First of all, location is fantastic. Beautiful Ringstrasse goes right in front of the hotel and Schottentor-station is just a few steps away with connections for S-bahn and U-bahn. We arrived from the airport via CAT and U-bahn, and found the sign on the station wall pointing the right way to Hotel de France very helpful. Hotel's lobby is very beautiful with crystal chandeliers and paintings of former emperors and empresses and service at the reception was very kind and understanding to my not-so-perfect German.
Our room was located on the 6th floor (the top floor). It was a superior-room (i.e. the cheapest category) and was facing the inner courtyard, which means no view but a lot of sunlight! The windows were of normal glass and you couldn't open them. The room was furnished very beautifully and had an entrance corridor with entrance to bathroom and a big mirror, sitting area, desk, tv and a wardrobe. We couldn't get the safe to function, as there was no instructions available and it didn't function like hotel safes usually do.
Bathroom was quite spacious and very elegant with white bathrobes, towels, wall and floor tiles and shower wall made of glass. Bathroom lighting was executed with halogen spot lights only, which are very bad if you have a tendency for migraine and they heat up the bathroom considerably, so it will be a hot steamy room after having the lights on for a while and a shower. Not a good place to try to put your make-up on or do your hair..! Otherwise, there was a controllable air-conditioning in the room, which was very handy as the room heated up quite much during the sunny days.
The mini-bar had a few sodas and water bottles, two bottles of beer and two 2cl bottles of schnaps + a pack of nuts. Mini-bar was included, but was quite a disappointment, as there was no wine or other spirits (like they usually do).
We used the mini-bar fridge for storing our own stuff (supplies for breakfast, that is, as the breakfast was not included). On Sunday morning, the maid had switched the fridge off! This means that all the drinks were warm when we came back to the hotel (not nice!) AND our breakfast stuff (dairy products, cold cuts) was not eatable anymore, as they had been the whole day in a warm fridge. I complained about it to the reception, but they did practically nothing. Because it was Sunday, we couldn't even go to the store and get new groceries. The switching off of the fridge must have been intentional, as it was impossible to do it by accident, because the thermometer knob was in such a place that you couldn't move it accidentally!
We didn't use hotel's other services (e.g. breakfast) and didn't even notice the lobby bar. Where was it anyway, not in the entering lobby at least?
Altogether, the hotel was good and very well located, but it did leave a bit of a bad taste for the (lack of) service. I could stay there again, but only if it was a bit cheaper. I've seen this hotel listed as a five star -hotel somewhere, which it certainly is not, a four-star rating is more suitable for it.
