KIWI-Kindergarten Hamerlingpark

I am writing this review almost two years after the fact. We were initially drawn to this kindergarten because of the great reviews (although only two) on Google, KIWI’s „reputation“ and the location. We had had an interview in October 2024 when our daugjter was a couple of months old with the „manager“ of this institution, one year in advance of her starting kindergarten. The interview itself was pleasant, the manager showed us the premises and we even met some of the teachers. We were told we would be put on the waiting list and would hear back from them in November, when the first round of admissions would be done. The second round was done in Jan-Feb I think.. When by mid December we didn‘t hear from them, I sent an email to the manager telling him we are still very much interested, but would need to know because we would need to look elsewhere if chances were slim. When I didn‘t get a reply by mid January, I tried calling and I must have called 6-7 times and every.single.time. someone else would answer and say he was busy or not on the premises or „he would get back to me“. In March I sent another email, this time simply asking for a call back or an email reply – at this point I just wanted A response of some sorts, even a negative one. Still nothing. Then I tried calling a couple of more times and after the 7-8th time I managed to get him on the phone! He said, very rudely and with no remorse about having ghosted us for 6 months (!): „I‘m sorry, but at this moment I cannot offer you a spot in our kindergarten.“ Question: Is this not something he could have communicated at any point in the last 6 months (a simple NO in an email would have sufficed at this point)? Does he know (and HE DOES), how difficult and stressful it is to find a kindergarten spot in Vienna? Where has professionalism gone to? Where has basic human decency gone to? Is this the type of person that is educating our children? I was so happy we didn‘t get a spot. We managed to find a great spot down the road from there where people treat each other with respect and dignity.

This was a shameful experience.