As home to embassies, international organizations (OPEC and the United Nations to name but two), and numerous large corporations, it’s no surprise that Vienna boasts a fair sprinkling of luxury hotels.
However, our chamber of commerce only classifies five hotels in the city as 5* or 5* superior, which I describe below.
- Add a classical concert experience* to your stay
- See also:
Only five hotels?
(Palais Coburg is an official five star superior hotel and looks particularly impressive at night)
The list of hotels draws on strict official local designations. Should you wish to enjoy a wider choice of high-end hotels and apartments in an imperial city, then Booking.com, for example, lists over 40 properties* with five stars.
I’d write long reviews of them all based on intensive research involving whirlpools and various selections from the room service menu, but — alas! — time and budget constraints prevent me from doing so.
Five star superior hotels
At the time of writing (mid-March, 2025), the Austrian Chamber of Commerce formally classifies four luxury hotels in Vienna as five-star superior locations. These are:
Hotel Imperial
(The hotel at a past Christmas)
Originally constructed as a city palace for the Prince of Württemberg, the building converted to a hotel in 1873. The Prince’s former apartments are now hotel suites, which gives you an idea of the luxury nature of the place.
You’ll find the Imperial on Vienna’s Ring boulevard; it’s particularly handy for the world-famous Musikverein concert hall.
As well as top-class accommodation, the Imperial enjoys other claims to fame. For example, the hotel featured heavily in Season 2 of the Vienna Blood period drama series, with the pristine historical interior providing turn-of-the-century opulence.
The hotel is also home to the Imperial Torte, created for the visiting Emperor Franz Joseph at the hotel’s opening.
And the Imperial’s Christmas lights typically provide one of the highlights along the Ring during Advent. Understated but elegant: a description which might apply to all the Christmas lights in the centre.
- Address: Kärntner Ring 16
- Hotel and booking details*
Hotel Sacher Wien
(Luxury accommodation and icon of the cake world)
A city landmark in its own right and famous as the home of the original Sachertorte cake; the entrance to the cake shop is just around the corner on Kärntner Straße.
First opened in 1876 by the son of the man who made the original cake, the Sacher’s famous former guests include Queen Elizabeth II and President John F. Kennedy.
The hotel sits opposite the State Opera House, making it one of the most central of all the five star luxury locations and well suited to slipping into bed with the final aria still ringing in your ears.
I was invited to breakfast at the Sacher by a hotel guest once and the quality and friendliness of the service was astonishing. The experience left me with an enduringly positive impression.
The hotel also has an attached coffee house (Café Sacher), which enjoys immense popularity: I cannot recall the last time I passed and did not see a long queue waiting to get inside. So reserve a table or go very early in the day.
The elegant interiors, classic setting and (surprise!) cake within the café all make a visit worthwhile in its own right, even if you stay elsewhere.
Like the Imperial, the Sacher also has plenty of screen fame.
For example, the hotel provides a home for protagonist Holly Martins in The Third Man, offers scenic background for Jack Ryan, and serves as a recurring location in the Sachertorte movie.
- Address: Philharmonikerstraße 4, 1010 Vienna
- Hotel and booking details*
Palais Hansen Kempinski
(Another jewel in the centre)
Found among the many state buildings and town palaces on the Ring surrounding Vienna’s old town, the hotel occupies premises that date back to the 1873 World Exhibition.
The original architect (Theophil Hansen) also designed three of the city’s most prestigious historical locations: the recently reopened Austrian parliament, the recently refurbished Academy of Fine Arts, and the Musikverein mentioned earlier.
A close neighbour is the former stock exchange building, whose lovely main hall now echoes to concerts by the Wiener Residenz Orchestra.
And here’s an insider secret…the Palais Hansen Kempinski sits practically opposite the address Schottenring 23, which few people realise was designed by the father of modern architecture, Otto Wagner.
- Address: Schottenring 24, 1010 Vienna
- Hotel and booking details*
Palais Coburg Hotel Residenz
(Stay here and you literally sleep on top of history)
A palais completed in the 1840s for the impressively-named Duke Ferdinand of Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha. The hotel actually rests on part of Vienna’s medieval city fortifications.
Go inside to see those ancient walls incorporated within the hotel, creating a quite remarkable and rather unique architecture.
The palais also has a musical connection (like so many of its colleagues in the city). Johann Strauss II premiered a polka and a waltz here, written in honour of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert. You can hear Strauss’s genius all over Vienna today at the many historical concert venues.
Palais Coburg lies just inside the old town, close to Stephansdom cathedral and also the Stadtpark with its numerous monuments to Vienna’s musical heroes (like Strauss).
- Address: Coburgbastei 4, 1010 Vienna
- Hotel and booking details*
Five star hotels
At the time of writing (mid-March 2025), the Austrian Chamber of Commerce classifies one other luxury hotel as a five-star property:
Hotel Bristol
(Notable Jugendstil exterior décor)
Genuinely named after the English port city, Hotel Bristol is another glorious building first opened in 1892 and then reworked in 1913.
Like Hotel Sacher, Hotel Bristol sits opposite the State Opera House. You find it at one end of the Kärntner Straße street that quickly turns pedestrianised and leads you down to Vienna’s cathedral. This also takes you past one of my favourite café confectioneries: Sluka.
Hotel Bristol’s long list of famous guests includes Roosevelt, Mahler, Gershwin, Puccini, King Edward VIII, and Bernstein. (One of those is not like the others.)
Note that the hotel is currently closed for extensive renovations until a (planned) reopening at Christmas 2027.
- Address: Kärntner Ring 1, 1010 Vienna
- Hotel and booking details*
If none of the above meet your needs, I have a fair few other articles with tips on the right hotel for your needs.