mountain but totally worth it for a coffee or hot chocolate!)