Spitz Hotel

Hotel description

Having a bit less high-culture history to weigh it down than Vienna or Salzburg do, Austria’s third city of Linz gets on with the business of modern life — some of which happens to take place in a very modern hotel called the Spitz. It’s right in the heart of the city, across from the new town hall and around the corner from the Ars Electronica Center, the technology museum that’s set to re-open in January of 2009. The ideal place for a modern-style design hotel, especially one which, like the Spitz, is relatively easy on the wallet.

It’s an upgrade from the 1980s chain hotel that used to occupy this space, taken over by a private owner and redesigned by the architect Isa Stein. The new-look Spitz ranges across several categories of hospitality, from standard rooms and studios to long-stay rooms and apartments. It’s still more design hotel than luxury hotel, full of contemporary works by local artists and video installations by Ars Electronica, but it doesn’t lack for comfort — guest rooms come with flat-screen televisions and the public spaces in particular are striking, with their clean white backgrounds and asymmetrical red leather seats.