Setup for 2-Player a Game of Grand Austria Hotel

Generated on 11/7/2026 8:19:15 AM EST
A direct link to this setup is https://www.BoardgameHelpers.com/GrandAustriaHotel/LoadGame.aspx?id=b26af88b8b324d0c93717d65c36186bc

Like BoardGameHelpers.com? Maybe buy me a coffee or buy the microbadge on BGG.

Player Setup

Player Color	Turn Order	Starting Items	Player Board
Gray	1 ↗↘ Starting player First to auction Hotel Entrance Last to draft Rehearsal Room Last to draft Guest card	9 on money track No dishes or drinks Champagne x1 Dancers x10	Board A
Blue	2 ↗↘ First to draft Rehearsal Room First to draft Guest card	10 on money track No dishes or drinks Champagne x1 Dancers x10	Board B

Other Setup

Dice	Total Number of Dice = 10
Politics / Objective Cards
Emperor Tiles
Auctioned Hotel Entrances
Ballrooms
Drafted Rehearsal Rooms

Your Custom Setup Script

• Module 1 specific setup
• Module 2 specific setup
• Module 3 specific setup
• Module 4 specific setup

Common Play Area

1. Place the game board in the middle of the play area. The game board features spaces for Politics/Objective cards, Guest cards, and Emperor tiles; also, the Round, Emperor, and score tracks. (The two sides of the game board differ only in looks. You can use whichever side you like best, e.g., matching the hotel boards, see step 8a.)
   1. Place the Round marker on the first space of the Round track.
   2. Place the Emperor tiles depicted above face up on their corresponding spaces (below the Round track). Return the remaining Emperor tiles to the game box—you will not need them.
   3. Place the Politics/Objective cards depicted above face up on their corresponding spaces (to the left of the Round track). Return the remaining Politics/Objective cards to the game box—you will not need them.
   4. Shuffle the Guest cards and place them in a face-down deck to the left of the game board. The Guest card deck will contain 85 total cards (+2 for revised edition):
      • 56 (+2 for revised edition) Guest cards from the base game
      • 29 Guest cards marked [Module 1 Music Note] for Module 1
   5. Then draw five guest cards from the deck and place them face up on the designated spaces at the bottom, from right to left. This is called the queue.
   6. Place the victory point tiles near the game board. Use them to indicate when you reach or pass 75 and 150 victory points on the score track.
2. Place the Action board next to the game board. The Action board features six action spaces associated with dice values 1 through 6.
   1. Turn the Action board to the side showing [Module 1 Music Note]
      If you have an older copy of the base game, instead, place the overlay covering the and actions, with the [Module 1 Music Note] side showing.
      
   2. Place a number and color of dice depicted above near the Action board. Return the remaining dice, if any, to the game box—you will not need them.
   3. Place the Dustbin nearby.
   4. Place the Action board extension to the left of the action board (so the illustrations match) and put the Skeleton key on the Action board extension. (Start player does not get the Skeleton key)
      
3. Sort the dishes and drinks and place them in separate piles near the 1 and 2 Action spaces.
4. Place the champagne tokens with the dishes and drinks.
5. Sort the Room tiles by color and place them in separate stacks near the 3 action space.
   If you’re having trouble with colors, take notice of the little icons differentiating the tiles.
6. Shuffle all of the Staff cards and place them nearby, face down. The Staff card deck will contain 63 total cards :
   
   • 48 Staff cards from the base game
   • 15 Staff cards marked [Module 1 Music Note] for Module 1
Introductory Variant: On your first play, you should remove all staff cards marked A-D (on the front), before you shuffle the deck.
7. Take the three Ballroom boards depicted above with the depicted side face up, and place them side by side above the game board, in the depicted order. Return the remaining ballroom boards to the game box—you will not need them.
1. Place the Round indicator tiles depicted above above the ballroom boards.
2. Place the Balcony board to the right of the ballroom boards, so that the door aligns with the top row of the rightmost ballroom.
8. Place the new Overview cards with their base game counterparts.
9. Place the Lounge board beside the Action board.
1. Shuffle the Celebrity tiles and place them in a face-down stack next to the Lounge.
2. Draw three Celebrities from the stack and place them face up on the Lounge, from left to right, one Celebrity per space.
3. Place the extra Victory Points chits nearby.

Personal Play Area

10. Take the Turn Order tile as depicted above.
11. Take the Hotel board depicted above, a Money track, a money marker, and the five markers in a color of your choice.
1. Place the hotel board in front of you accordingly with the side depicted above face up.
   For your first play, we recommend using the night side. Oh, and please leave a bit of space below the hotel board for guests.
2. Place the Money track next to your Hotel board and the money marker on space indicated above.
3. Place two markers on the game board: the crest-shaped marker on "0/75" on the Score track and the bust-shaped marker on "0" on the Emperor track.
4. Place the three badge-shaped markers beside your hotel board.
   You will need those markers later if you complete a Politics Card/Objective.
5. Return the remaining Hotel boards, Money tracks, money markers, and markers of unused colors to the game box—you will not need them.
12. Take the starting dishes depicted above (if any) from the supply and place these four items in the kitchen of your hotel board.
13. Draw 6 Staff cards from the deck into your hand, keeping them hidden from the other players.
    Introductory Variant: On your first play, instead of drawing from the shuffled deck, deal each player a starting set of Staff cards: the start player gets the "A" set, the next player clockwise gets the "B" set, and so on. Shuffle the remaining sets, if any, into the staff card deck.
    Expert Variant: Perform a draft after drawing the initial hand of Staff cards. Choose one of the 6 cards to keep and pass the rest to the player on your left. From the 5 cards you get from the player on your right, again choose one to keep and pass the rest to the left. Repeat this process until you have taken 6 cards.
14. Auction Hotel Entrances:
1. Lay out the selection of Hotel Entrances depicted above.
2. The start player must choose one of these hotel entrances and put it up for auction, placing the first bid of 0 or more Krones. Proceeding clockwise, players must either raise or pass. If you pass, you cannot rejoin that particular auction later. The auction continues around the table until all but one player has passed.
3. The winning player pays their bid (if it is greater than 0), moving the marker on their money track down accordingly, and places the hotel entrance to the left of their hotel board, collecting the starting items depicted at the top of the tile. Some hotel entrances provide additional things at the start; if in doubt, consult the appendix for instructions when to collect them (see pages 19-21). Once you get your hotel entrance, you may not participate in any subsequent auctions.
4. If the start player did not win the auction, they must start another in the same fashion. If they did win, the next player clockwise who has not yet won a hotel entrance must start the next auction. Continue this process until all but one hotel entrance is auctioned off. The remaining player gets the last hotel entrance at no cost.
15. Draft Rehearsal Rooms:
1. Lay out the assortion of Rehearsal Room boards depicted above.
2. Beginning with the player to the right of the Start Player and in counter-clockwise order, choose a rehearsal room board and place it to the left of your hotel board.
3. Take the 10 Dancer tokens in your color and distribute them on the marked spaces on your rehearsal room board.
   Every rehearsal room board features four sections, containing 1, 2, 3, and 4 dancers, respectively, and depicting an individual room bonus.
16. Beginning with the player to the right of the start player and in counter-clockwise order, take one Guest card from the queue, ignoring the cost, and place it at a table in your café (below your hotel board). After each choice, close the gap by sliding the remaining guests in the queue to the right and placing a new guest from the deck face up on the empty space on the left. At the end of this process, all players should have one guest in their café.
17. Finally, prepare 3 Rooms in your hotel by taking room tiles from the supply and placing them, with the Vacant side up, on same-colored spaces of your hotel board. You must start with the bottom left space and any subsequent rooms must be placed orthogonally adjacent to already placed ones.
    When placing a room, pay the cost indicated at the start of the floor (i.e. row) by moving the marker on your money track down accordingly.