Norica Hotel

Warm atmosphere, great breakfast, excellent dinner, very friendly and helpful staff, super bathrobe corridor and dreamy wellness area in the hotel!! Thank you for the wonderful vacation - Your Fam. Ranninger

We stayed at the Hotel Norica in Bad Hofgastein from 17 to 21 December 2025. The five days of vacation were overall very pleasant. The staff was very friendly throughout, and the food was excellent too – high quality and varied. There is nothing to complain about on these points. Unfortunately, paying at the reception was a very disappointing experience. I presented a hotel voucher worth 70 € (valid until 31.12.2025) and additionally two Wellcard cards to settle the bill. However, the staff member immediately debited the full balance of the Wellcard cards and explained to us afterwards that the hotel voucher could only be used on a next stay. In my view, this is neither common sense nor customer-friendly. Of course, the hotel voucher should first have been deducted from the total amount and only the remaining balance should have been paid by Wellcard or cash. This is exactly what vouchers are meant for. This process has unfortunately negatively overshadowed an otherwise very nice stay. I hope that the hotel will review its internal procedures here to avoid such situations in the future.

We stayed with a toddler 1 week at Norica. The small suite met our expectations. It consisted of an entrance hall, a spacious double room with large modern bathroom and sep. WC and a single room with mini bath/WC. However, we didn’t know that the room was not located in the main house but in the so-called “Palais”. This is not accessible from the main house. There are several steps and two glazed transitions from one house to two more to overcome. Practically impossible with strollers. The only option is to go from the restaurant in the main house via Kaiser-Franz-Platz between the houses to the palace and take the lift to the 2nd floor. Stick to drive. If you come out of the thermal bath in a bathrobe with a baby, this is not an option in winter. We didn't even try whether the baby monitor worked, as the walk from the dining room to the room would have been far too far. The room and bathrooms were very clean, the cleaning staff friendly and helpful. The big plus of the hotel is the direct access to the thermal bath through a long bathrobe walk, which is why we chose this house. The main house is very tastefully decorated, but there is only one huge dining room. Positively noteworthy are the friendly and accommodating reception staff. We only received the Mobility Card for free use of the Salzburg public transport on request, although a contribution will be charged for this. Since we go to Gastein twice a year because of the healing tunnel, we would have liked to become regulars. Unfortunately, we were messed up completely. The service in the restaurant is inadequate and in no way corresponds to the category 4-star superior. Most of the time we weren't asked for our drink requests, so we often fetched water from the tap in the restaurant ourselves. Our table was in the middle of the huge room and apparently off the usual route of the waiters. The staff was very helpful and friendly but completely overwhelmed and understaffed. Particularly negative is the fact that the majority speaks insufficient German. We did not see an Austrian waiter during the entire stay. Again and again, guests had to communicate with the staff in English (!). At our neighbouring table we could see that the guest could only explain the spaghetti for the children to the waiter and the order was still wrong. We had left a dispenser with lactase capsules at the table, which was no longer there in the evening. The waiter didn't understand anything and brought in the head waiter. Instead of an apology, we were reprimanded and advised that the hotel accepts no liability. The item appears to have been disposed of. The head waiter was unfriendly and arrogant. The service was particularly poor in the last few days towards the weekend, when the hotel was probably fully occupied. We will never come back to this hotel and can only strongly advise against a stay.