Luxury Hotels Atlas / The Maison / Sacher
Sacher hotels
Austrian grand-hotel life revolves around a chocolate cake, made to the guarded original recipe.
Sacher brings a family-owned Austrian hotel tradition together with the pleasures of the Original Sacher-Torte. The chocolate cake created by Franz Sacher in 1832 became part of a hotel identity now carried by the Gürtler and Winkler family, with the individual houses remaining closely connected to their owners.
3 Sacher hotels in 1 country on the Luxury Hotels Atlas, each placed on the six LHA Tiers.
- Owned by the Gürtler-Winkler family
- Worldwide: 3 hotels, all in Austria — Hotel Sacher Wien, Hotel Sacher Salzburg, and Alpin Resort Sacher Seefeld-Tirol. Sacher has never opened outside Austria; its footprint also includes standalone Sacher cafés and pop-ups in Vienna, Salzburg, Parndorf, and Trieste, plus the Original Sacher-Torte manufactory and retail business — none of which are hotels and so fall outside this dossier's scope.
- On the atlas: 1 Apex Luxury, 1 Grand Luxury, 1 High Luxury
History
The Gürtler and Winkler family’s ownership began in 1934 and carried Sacher through several generations. The long dispute with Demel over the cake recipe became part of the house’s history alongside Anna Sacher’s earlier personality. The family’s continued involvement in restorations keeps the hotel and confectionery traditions closely connected.
Timeline
- 1832 — Franz Sacher, a 16-year-old apprentice chef, creates the Sachertorte for a reception hosted by Austrian State Chancellor Klemens von Metternich.
- 1866 — The future Hotel Sacher Salzburg opens as the Österreichischer Hof, built by Carl Freiherr von Schwarz on land reclaimed from the Salzach river.
- 1873 — Eduard Sacher, Franz's son, apprentices at the Demel patisserie and opens his first restaurant on Kärntner Straße.
- 1876 — Eduard Sacher opens Hotel Sacher in Vienna, on the site of the demolished Theater am Kärntnertor, directly opposite the Vienna State Opera.
- 1880 — Eduard marries Anna Sacher (née Fuchs).
- 1892 — Eduard dies; Anna Sacher takes over management and, with her trademark cigars and French bulldogs, turns the hotel into one of the finest in Europe, a meeting place for aristocracy, diplomats, and artists.
- 1930s — Anna Sacher's later management runs the hotel into financial trouble; the estate files for bankruptcy, and as part of the settlement the original Sachertorte recipe passes to the Demel bakery.
- 1934 — The Gürtler and Siller families buy the hotel out of bankruptcy under the company name Eduard Sacher GmbH & Co OHG and extensively renovate it; the new owners begin marketing their own "Original Sacher-Torte," setting up a decades-long trademark dispute with Demel.
- 1945–47 — British forces occupying Vienna use the barely damaged hotel as their headquarters (it later appears in Carol Reed's The Third Man, whose screenwriter Graham Greene researched the film at the hotel bar); on 4 August 1947, two suitcase bombs planted by the Irgun explode in the basement.
- 1952 — Anna Siller dies childless; the hotel becomes the sole property of the Gürtler family.
- 1963 — The Sachertorte trademark dispute with Demel is settled out of court: Hotel Sacher keeps the "Original Sacher-Torte" name, Demel is permitted to sell the "Eduard-Sacher-Torte.".
- 1988 — Peter Gürtler buys the Österreichischer Hof in Salzburg, the city's only historic grand hotel.
- 2000 — The Salzburg property is renamed Hotel Sacher Salzburg, becoming the family's second Sacher-branded house.
- 2010 — Elisabeth Gürtler and her children Georg and Alexandra buy Hotel Bristol Wien, which continues to be managed by Marriott as a Luxury Collection hotel under contract to 2037, never rebranded Sacher.
- 2014 — Elisabeth Gürtler passes day-to-day leadership of the operating companies to her children Alexandra Winkler and Georg Gürtler.
- 2014–2021 — An eight-year, roughly €34 million renovation rebuilds Hotel Sacher Salzburg from the foundations up, completing with the new Sacher Sky Suite; a parallel renovation cycle redesigns the Sacher Eck and associated suites at Hotel Sacher Wien.
- 1 September 2022 — The Astoria Resort Seefeld, family-owned since 1950 and managed by Elisabeth Gürtler since 2015, is rebadged Alpin Resort Sacher Seefeld-Tirol, the first resort-format hotel to carry the Sacher name.
- January 2023 — The Alpin Resort Sacher joins The Leading Hotels of the World.
- 2025 — The Alpin Resort Sacher launches the Sacher Academy for Better Aging, a medically led longevity program.
- 2026 — Hotel Sacher Wien celebrates its 150th anniversary with a public art installation by Erwin Wurm.
The houses to know
- Hotel Sacher Wien, Vienna, Austria — The family-owned Vienna hotel is closely associated with the original Sachertorte and marks its 150th anniversary in 2026.
- Hotel Sacher Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria — A UNESCO-World-Heritage-district grand hotel that took eight years and €34 million to rebuild from the foundations up.
- Alpin Resort Sacher, Seefeld in Tirol, Austria — The alpine hotel carries a Seefeld hospitality history that began with Hotel Britannia in 1929.
Newest openings
- No newly built Sacher hotel has opened in the last 24 months. The group's most recent addition to its roster was the 2022 rebadging of the Alpin Resort Sacher Seefeld-Tirol (see Closings & Rebadgings below), which now falls outside the freshness window for this section.
Opening next
- No new Sacher hotel construction or acquisition has been publicly announced as of mid-2026. In a 2025 interview, CEO Matthias Winkler described the group's growth strategy as centered on expanding standalone Sacher restaurants, cafés, and pop-up concepts, plus digital services and sustainability initiatives at the existing three hotels — not new hotel openings.
Every Sacher hotel on the atlas
Austria
- Hotel Sacher Wien — Vienna · Apex Luxury
- Hotel Sacher Salzburg — Salzburg · Grand Luxury
- Alpin Resort Sacher — Seefeld in Tirol · High Luxury
Open The Maison in the atlas for Sacher's full dossier, with prices and maps.