Grand Austria Hotel

Additional actions may be taken before, between, or after your main action, in any combination and in any order you like.

Feed Guests

Pay 1 krone and move up to 3 items (dishes, drinks, or — when playing Module 1 — champagne) from your kitchen to guests in your café.

Claim an Objective

When you meet the condition on an objective card, place one of your discs on the highest available space of that card. Immediately gain the reward printed on that space. You may only place one disc per objective card.

Use a Staff Card

Some staff cards have a once-per-round effect. Turn the card sideways and resolve its effect. At the end of the round, these cards are turned upright again.

Move a Guest to a Room

When a guest's order is complete (all required items placed on their card), you may move them to a room in your hotel:

• Immediately score the victory points printed on the guest card
• Receive any reward printed on the card
• Flip a room tile in your hotel matching the guest's colour to its occupied side:
  • Green guests may be placed in a room of any colour
• Discard the guest card
• If flipping that room completes a group (a colour region shown on your hotel board), immediately receive the group's occupancy bonus shown at the top of the board

Send a Dancer to a Ballroom (Module 1)

As an alternative to moving a completed guest to a room, you may instead send them to a ballroom. Resolve the steps in the following order — you may take steps 3, 4, and 5 in any order, but steps 1 and 2 must come first, so you cannot use champagne collected as a reward to pay for the dancer itself:

1. Select a row (top, middle, or bottom) in a ballroom with at least one unoccupied space, and pay the row's champagne cost from your kitchen. If you cannot afford any row, you cannot use this action
2. Take a dancer token from your rehearsal room board (in any order) and place it on the first unoccupied space of the chosen row from the left
3. If you placed the dancer in the top or middle row, gain the row bonus shown at the start of that row (the bottom row gives no row bonus)
4. Discard the guest card and gain its depicted reward and victory points as normal
5. If removing that dancer emptied a section of your rehearsal room board, gain that section's room bonus

Guest colour does not matter when sending to a ballroom, and no room is flipped in your hotel.

The Balcony: The top row of the rightmost ballroom (with the "7" round indicator) is considered unlimited. Once every numbered space in its top row is occupied, you may pay 3 champagne to place a dancer on the balcony board instead. Balcony dancers count as being in the top row of the rightmost ballroom. The discount icon on certain guest rewards may reduce this cost.

Notes:

• Once placed, a dancer token stays on its space for the rest of the game (unless removed by an Emperor penalty)
• You may place a dancer in a ballroom that has already been scored
• On the 3/4-player side, spaces reserved for 4-player games (marked with a player-count icon) are not used in 3-player games
• You may send the Flamenco Dancer base-game guest (#53) to a ballroom despite her name

Start Player Action (Module 4)

On your turn, if the skeleton key is still on the action board extension and you have not passed this round, you may take it instead of a die. To do so:

• Take the skeleton key and place it on your turn order tile, covering the lowest visible number. You will be the start player next round
• Take 1 dish or drink of your choice (no champagne) from the supply
• Carry out any main action (Space 1 through Space 6) with a strength of 1. You do not take a die from any action space, you may not boost the action for 1 krone, and any staff cards that trigger on taking a particular die do not activate

The players who were pushed back in turn order as a result of your taking the skeleton key gain compensation:

• In a 4-player game: the player to your left gains nothing, the next player clockwise gains 1 krone, and the player to your right gains 2 krones
• In a 3-player game: the player to your left gains nothing, the player to your right gains 1 krone
• In a 2-player game: your opponent gains nothing

You may only take the skeleton key on your first or second turn of the round, and not after you have passed (even if it is still available after a re-roll).

Use a Bell Staff Card (Module 5)

Some Module 5 staff cards carry a bell symbol. They do not activate immediately when played. Instead, when you first meet the requirement printed to the left of the colon on that or a later turn, you may take the reward printed to the right and then turn the card face down to show it has been resolved. Face-down staff cards still count as "played staff" for any effects that care about that.

If meeting the requirement is inconvenient for you at that moment, you may choose to skip activation — but you will have to wait until you meet the requirement again before you can claim the reward. Once a bell card is face-down, it stays face-down for the rest of the game.

The game is played as a normal 2-player game, with you and your opponent taking turns in the order indicated by your turn order tiles. Your opponent never passes and never takes additional actions beyond what the instruction card dictates. You take your turns normally, and may pass if you wish (with the usual consequences of waiting until your opponent takes both of their turns).

When it is your opponent's turn, draw the top instruction card from their deck, place it face-up beside the draw pile, and carry out its effects from top to bottom at the chosen difficulty level.

Each instruction card is divided into three sections, plus a hand symbol at the bottom for breaking ties.

Top Section: Guests

At the start of their turn, your opponent takes one or two guests from the queue matching the colour(s) in the top section. If two, the left-most guest is taken first, then the right-most, replenishing the queue after each pick. Your opponent does not pay for guests.

Choose the guest as follows:

• If there are multiple guests of the depicted colour in the queue, your opponent takes the one providing the most victory points
• If there is no matching guest (or the symbol depicts no specific colour), your opponent takes the guest in the queue providing the most victory points
• If all rooms of that colour are already occupied in their hotel, your opponent takes the guest in the queue providing the most VP of any colour that can still move into their hotel
• In ties, the hand symbol at the bottom of the card decides the order: leftward-pointing resolves ties left to right, rightward-pointing resolves them right to left
• If, in the very rare case, every guest in the queue has a colour whose rooms in your opponent's hotel are all occupied, your opponent does not take a guest

Accommodating Guests

When your opponent takes a guest card, they do not place it in their café. Instead, they immediately score the card's printed victory points and occupy a matching room, as follows:

• For your opponent, every room in their hotel is considered prepared — they never place vacant rooms, only occupied ones, straight away
• Your opponent does not follow the adjacency rule and does not need to start in the bottom-left corner. Instead:
  • Blue, red, or yellow guests — select the first matching space from the left in the bottommost available row, and place a matching room with the occupied side up there
  • Green guests — select the first empty space from the bottom in the rightmost available column, and place a matching room with the occupied side up there
• If the covered space shows a victory point symbol, your opponent immediately scores that many VP
• Your opponent does not pay for rooms, does not earn an occupancy bonus for completing a group, and does not receive the reward printed on the guest card

Finally, place the guest card on the discard pile.

Middle Section: Die

Your opponent takes the depicted die from the action board and places it on their turn order tile as normal. They do not carry out the associated main action.

• If the instruction card shows two dice, your opponent takes the die whose value has the most dice on the action board (compared to the other depicted value)
• If the card shows a question mark, or no die of the depicted value is available, your opponent takes the die whose value has the most dice on the action board
• Resolve ties according to the hand symbol

Bottom Section: Additional Actions

Your opponent carries out the one or two depicted actions in any order:

Emperor Track

Advance your opponent's marker on the Emperor track by the indicated number of spaces. They score VP as normal if the marker would exceed the track.

Staff Card

Draw the top staff card from your opponent's private deck and place it face-up beside it. During final scoring, your opponent will score points according to every face-up staff card they have.

Objective Card

Check whether your opponent has a marker on the depicted objective card:

• If not, place one of their remaining markers on the "III" space (literally covering the "III" lettering). This acts as a countdown until the objective is claimed
• If they do, move the marker one space to the left ("III" → "II", "II" → "I"). When the marker reaches "I", they immediately claim the objective by moving a marker onto the highest available VP space on the objective card, scoring that many VP

If the card shows a question mark, or your opponent has already claimed the depicted objective, look instead at the objective card on which they have made the least progress, resolving any ties with the hand symbol.

When playing with one or more Let's Waltz modules, apply the following additional setup and ongoing changes. Your virtual opponent will be called Elisabeth when Module 1 or 2 is in play (using the dark-brown deck), and Leopold otherwise (using the light-brown deck); mechanically the two opponents are identical — the deck determines which extra symbols appear.

Module 1: Vienna Ballrooms

Setup changes:

• Take a random rehearsal room board for yourself — you do not choose
• Your opponent does not get a rehearsal room board, but she does take her 10 dancer tokens and places them beside her hotel board
• Your opponent does not gain any champagne at setup and never gains any during play — her kitchen stays empty

Ongoing changes:

Placing a Dancer

If the top section of the instruction card shows a dancer symbol overlapping a guest symbol, your opponent sends that guest to a ballroom instead of accommodating them in a room:

1. Select the guest from the queue as per the normal rules, score the printed VP, and place the card in the discard pile (no reward as always)
2. Place one of her dancer tokens in a ballroom, on an available space in the bottommost row:
   • One-arrow dancer symbol — she sends the guest to the ballroom that will be scored next, if spaces remain. Otherwise, to the next ballroom to the right with spaces available (the balcony has unlimited spaces)
   • Two-arrow dancer symbol — she sends the guest to the ballroom that will be scored after the next one. In rounds 6–7 (or when that ballroom has no spaces left), she sends the guest to the rightmost ballroom
3. Your opponent does not pay champagne to place the dancer, does not gain any row bonus, and does not place a room tile in her hotel

If the bottom section shows a dancer symbol without a guest underneath, your opponent sends an additional dancer to a ballroom following the same rules, regardless of what the top section did, and without taking a guest card for it.

Selecting a Die

If the middle section shows a colored die, your opponent takes the die with the most dice on the action board — this symbol only matters in Module 2.

Ballroom Scoring

Ballrooms score as normal for your opponent.

Module 2: Celebrities

Whenever your opponent takes a die from the action board, if any colored dice are on the chosen space, she takes one of those instead of a white die:

• If multiple colored dice are on the space, she takes the one associated with the celebrity providing the most VP. Resolve ties with the hand symbol (applied to the order shown on the lounge tile)
• She takes the matching celebrity tile and immediately scores its VP
• Your opponent ignores the celebrity's printed effect and instead gains one of the following based on the die's colour:
  • Red — advance on the objective card on which she has made the least progress (apply the same countdown logic as for bottom-section objective symbols; resolve ties with the hand symbol)
  • Yellow — advance 2 spaces on the Emperor track
  • Blue — score 2 VP

At the end of the round, your opponent's celebrity tiles go to the discard pile.

New Symbols

If the middle section shows a colored die, your opponent takes the die matching the celebrity with the most VP in the lounge. If no colored dice are available, she takes the die with the most dice on its action space. Resolve ties with the hand symbol.

When playing modules 1 and 2 together, ignore any dancer symbols on the instruction cards — resolve guest symbols with dancers as regular guest symbols.

Module 3: Unique Hotels

Setup changes:

• Leopold does not get a regular hotel entrance. Select one of the four special solo hotel entrances at random (or pick one), mark it with a cogwheel token on the designated space, and apply any extra setup listed in the description of that entrance
• Place the remaining cogwheel tokens in the supply
• Draw 3 regular hotel entrance tiles and choose one for yourself
• You start the game with 7 krones instead of 10

The four solo hotel entrances and their effects:

I. Hautel Couture

• During setup, shuffle the guests and draw cards until you reveal 3 guests showing 5, 6, or 7 VP. Place these in Leopold's café (straight away, no preparation needed). Shuffle the rest and place 5 random guests in the queue
• From the top floor and from left to right (in the order the guests were revealed), place 3 vacant rooms in Leopold's hotel matching the colours of these guests — green guests count as any colour, so place a vacant room on the first empty space from the left. These rooms are reserved for those specific guests
• Take the items required to complete these guests' orders and, from the supply, build an item pool of 18 items total (filling out with strudel/cake/wine/coffee/strudel/cake/wine/coffee/... as needed)
• For each action space on the action board, draw a random item from the item pool and place it on the space
• Ongoing effect: Each time you take a die, you must place the item on that space (if any) on one of Leopold's guests, if possible — you freely choose which. If you cannot place it, return it to the supply. When Leopold takes a die, nothing happens to the item. Replenish action spaces with a new random item from the pool at the start of the next round
• When the last item on one of Leopold's guests is placed, he completes that order and immediately scores the guest's VP and moves them into the reserved room
• Final scoring: Leopold does not lose VP for guests remaining in his café. Vacant rooms in his hotel still count for Receptionist (card #34)

II. Nine Stars Inn

• During setup, place one objective card face-up and sideways beside Leopold's hotel as the stars track. If Ninas Melange is among the hotel entrances you are choosing from, draw the three objective cards for Ninas Melange before picking this one
• Ongoing effect: Each time Leopold's instruction card shows an objective card symbol, he advances on an objective card as normal and places a cogwheel token on the stars track beside his hotel board
• The stars track is divided into 3 rows of 3 spaces each — for a total of 9 spaces. Leopold places tokens from left to right, starting with the top row ("III" before "II" before "I")
• Each time you complete a floor or column of your hotel, immediately remove the latest cogwheel token from the stars track (the rightmost one in the lowest row that has any). If none are there, nothing happens
• At each Emperor scoring, Leopold scores the VP printed at the right of the bottommost row that contains at least one token — 5, 10, or 15 VP
• There can never be more than 9 tokens on the card — if the track is full when Leopold would add another, nothing happens

III. Sushi Resort

• During setup, place 6 cogwheel tokens in Leopold's hotel: one each on the last 2 rooms of the first floor, one each on the first 3 rooms of the second floor, and one on the first room of the third floor
• Ongoing effect: Each time Leopold places a room tile on a space with a cogwheel token, he immediately moves that token onto the leftmost guest in the queue (after replenishing). The token stays on that guest even when the queue shifts
• When you take a guest with a cogwheel token, you must pay an additional 1 krone and return the token to the supply. If you cannot pay, you may not take that guest (even effects that would let you take a guest for free do not skip this)
• When Leopold takes a guest with a cogwheel token — or a cogwheel-token guest is shifted off the right end of the queue — he immediately scores an additional 8 VP and the token returns to the supply. In the shift-off case, remove only the token; the guest stays in the queue

IV. Toll Bridge Hotel

• No extra setup
• Ongoing effect: Each time Leopold takes a die from an action space, he leaves a cogwheel token on that space. Tokens accumulate across rounds
• To use an action space containing one or more cogwheel tokens, you must pay exactly 1 krone. If you cannot pay, you may not use that space. Only if you cannot use any action space (you are on 0 krones and every available space contains tokens) may you use any space without paying, but you immediately lose 5 VP and may only do this for that turn
• When you use the action space, Leopold immediately scores 1 VP per cogwheel token on it, then remove one token from the space. It does not matter whether you paid the 1 krone or suffered the 5 VP penalty

Module 4: Start Player

Not compatible with the solo variant.

Module 5: Would You Like Some More?

No changes to the solo rules — simply shuffle the Module 5 staff cards, objective cards, and Emperor tiles into the respective stacks as normal and play per the base game solo rules.

Combining Modules

Except for Module 4, any combination of modules is allowed. When Module 1 and/or 2 is in play, all rules referring to Leopold apply to Elisabeth instead. Apply every setup and rules change listed above for each module in play.

End of Round

If there is an Emperor scoring at the end of this round, both of you score the VP for your positions on the Emperor track and reset your markers by the usual number of spaces for the current round. However, only you gain any reward or suffer any penalty from your position on the Emperor track after the reset — your opponent never gets the Emperor reward, and never suffers the penalty.

At the end of every round (except round 7), swap turn order tiles with your opponent and turn any of your used staff cards (with the once-per-round symbol) upright again. Then advance the Round marker one space to the right.

When Module 1 is in play, ballroom scoring applies to both you and your opponent as normal after the Emperor scoring.

When Module 2 is in play, resolve the celebrity cleanup (collect tiles, update chits, replenish the lounge) before the Emperor scoring as in a 2-player game.

Final Scoring

At the end of the game, score your tableau as normal. Your opponent scores VP for:

• Closed rooms in their hotel (using the same row-based scoring table as a human player)
• Every face-up staff card they revealed during the game (from their private deck)

Your opponent does not score for leftover money or items (they never have any), does not lose VP for guests in their café (they never place any there), and does not score 1 VP per leftover champagne (they never gain any).

You win if your total exceeds your opponent's. Otherwise, your opponent wins.

Rules Summary

• Your opponent never passes
• Your opponent does not pay for guests or rooms, nor does she need items to complete an order
• Whenever your opponent takes a guest, she immediately places a matching occupied-side-up room on her hotel board
• Your opponent never gets any guest rewards or occupancy bonuses
• Your opponent never gets an Emperor reward and never suffers the penalty
• Your opponent ignores objective requirements — she claims them through the instruction-deck countdown
• Whenever your opponent cannot decide between two or more equal options, resolve the tie using the hand symbol at the bottom of the instruction card

Staff Card Clarifications

Apply your opponent's face-up staff cards to her tableau as you would for a human player, with four special cases:

• #29 Secretary — your opponent chooses the staff card that scores her the most VP. If you have no staff with the skeleton-key-through-clipboard symbol, the Secretary scores nothing
• #32 Assistant Manager — only your opponent's face-up staff cards count, not the ones remaining face-down in her private deck
• #34 Receptionist — your opponent only scores for occupied rooms. Empty spaces without a room tile do not count
• #40 Marketing Director — only claimed objectives count. Cards where your opponent's marker is still on "II" or "III" (or not present at all) do not count

When playing Module 2 (Celebrities), 12 celebrity tiles are shuffled into a face-down stack during setup. Celebrities marked with a music-note symbol — Giacomo Puccini, Mata Hari, and Pablo Picasso — are only used when you are also playing Module 1.

A celebrity's effect may be used on any of your turns for the rest of the round in which you took it. Each celebrity scores 1, 2, or 4 VP when taken, as indicated by the tile or the VP chit currently on it.

When playing Module 3 (Unique Hotels), one hotel entrance is auctioned to each player during setup. Only the owner of an entrance may use its effect. The entrance marked with a music-note symbol — The Ren — is only used when you are also playing Module 1.

Chateau Paulwei

• When gained: Place 1 cake, 1 wine, and 1 coffee in your kitchen. During initial room preparation, you may prepare up to 2 additional rooms (paying each floor's cost)
• Ongoing effect: Replaces the occupancy bonus charts on your hotel board:
  • Complete a group of 1, 2, 3, or 4 blue rooms → score 4, 8, 13, or 20 VP
  • Complete a group of 1, 2, 3, or 4 red rooms → gain 2, 4, 8, or 13 krones
  • Complete a group of 1, 2, 3, or 4 yellow rooms → advance 2, 4, 8, or 13 spaces on the Emperor track

Corogari Zant-Mainz

• When gained: Place 1 strudel and 1 wine in your kitchen
• Ongoing effect: Each round, as soon as you take your second die (before carrying out the main action), gain a bonus based on the combined value of your two dice:
  • 7 — nothing
  • 6 or 8 — immediately play a staff card from hand for 1 krone less
  • 5 or 9 — gain 1 strudel and 1 wine
  • 4 or 10 — gain 1 krone and advance 1 step on the Emperor track
  • 3 or 11 — gain 1 cake and 1 coffee
  • 2 or 12 — prepare 1 room of any colour at no cost and score 1 VP
• (If Modules 3 and 4 are both in play, the skeleton key copies the value of your one remaining die, effectively doubling it to determine the bonus)

Hotel Dove

• Setup: Place the 5 bonus tokens face-up beside this hotel entrance
• When gained: Place 1 strudel and 1 wine in your kitchen. After preparing the initial three rooms, you may prepare a 4th room at no cost (still adjacent to an existing room)
• Ongoing effect: Each time you complete a column by occupying all 4 rooms in it, choose one remaining bonus token and claim the bonus printed at the top. Each time you complete a floor by occupying all 5 rooms in it, choose one and claim the bonus printed at the bottom. Either way, remove the token from play. You can claim at most 5 bonuses over the course of the game

Kaufman

• When gained: Place 1 strudel, 1 cake, 1 wine, and 1 coffee in your kitchen. After choosing your initial guest and replenishing the queue, immediately choose a second guest at no cost, replenishing the queue again
• Ongoing effect: Your café has a 4th table (instead of 3). Each time you take a guest as the optional turn action, you may take a second guest from the queue by paying its cost, replenishing the queue again. When you complete a guest's order, keep the card in a face-down personal pile instead of discarding it. At the end of each round, score 1, 3, 6, or 9 VP for having at least 2, 3, 4, or 5 guests in that pile, then move the cards to the common discard pile

Mayenfels

• When gained: Place 1 cake and 1 coffee in your kitchen. Draw a staff card and add it to your hand. Then play a staff card from hand for up to 3 krones less
• Ongoing effect: Each time after you play a staff card, gain 1 krone and draw a new staff card from the deck. This does not apply to the card played when gaining this entrance

Ninas Melange

• Setup: Before the auction begins, randomly select 1 each of the remaining A, B, and C objective cards and place them face-up beside this hotel entrance
• When gained: Place 1 strudel, 1 cake, 1 wine, and 1 coffee in your kitchen. Place the 3 objective cards that came with this entrance nearby — these are your personal objectives
• Ongoing effect: On your turn, when you complete a personal objective, immediately score 15, 10, or 5 VP if you do so in rounds 1–3, 4–5, or 6–7 respectively. Then turn the card face-down. Completing a personal objective does not place a marker on the board (so it does not activate staff cards #132/#179, nor count for the depicted Emperor tile)
• Final scoring: Score 3, 6, or 10 VP if you completed a total of 4, 5, or 6 objectives (personal plus common)

Stroup

• When gained: Place 1 strudel, 1 cake, 1 wine, and 1 coffee in your kitchen
• Ongoing effect: Each time you occupy the first room in a group (by any means), immediately gain a bonus based on its colour — blue = 3 VP, red = 2 krones, yellow = 2 spaces on the Emperor track

The Grand Wray Hotel

• Setup: Before the auction begins, randomly select 2 each of the remaining A, B, and C Emperor tiles and place them face-up beside this hotel entrance
• When gained: Place 1 strudel in your kitchen. Advance 2 steps on the Emperor track and place the 6 Emperor tiles that came with this entrance nearby
• Ongoing effect: Once per turn, you may retreat your marker on the Emperor track by 1, 2, or 3 spaces. If you do, immediately claim the reward (the top part) of any A, B, or C tile that came with this entrance. Remove the claimed tile from play afterwards
• (The "once per round" symbol on the tile is used here to indicate "once per turn" — apologies from the designers for the confusion)

The Kozi Palace, Vienna

• When gained: Place 1 cake and 1 coffee in your kitchen
• Ongoing effect: Each time you are about to use an action space, you may move one die from an adjacent action space to the action space you are about to use. Turn the die to the appropriate number. (Spaces 1 and 6 are not adjacent to one another)
• (If Modules 3 and 4 are both in play, you may not move a die when taking the skeleton key)

The Ren ♪

• (Only used when both Modules 1 and 3 are in play)
• When gained: Place 1 strudel, 1 cake, 1 wine, 1 coffee, and 1 additional champagne in your kitchen (giving you 2 champagne total at the start of the game — the base champagne from Module 1 plus this one)
• Ongoing effect: Each time you send a dancer to a ballroom, gain double the row bonus. Sending a dancer to the bottom row still yields nothing
• Each time a ballroom is scored, gain 4 VP if you alone have the most dancers in that ballroom. Being tied for most does nothing

The expansion adds 15 staff cards. Module 1 cards are marked with a music-note symbol (♪); Module 5 cards are marked with a plus symbol (+). Module 5 cards use the "bell" staff card mechanic — they trigger only when their printed requirement is met (see Additional Actions).

The expansion adds 29 guest cards from Module 1, plus 9 promotional guest cards. Cards with dancer-related rewards work alongside Module 1's "Send a Dancer to a Ballroom" additional action. Some guests must be sent to a ballroom or must occupy a room — these guests have no ordering cost because they are tied to a specific placement.

( Kickstarter exclusive promotional card; ** Promotional card)*

The expansion adds 6 objective cards — 3 from Module 1 (marked ♪) and 3 from Module 5 (marked +). They are shuffled into the existing A, B, and C stacks during setup.

As with base-game objective cards, each one has three VP spaces. The first player to claim it places their marker on the highest available VP value.

Green-guest and 3+-item tracking: Cards referencing these orders require you to keep the relevant completed guests in a personal face-down pile rather than discarding them — only move them to the common discard after the objective is claimed. When playing Module 3 as the Kaufman player, you must keep two separate personal piles (one for round-end VP scoring, one for this objective) — at the end of each round, score VP only for the first pile, then move any objective-relevant guests into the second pile and discard the rest.

The expansion adds 6 Emperor tiles — 3 from Module 1 (marked ♪) and 3 from Module 5 (marked +). They are shuffled into the existing A, B, and C stacks during setup.

Emperor tile rewards trigger for players whose marker ends on a yellow space after the Emperor scoring reset; penalties apply to players whose marker ends on the black "0" space.