I just left the Hotel Victoria Jungfraujoch, which is, at first glance, definitely the best hotel around in Interlaken. We had a duplex superior suite booked with a discount courtesy of Bucher Travel Services (the suite normally can retail for over 10000 HKD), and were upgraded to a deluxe duplex suite. My friends also had a junior suite here booked.
Hotel Victoria Jungfraujoch Deluxe Duplex Suite
Let me start off by batting off the people that call me spoilt, which I probably am. I’ll say this: for every flight, for every hotel stay, I bring back positive memories and thoughts, because after all my parents sponsor my travels and I’m definitely grateful for everything they do. They support my travel blogging system fully, and whatever my thoughts on a flight or hotel are, I take the good things, always, as after all, I don’t pay for my travels at the moment. But sometimes, on behalf of myself and my parents, we, collectively as a family, take away something that’s not quite what we expect, and that’s where my criticism comes from. So if you think I’m spoilt, I really can’t deny that, but here’s my two cents.
But instead of being amazing, the stay has gone from good, to bad, to just weird. There are good things I can say about this hotel, including hospitality (I want to say service, but stay tuned…), so I’ll just pick a few of the most interesting things and comment on them.
1. Someone’s gone Italian…no?
I do appreciate a good pizza, sometimes. But neither my friends or I appreciated it when they found a half-eaten pizza below their bed on the second day of their stay. Even the guy they called up was left amused.
Hotel Victoria Jungfraujoch Junior Suite Afternoon Snack
Not long after my friends all received some chocolates with an apology card, so it’s been resolved, but still amusing…
2. The air-conditioning’s gone wonky…wait
It’s reasonable to think that this is the air conditioning system, especially when there’s nothing else in the room…
Hotel Victoria Jungfraujoch Deluxe Duplex Suite Air Conditioning
It turns out that we didn’t feel the room getting any colder, so we went down to the reception, who told us that “high” meant “high temperature”, so we should’ve set it on “low”. We phoned the reception after it didn’t work after an afternoon, and the person who answered gave us the exact opposite. The last time I went down, the person told me that there was no air conditioning in the room, which appeared to be the truest out of everything I’d been told. Apparently, the hotel is “over a hundred years old, which explains why some rooms don’t have air conditioning”.
In case you guys are wondering why I didn’t check the hotel website, it states here (in fairness, the reception lady said it was their problem and would look into it immediately):
Advanced high-tech features include a built-in TV monitor in the bathroom and full air conditioning in all rooms.
Even if I’ve missed something (I’ve consistently been having terrible sleep so that could be true), it’s sensible to expect that a room retailing for over 10,000 HKD has air conditioning, no?
3. I’m not a cat
If four people are allowed in a room, my logic is that all four should get equal comfort, unless barriers were pushed to get all four in the room – instead of one person being stuck in a scratchy, thin cat blanket. Fortunately this was fixed by the second night, but the hotel definitely was reluctant, and if the only empty room was taken, I would’ve had to sleep in the cat blanket for the duration of the stay. They did try to put a super thin linen below the blanket, which didn’t make it any more comfortable.
Hotel Victoria Jungfraujoch Deluxe Duplex Suite Catbed
4. The WiFi situation…
While YouTube videos loaded really quickly, here’s what I got for upload speeds on speedtest.net…
Hotel Victoria Jungfraujoch Deluxe Duplex Suite Internet Speeds
I mean, I don’t normally give up writing, but the upload speeds were just terrible. And I can’t say the same for the public WiFi Interlaken has on their streets (which are given for 30 minutes per three hours), so it’s definitely not a location issue.
Bottom Line
I still can’t fault the hotel for trying their best, but this ranks up on the more interesting stays I’ve had. I don’t want to dish the hotel given how much effort they put into covering up their mistakes, but I didn’t get the flawless stay I’d expect under the price point. Overall, the Hotel Victoria Jungfraujoch seems like a hotel I’d stay at on a two day road trip from Zurich or Lauterbrunnen, but definitely not somewhere I’d put my “home base” in.
Suffice to say that my stay at the Baur au Lac at Zurich is much, much, much, much better…
Baur au Lac Zurich Junior Suite