My wife and I have stayed in this hotel many times since 1994. It is a fantasic place - the favourite of all the hotels in which I have stayed within Europe and the USA.

The food is excellent, and all of the rooms we have stayed in have been very comfortable and clean.

The hotel staff have always made us feel very welcome. Many of the guests we have spoken with were repeat visitors, or planned to return in the future.

Just returned from a most enjoyable weeks stay at the Sporthotel, Igls. We cannot speak highly enough of everything the hotel offers - superb imaginative food, beautifully cooked, presented and served, excellent staff who could not do enough to make our stay a good one, a charming head waiter with an excellent knowledge of Austrian wines. A very friendly host/owner Mr Beck. Most comfortable beds and well appointed rooms, great spa facilities and swimming pool, delightful garden and all in a stunning setting overlooking the mountains, what more could you ask for. We will be returning and recommend this hotel for all.

Sadly, my 10 day holiday at the Sport hotel in Igls was a disappointment. I would rate it at only just 4 stars; true it has the veneer of some 4 star facilities; lift, swimming pool, room service, a piano bar etc, but it is let down by poor hygiene and some surly staff.
The food was well cooked, but the buffet style presentation was extremely vulnerable to the swarms of flies that infested all of the public areas of the hotel. The staff turned a blind eye to the problem; it is odd to have efficient, well turned-out waiters fussing around you whilst the masses of salads, breads, extensive cheese board, breakfast meats, prepared fruit, open bowls of yoghurts, cereals, jams, sweets etc lie there, un-protected and picked over by flies at their leisure, undisturbed whilst the serving staff breezed by.
Because of the fly problem I can’t say that I relished many of the meals I had there, I avoided almost everything on the buffet, preferring only cooked food; I hope that the kitchen was kept in a better state than the dining room. The senior waiter seemed to go out of his way to be off hand; at times he was downright rude and treated me as an eccentric nuisance to be tolerated, perhaps because I had complained?

The flies appear to come from a large manure heap in a run-down milking parlour just a few yards down the road from the hotel. On a hot afternoon, the stink of rotting cow dung and urine permeated the whole village centre, penetrating right into the hotel. The Sport hotel has a sun terrace/open air restaurant area at the front of the hotel and whilst it is inviting to sit there and drink a coffee whilst watching the world go by, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re prepared to keep on swatting the flies that pester you constantly. Eating there in the evening must be pretty unpleasant.

Other aspects of the hotel that fell short of expectations were the bedroom; which was dark, with no balcony, view or access to sunshine. I needed to have the lights on whenever I was in the room. The shower head would not adjust high enough to allow a stand-up shower; I had to sit in the bath to use the shower head.
Surprisingly, there was no drying area available for walkers’ boots/coats etc; and without a balcony I had to hang things in the bedroom to dry - not ideal.

The general area was far more developed than I anticipated; Igls is little more than a suburb of Innsbruck, separated from the city by the motorway to Italy. Photos of the Sport hotel in the literature and on their website give the impression that the hotel sits in its’ own gardens, or perhaps, on the edge of a sunny alpine pasture, but the reality is very different. The main road goes right past the front door and a busy side road runs down the side of the hotel, past the bedroom window; at times the coaches and tourist traffic choked the road to a standstill.

Outside the hotel is a car parking area, and across the road, opposite the hotel, are a bank, some shops, a supermarket and, when I stayed there [August 2006], a building site.

In all then, the Sport at Igls is not a place for a restful alpine walking holiday. Until the cow shed is closed down the village will continue to be an unpleasant place to spend any time, and the Sport’s management doesn’t seem to have the will to alleviate the problems caused by the odour and insects inside the building.
The Sport is OK perhaps for a night or two enroute to somewhere better, or for the overnight one-stop coach-tour trade that it seems to be set up to handle. Perhaps in the skiing season things improve, but I’ve stayed in much better hotels and in much nicer areas in both Austria and Switzerland.

I wouldn’t go back there again.

I've stayed in Igls a number of times (you can have the crowds and noise in Innsbruck) but, until this year, never at the SportHotel. Thanks to a great rate offered at the Tourist Info Office at the station, I couldn't pass it up. What a delight. Real luxury, genuine service and wonderful food. Excellent hiking at your doorstep. The management and staff here would do any hotel proud. The breakfast is outstanding. Igls has much to offer and the SportHotel is at the top of the list. I hope to be there again next year and strongly recommend to discriminating travelers.