How far in advance to book hotels for Vienna/Salzburg for December

I would book as soon as you know your dates. That's a busy time of year. In my experience, hotel prices tend to go up, not down.

I just yesterday booked my hotel for Nov. in London.

Hi Sara, I booked hotels for those two cities last year in July when I suddenly found out my daughter could go with me to the Christmas Markets. I looked up options for the first week of December, and the inventory was definitely low for my criteria of having a hotel very close to the main city center. Especially for weekends, don’t delay. (I’ve already booked mine for the Christmas Markets for 2026.)

Its high season in both, and in both I suspect the well located moderately priced (under $250) will go fast.

I just checked a hotel i like in Salzburg and Booking.com said it was sold out 16 - 19 December. But the hotel website had rooms. For 220€ no cancelation, no breakfast, no smiles. So check with the hotels directly.

The last hotel I stayed at in Vienna, that i thought was okay, was sold out on the same dates.

NOW - for the best price and best location. We go to the Xmas Markets every other yr and we book at least a yr in advance. Vienna & Salzburg are VERY popular Xmas Market destinations - the best, most convenient hotels book fast.

Best to book direct, not thru a 3rd party.

If you make a reservation with free cancellation, there's no reason not to book now. You can always modify your reservation if the price goes down. Booking.com is very good. However, sometimes booking direct will give you a slightly better price and maybe a freebie (breakfast, wine, candies, etc).

Adding to Funpig’s response, Booking.com now sends me emails whenever the hotel price I’ve reserved goes down. They give it to me as a credit on a future reservation after I’ve completed that stay.

December in Vienna is crazy because so many people are coming for the Christmas markets, so as early as possible, otherwise all the best ones will be gone! Here's an article that could be helpful in deciding where to stay in Vienna (i.e what district), along with some hotel recommendations for those districts.

As soon as my dates are determined, I book a room directly with the hotel, that can be canceled without a penalty. As your arrival date gets closer, you can always check to see if the price has been reduced. If so, then rebook and cancel your original.

For staying mid-June in Vienna, I booked a couple of weeks ago, a 4 star hotel having the daily rate for a single from 63 to 81 Euro, depending on the date. An extremely good deal with the average daily rate for 6 nights amounting to less that 80 Euro.

I'm not going to Vienna or Salzburg, but I am booking hotels right now for the Christmas markets in Germany and Strasbourg for early December. I just finished a booking marathon yesterday that left me pretty exhausted. 😂

Even at this point, there are some hotels that did not have rooms on my dates. You can almost always find something, but as Jean pointed out, you won't find hotels that are close to where you want to be. If you do, they will probably be the most expensive ones. It would definitely pay to start booking now. And as Carrie pointed out, the hotel prices only go up, not down.

Just an FYI, I will go to Booking.com to look for hotels, but I rarely book there because I can almost always find a cheaper price on the actual hotel website. In some cases it's minimal, but in many cases it's not. Also, when you are looking at prices on Booking.com, note that the listed price is not the actual price because they do not add the mandatory VAT onto it, which can be considerable (in Austria, I think it's 10%.). They do mention VAT, but it's in very small print below.

Last year we stayed at Hotel Elefant in Salzburg - funny name, nice hotel. It was a little over a block to the main Christmas Market and handy to the funicular for the castle, main streets you will want to see, etc. Just take a quick taxi from the train station. (I would not want to be located over at the train station area just for better proximity to what you will probably want to do.). Take a bus or taxi out to Hellbrunn’s market on the edge of town, also.

We stayed at Gastehaus Deutscher Orden Wien in Vienna. It was a block away from St. Stephens Cathedral with the handy metro stop there, also. It’s located in the same building entrance as the chapel where Mozart played. Our room was basic but safety & location were excellent!

I did pay for my rooms at time of reservation which gives me an extra discount (Booking), plus the exchange rate was better at that time. However you plan to reserve, I would do it immediately.

I stayed at the Elefant as well. It did the job very well and I would probalby stay there again if I returned.

I know the OP isnt, but a few people that might be reading because they are going to Vienna for Christmas might also be going to Budapest. So, I got curious and looked. Not the same problem as in Austria so get Austrian rooms booked first and booked soon. I think most hotels use dynamic pricing now, so it never hurts to book early. For Budapest I picked three 3star and three 4star in prime locations. Each 4 nights in late November and 4 nights in early December. Two of the three 3 star had their standard room available and it ran 92 to 160€. All of three of the 4star hotels had their standard room available and it ran 124€ to 160€. I just looked at the cheapest room for 2 people. Didn’t care about breakfast or refund policy but most came with one or the other or both.

When in Salzburg you will get the free Salzburg mobility pass
This gives you free public transport bus and train in Salzburg region. Your accommodation will provide it. As long as it is an official accommodation.
It is valid from your arrival day so your hotel can send it to you to use to get to your hotel if necessary.
It works really well.