Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Austria / Bad Gastein / the cōmodo
the cōmodo
Bad Gastein, Austria · Independent · Core Luxury
Bad Gastein's belle-epoque grandeur is often cited as an inspiration for the look of Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, decades before the comodo revived the town's fading spa district. Chef Max Jensen runs the hotel's farm-to-table restaurant, and the MICHELIN Guide awarded the property a One Key rating in 2025.
- 70 rooms
- Opened 2023
- Neighborhood: Pyrkershöhe
- Rooms from 269 sq ft (25 m²)
- Architect: Barbara Elwardt
- Interiors: Piotr Wisniewski
About the cōmodo
- The comodo repurposes a 1962 clinic that replaced the demolished Habsburger Hof, a Belle Epoque resort from 1881, reopening in 2023 after Berlin architect Barbara Elwardt acquired the vacant building in 2019.
- Bad Gastein's thermal caves, long visited by Habsburg emperors seeking healing radon-rich vapors, inform the spa's Saint Charles treatments and Gastein spring water rituals inside the hotel.
- The lobby's red Mario Bellini Camaleonda sofa deliberately nods to the nearby brutalist congress center designed by Gerhard Garstenauer, which furnished its 1974 opening with the same Bellini modules.
- Berlin designer Piotr Wisniewski and architect Barbara Elwardt converted former patient rooms into seventy mid-century-inspired guestrooms in just twelve months of construction, reviving Bad Gastein's faded Belle Epoque district.
- Jeppe Hein's breath-responsive installation hangs opposite Oskar Zieta's polished steel Rondo mirror in the lounge, pairing contemporary Danish art with Alpine resort nostalgia in the lobby salon.
History
The site of the comodo in the Alpine spa town of Bad Gastein was first developed in 1881 as the Habsburger Hof, built by Friedrich Hirt. The original was demolished and rebuilt in 1962, later serving as a clinic and spa from 1985 to 2017 before standing vacant for three years.
It reopened as the comodo in 2023 under owner and architect Barbara Elwardt of Berlin, with interiors by Piotr Wisniewski. The 70-room, four-star-superior hotel embraces a mid-century-modern spirit.
Its program includes a farm-to-table restaurant by chef Max Jensen, co-working spaces, a spa and the sommer.frische.kunst art festival; it won a Hotel Design Award in 2023. Bad Gastein's belle-epoque grandeur famously inspired the aesthetic of Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel.
Amenities
- Spa
- Indoor pool
- Sauna
- Fitness center
- Pet-friendly
Awards
- MICHELIN One Key (2025)
Open the cōmodo in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.