Vienna, Hotel Atlas

The Hotel Atlas was sold to me by bookings.net as a 3 star hotel. This is some mistake, surely? The place is essentially a university hall of residence with furniture, fixtures, fittings and (lack of) refinement to match. The breakfasts were dull and unimaginative, the shower smelt eggy, the bathroom light kept turning itself off when I was in the shower ("they all do that")

There are no soft furnishings (carpets, wallpaper etc) in the communal corridors or staircases which means that any noise in these areas echoes throughout the whole hotel. Add to this that the hotel mostly caters to drunk screaming groups of school/college kids and that they have no security guards and you have a recipe for no sleep at all. I had to encourage the poor guy at the desk to call the police at 4am as neither he nor the teachers could stop the kids running riot. The kids finally shut up after the police arrived at 5am. Unbelievably these 'guests' were allowed to stay on at the hotel, so I had similar problems sleeping the next night. I asked to be moved to a room away from the screaming college kids but I was told that they were everywhere in the hotel so it would not make any difference. The guy in the room next door asked the kids from Croatia opposite to be quiet at about 3am only to have a bunch of them outside his room chanting .

It was like being in hell, and not what you need if you have to concentrate or even stay awake during the day.

In it's favour, the desk staff were polite and courteous but it seemed there was very little they could do. It also has a good location near the museums quarter.

If you are a teenager who has no idea about how to behave then this is the place for you, otherwise I seriously recommend staying somewhere else, even if its farther out. (Vienna has very good public transport.)