Residenz Hotel Pension - Vienna, Austria 

Die zimmer sind wie auf den bilder. also eher aeltlich und etwas angestaubt das ganze. das bad in unserem zimmer scheint aus den 70er zu kommen. groesse des zimmers war ok. das bad jedoch war sehr klein, aber mit fenster. fruehstueck war in ordnung, der service jedoch etwas muffig. das benutzte geschirr blieb grundsaetzlich auf den tischen stehen. d.h. der letzte fruehstuecksgast befand sich in einem schlachtfeld 'abgegessener' teller, nicht so schoen

We (my wife and I) have dealth with the Pension Residenz twice, and our experiences were very mixed. Our first stay at Pension Residenz was in July 2007. We booked a double room using our credit card through the Vienna Tourists Board's website (wien.info). The pension is run by an Austrian man called Hanns Ziegler. Our experience of the stay was fine overall, though some of the staff frequently smoking in the hallway did bother us (and probably many other non-smoking customers there, too) a lot. Our second experience was on October 9th, 2007, when we made a short stopover in Vienna for only one night. When planning for the trip, we thought we could still stay in Pension Residenz. That said, on September 2nd, 2007, we again booked a double room there using our credit card through wien.info. We got the confirmation right after saying everything was completed and our reservation was "guaranteed with credit card". To be on the same side, on September 20th, 2007, we called Pension Residenz directly to double-check our booking status. Hanns told us on the phone that "all is fine...look forward to seeing you." However, in the evening (around 5:30 PM) of October 9th, 2007, after lugging our lead-heavy suitcases all the way from the subway station to the pension, we only became to realize that our booking has been "bumped" -- Hanns has given the room to someone, and there was no room available in the pension at all for us. As we asked Hanns for an explanation, he said, "Your booking was messed up with someone else, in the end your room is gone." Oh yeah right! How could on earth this make any sense? Especially given that the booking was made over a month ago and guaranteed with our credit card, not to mention our confirmation phone call on September 20th to him. Hanns wasn't able to offer any logical and reasonable answer at all -- Because he just didn't even have one. He's simply given away our room to someone else, then turned around lied to us. What a terrible liar -- Even George Costanza can do a better job than him. Our otherwise well-planned night at Vienna was completely ruined by Hanns. Extremely angry and deeply disappointed, we had to pull our almost 100 lbs luggage back on the street to look for a new place to crash for the night... Mr. Hanns Ziegler, you may have a reasonably fine pension to offer; however, your business ethnics and integrity are just highly questionable, which is without any doubt harming Vienna's and even Austrian people's good reputation. We really hope you will learn some good lesson out of this accident, please.