Kitzbuhel, Hotel Christophorus

Don't even think of trying to book here - we did and it nearly cost us our holiday. Attracted by the claims of a friendly hotel, we contacted the Hotel Christophorus and they were friendly enough until we were hooked. The moment we started asking questions about the sleeping arrangements in the family room we were booking, the replies petered out.

Enamoured by the photos of the place, I pressed on. E-mails remained unanswered as the days ticked by and other hotels filled up. When I phoned the owner, Christoph, he snapped "When I get the chance to check my e-mails I will reply". Sure enough, the reply was that they could no longer meet our dates. Stupidly enough we changed our travel arrangements to fit their new dates, and again got no confirmation.

After a 3rd surly phonecall Christoph wrote to say "we do not swich on the computer in general for some days.." What sort of a set-up is this? A few minutes later he wrote again to say that our room, which we had been trying to confirm for 10 days, had just been given to someone else. Because of this delay all the other hotels had filled up for Christmas, and it was only thanks to a lucky cancellation that we have now booked our holiday.

The moral is - don't fall in love with the photos, check the reviews (this pension had none at the time). Be warned. This hotelier is a hospitality industry nightmare.