Hotel bans kids, allows dogs

A top hotel in an upmarket Austrian resorts has slapped a ban on young children - but is still letting in dogs.

Hotel Cortisen owner Roland Ballner, 38, said the children were always badly behaved and invariably more trouble than they were worth.

He claimed bookings had flooded in since he promised to kick out kids under the age of 12 from May next year.

But he added that dogs would still be allowed as they were far better trained and didnt vandalise his hotel like children did.

His property is in one of the best locations on the St. Wolfgang, near Gmunden, on the Wolfgangsee lake.

He said: "My guests have a right to quiet and relaxation without the noise of children.

"In most cases where they are badly behaved though the parents are to blame, they seem to feel they are here to relax and wash their hands of their children's bad behaviour."

Ballner said he had invested 2.5 million euros in his hotel and he could not tolerate "children drawing with felt-tipped pens on white leather couches" and other vandalism.