At the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was one of the major centers of Europe. Artists, politicians, nobles, citizens, and tourists populated the streets of the city, and the emperor ruled them all.

You are in the thick of the Viennese Modern Age, trying your luck as a hotelier. For that, you must expand your little hotel and prepare new rooms. In the meantime, your guests require culinary excellence. Make sure each and every guest receives a proper dish and drink. You may need to hire additional staff.

Despite all that, do not forget to render homage to the emperor, or you will fall into disgrace pretty soon. Face the challenge and turn your little hostel into the Grand Austria Hotel!

Components

• Action board
• Game board
• 4 Hotel boards (two-sided)
• 56 Guest cards
• 48 Staff cards
• 12 Politics cards
• 4 Overview cards
• Round marker
• 84 Room tiles in 3 colors
• 24 Wooden disks
• 14 Dice
• 12 Emperor tiles
• 1 Dustbin
• 120 Dishes and drinks
• 4 Victory Point markers

Guest Cards

In order to make your hotel successful, you will have to attract many guests and meet their needs and wishes. Once you fulfill a guest's requests, they will stay at your hotel and bring you rewards. The guests are quite picky, though, when it comes to taking a room: Nobles (blue cards) only take blue rooms, Artists (yellow cards) only yellow rooms, and Citizens (red cards) only red rooms. Only Tourists (green cards) are pleased with any room they can get.

Making a guest happy is not only worth Victory Points, but it also provides an additional action as a reward.

Guests are always the most important! This is how we roll in our hotel. If the guest is happy, they take a room. This is the only way to use our hotel to capacity and gain additional actions.

Staff Cards

Staff can be useful for your hotel. Each helper has a different effect: Some only provide a one-time benefit on hire, while others have permanent effects. Some provide additional Victory Points at the end of the game. Also, there are staff that you can only use once per round.

Staff can be quite helpful, but a skillful hotelier can manage on their own, if he is really clever.

Hotel Board

Your Hotel board features a little Cafe which can host 3 guests. Your Kitchen is where you prepare the dishes they order, and your Office is where you play your actions and maintain your money and staff.

The Hotel boards are printed on both sides. One side features the same hotel so that all players have the same conditions, but the other sides differ from each other and are more difficult to play.

At the start of the game, 3 guest rooms are already available for use. Overall, you can use up to 20 rooms in your hotel.

The rooms are organized in 10 groups. Using all the rooms in a group provides valuable benefits.

Emperor Track

There are 13 spaces on the Emperor track, each of which features a Victory Point value below it. You cannot move past space 13. Instead, you receive 1 Victory Point for each space you would move beyond space 13.

Victory Point Track

For each Victory Point you receive, advance your wooden disk on the Victory Point track by 1 space. Each space can have more than one player's wooden disk. If you move past space 75, take a Victory Point marker with 75 facing up.

If you move past space 75 again, turn the Victory Point marker to the other side. At the end of the game, add the number on your Victory Point marker to your position on the Victory Point track.

Setup

• Place the game board in the middle of the table. It features spaces for the Guest cards, the Emperor track, 3 spaces for the Emperor tiles, and 3 spaces for the Politics cards.
• Place the action board with the 6 Action spaces next to it.
• Place the dustbin and the victory point markers next to it.
• Sort the 4 different dishes and drinks and place them next to the game board.
• Shuffle the Guest cards and place them face down in a stack on the designated space. Draw 5 cards from the top of the stack and place one each face up on the 5 Guest spaces.

Shuffle the Staff cards and place them face down in a stack next to the game board.

On your first play, you should only use the recommended sets. Sort out the appropriate cards, before you shuffle the rest.

Choose a Politics card each from A, B, and C, and place them face up on the designated spaces of the game board.

Choose Emperor tiles from each of the A, B, and C tiles, and place them face up on the desig- nated spaces of the game board.

Sort the Room tiles by color and place them in stacks next to the game board.

Place the following number of dice on the first Action space: 10 dice in a 2-player game, 12 dice in a 3-player game, and 14 dice in a 4-player game. Put the remaining dice back into the game box.

Take the Turn Order tiles with the correct number of players on their backs, and place the rest back into the game box.

Take an Overview card, a Hotel board, and the 6 wooden disks in a color of your choice. Put the remaining Overview cards, Hotel boards, and wooden disks back into the game box.

Place one of your wooden disks on space "0" of the Emperor track and another one on space "0" of the Victory Point track.

Place one of your wooden disks on space "10" of the Money track of your Hotel board, i.e. you start the game with 10 krones. Place the remaining wooden disks next to your Hotel board.

You may need those wooden disks later to engage in politics, marking the corresponding cards with them.

Take a coffee, wine, cake, and strudel from the supply and place them in the Kitchen on your Hotel board.

Draw 6 Staff cards and keep them hidden from the other players.

As I said before: play the introductory variant and use the recommended sets, if you please.

Put the round marker on space "1" of the Round track.

Preparations

Decide collectively which side of the Hotel boards you would like to use. For your first play, we recommend you use the front sides.

Randomly determine a start player. This player receives Turn Order tile "1". The next player in clockwise order receives Turn Order tile "2", and so on.

Beginning with the last player (who has the highest Turn Order tile) and in counter- clockwise order, each player chooses a guest from the face-up ones on the game board and places it in their Cafe at no cost.

After each choice, slide the remaining guests to the right and place a new one from the draw pile on the empty space at left. After that, each player should have a guest in their Cafe.

Then, players prepare up to 3 rooms by taking Room tiles from the game board and placing them on same-colored spaces of their Hotel board. You must start with the bottom left room of your Hotel board. Subsequent Room tiles must be placed adjacent to already placed ones. You pay the cost printed on your Hotel board by moving the wooden disk on your Money track down. Now you are ready to go!

Little piece of advice: definitely prepare 3 rooms. If you are Scottish or simply like saving money, you can prepare 3 free rooms.

Object of the Game

The game is played over 7 rounds. At the end of rounds 3, 5, and 7, there is an Emperor Scoring. After round 7, there is also the Final Scoring. The player who then has the most Victory Points wins.

You know, there are several ways to get Victory Points: guests provide some, you get some in the Emperor Scorings, and for occupied rooms. With the right staff, there are even more ways to get points.

Game Play

At the start of each round, the start player (who has Turn Order tile "1") takes and rolls all the dice, sorting them by the rolled number and placing them on the corresponding Action spaces.

Then the start player takes a turn or passes (see "Passing").

On your turn, you take the following actions:

1. Take a guest from the game board. (optional)

2. Take a die and carry out the corresponding action. (mandatory) You can also take additional actions.

1) Take A Guest From The Game Board

On your turn, you can take one of the 5 face-up guests on the game board and place it in your Cafe. Pay the cost associated with the guest you took (printed on the game board), moving the wooden disk on your Money track down accordingly. Then place the guest on a free space in your Cafe. If all spaces are occupied, you cannot take a guest.

Slide all remaining guests on the game board to the right and place a new guest from the draw pile on the empty space at left.

Can I tell you a secret? The truth is the hotels choose their guests. A successful hotelier only takes guests that help the hotel prosper. So choose wisely, but try to get a new guest each turn, if possible. Be careful .though: a guest does not leave your Caf^ unless you Complete their order!

2) Take A Die And Carry Out The Action

Choose an Action space with at least one die left and carry out the action. The number of dice on the Action space determines how much you get from the action. Then remove a die from the Action space and place it on the lowest visible number on your Turn Order tile.

The Actions In Detail:

For each die on this Action space, you can take 1 strudel or 1 cake. You cannot take more cake than strudel, but other than that you can take any combination of cake and coffee.

Example: There are 3 dice showing "1". Taking the action, you can choose 3 strudel, or 2 strudel and 1 cake.

For each die on this Action space, you can take 1 wine or 1 coffee.

You cannot take more coffee than wine, but other than that you can take any combination of coffee and wine.

For each die on this Action space, you can prepare a room. Take a Room tile of your choice from the supply and place it on your Hotel board, according to the following rules:

• Each Room tile must be adjacent to an already placed tile.
• The front of the Room tile has to be visible.
• You must pay the cost according to the row of the Room space.
• The color of the Room tile must match the color of the Room space.

If you place a Room tile on a space in the top right part of your Hotel board, you immediately receive the printed number of Victory Points.

For each die on this Action space, you can advance 1 space on the Emperor track or your Money track. You can split the total between the two tracks.

Example: There are 2 dice showing "4". You can either advance 2 spaces on the Emperor track, or 2 spaces on your Money track, or 1 space on each.

You can play exactly one Staff card. For each die on this Action space, the cost is reduced by 1.

Pay the remaining cost by moving down on your Money track accordingly. If the cost drops below 0, you do not get any money out of this.

Pay 1 krone and choose any of the 5 other actions (1-5). Take the action based on the number of dice showing "6", not the chosen number!

Example: There are 4 dice showing "6", but only 1 die showing "2". You pay 1 krone and take 2 wine and 2 coffee.

Whenever you receive dishes and drinks, you can place them immediately on a guest's order. Place the rest in the Kitchen of your Hotel board.

Additional Actions

On your turn, you can also take the following additional actions:

• Once per turn, you can pay 1 krone to add 1 to the number of dice on the chosen Action space.

• You can pay 1 krone to move up to 3 dishes and drinks from your Kitchen to the orders on your Guest cards.

• You can place a wooden disk on a Politics card (see "Politics Cards").

• You can use a Staff card you played with a "once per round" effect. If you do, turn it to the other side.

• You can move a guest whose order you completed to a free room. You immediately receive the printed number of Victory Points and the reward that guest provides. (See page 16 for an explanation of the used symbols).

  Guests can only move into an unoccupied room of the same color. Turn the room to the other side and place the guest on the discard pile. When you turn over the last room in a group, you immediately and only once receive a bonus (see "Occupancy Bonus").

  If you have no free room of matching color, you cannot take this action. Guests for which you have no room stay in your Cafe and block space.

Except for the first one, you can take the additional actions any number of times during your turn.

After you finish your turn, the player with the lowest number visible on their Turn Order tile goes next. Consequently, the player to the right of the start player takes two consecutive turns.

Passing

Instead of taking a turn, you can simply pass. This happens quite frequently when there are only a few dice left on Action spaces you do not want to use. When you pass, you must wait until every other player has either passed or taken two actions (and, thus, covered both numbers on their Turn Order tile).

When that happens, the player with the lowest number still showing on their Turn Order tile takes the remaining dice from all the Action spaces, removes one, and rolls the rest again, sorting them by number and placing them back accordingly. Then that player can take a turn or pass again.

Play continues in this fashion until all players have covered both numbers on their Turn Order tiles or there are no dice left on any Action space.

Occupancy Bonus

When all the rooms in a group are occupied, you receive a bonus based on the size of the group and the quality of the rooms in it.

According to the table on your Hotel board, you receive additional advancements on the Emperor track for yellow rooms, Victory Points for blue rooms, and krones for red rooms. The bigger the group, the greater the bonus you receive.

You can trigger the bonus when receiving a reward from a guest that lets you turn a Room tile. Each group provides its bonus only once, in the moment you turn the last Room tile in that group.

Example: Benedict moves a noble to his last free blue room, thus occupying the last room in a blue group. He immediately receives an occupancy bonus for that group: since it has 2 rooms, he can advance 5 spaces on the Victory Point track.

Politics Cards

Each Politics card shows a requirement. As soon as you meet the requirement of a Politics card on your turn, you can place a wooden disk on the highest available space, receiving the printed number of Victory Points for that. You can only place one wooden disk per Politics card.

If you have no clue what to aim for in this game, you should take a look at the Politics cards. They usually provide some idea of what to play towards. If you have better plans, them altogether.

There are 12 Politics cards, but only 3 are used in each game. If you meet the requirements of a card on your turn, you can place a wooden disk on the card and you immediately receive the printed number of Victory Points. You can only place one wooden disk on each card.

Here is an explanation of the politics cards.

End of a Round

At the end of the 3rd, 5th, and 7th round, there is an Emperor Scoring (see "Emperor Scoring"). After the 7th round and its Emperor Scoring, there is a Final Scoring.

At the end of each round, you can turn your Staff cards face up again. Then pass your Turn Order tile to the next player in clockwise order. The new start player takes all the dice and moves the Round marker one space forward.

Emperor Scoring

Each player receives Victory Points for their wooden disk on the Emperor track, according to the value printed below the space that the wooden disk occupies.

Then each player must move their wooden disk a number of spaces back on the track: 3 spaces after the first, 5 spaces after the second, and 7 spaces after the third Emperor Scoring.

If your wooden disk ends up in the yellow area (so at least on space "3"), you receive the bonus on the Emperor tile. If your wooden disk ends up on "0", you suffer the penalty of the Emperor tile. If your wooden disk ends up on "1" or "2", you neither get a bonus nor suffer a penalty.

Emperor Tiles

There are 12 Emperor tiles, but only 3 are used in each game. The penalty part usually shows 2 options. If one of them is not possible, you must choose the other. Here is an explanation of the tiles:

Bonus: You receive 3 krones.

Penalty: You lose either 3 krones or 5 Victory Points.

Bonus: You receive any 2 dishes and/or drinks.

Penalty: You must return all dishes and drinks from your Kitchen to the general supply.

Bonus: Draw 3 Staff cards. You can choose one and play it for 3 fewer krones. Return the unused cards to the bottom of the Staff card pile.

Penalty: You must either return 2 Staff cards from your hand to the bottom of the Staff card pile or lose 5 Victory Points.

Bonus: Prepare a room of your choice without paying any cost. Other rules regarding the preparation of a room remain intact.

Penalty: You either lose 5 Victory Points or must remove an unoccupied room from the highest possible row of your Hotel board.

Bonus: You receive 1 strudel, 1 cake, 1 wine, and 1 coffee.

Penalty: You must return all dishes and drinks from your guests and Kitchen to the general supply.

Bonus: You receive 5 krones.

Penalty: You lose either 5 krones or 7 Victory Points.

Bonus: Draw 3 Staff cards. You can play one of them at no cost. Return the other two to the bottom of the Staff card pile.

Penalty: You must either return 3 Staff cards from your hand to the bottom of the Staff card pile or lose 7 Victory Points.

Bonus: You can place a Room tile of any color in the first or second row of your Hotel board. Immediately turn that room to the other side, marking it occupied. You must place the room adjacent to another.

Penalty: You either lose 7 Victory Points or must remove 2 unoccupied rooms from the highest possible row(s) of your Hotel board.

Bonus: You receive 8 Victory Points.

Penalty: You lose 8 Victory Points.

Bonus: You can place a Room tile of any color on your Hotel board. Immediately turn that room to the other side, marking it occupied. You must place the room adjacent to another.

Penalty: You must remove 2 occupied rooms from your Hotel board. These must be the occupied room in the highest possible row and the next possible room below it, if any.

Bonus: You receive 2 Victory Points per Staff card you played.

Penalty: You lose 2 Victory Points per Staff card you played.

Bonus: You can play a Staff card from your hand at no cost.

Penalty: You must either discard a Staff card you played with a "game end" effect or lose 10 Victory Points.

End of the Game

After the 7th round, there is a Final Scoring:

• You receive Victory Points for your Staff cards that provide them.

• You receive Victory Points for your occupied rooms: 1 Victory Point for each room in the first row of your Hotel board, 2 Victory Points each in the second row, 3 Victory Points each in the third row, and 4 Victory Points each in the top row.

• You receive 1 Victory Point for each krone and leftover dish and drink in your Kitchen.

• You lose 5 Victory Points for each guest in your Cafe.

The player with the most Victory Points wins.

In case of a tie, the player who has more dishes, drinks, and krones left wins.

Introductory Variant

In order to familiarize yourselves with the game, we recommend you each start the game with an equal set of Staff cards.

Before your first play, sort the Staff cards and give each player a set. The start player receives set A, the next player set B, and so on.

Then shuffle the remaining Staff cards to form the draw pile.

Variant For Experienced Players

At the start of the game, each player receives 6 Staff cards, chooses 1, and takes it into their hand. Then give the rest to the player to your left. Again, choose 1 card and pass the rest to the left.

Repeat this process until you have chosen and taken 6 Staff cards into your hand.

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