Le Grand Bellevue Gstaad

Only 57 Rooms for all this?

After experiencing two days at Le Grand Bellevue, I heard from Fabian Nusser, the hotel manager, that the hotel has only 57 rooms. I couldn’t believe it. The range of services and options offered makes you think it’s much bigger – to give you just one example, the hotel boasts its own private yacht club. But staff is what makes the real difference, and here’s my second little story. When I sat in the bar to start gathering notes about this article and ordered a glass of water, the barman asked me if I wanted to try the tea cocktail of the day instead. I had never heard of such a thing, and found out that Ondrej, who was serving me, was a tea sommelier – a little superstar in his field.

Then I was told the story of Luca, the new Italian waiter who, knowing that the Belle-vue is in the 5-star superior category, started his job behaving extremely formally to its clients. Daniel Koetser, who owns the hotel together with his wife Davia, noticed that and asked him: If you were a guest, would you prefer to be served by a formal waiter, or by a cool Italian being simply himself? Luca immediately understood the hint and relaxed. He is now a little bit of a star himself – for sure my daughters loved him too! Our staff doesn’t just serve. It’s a crew of people who love their job, that is about serving… concluded Daniel.

Cheese Fondue at the Grand Entrance

That leads me to my third little story. The combination of friendly service, top quality and understated luxury is something I wanted to capture with an image. I had seen some hotel photos I liked a lot, and one in particular was about a couple having dinner on the grass in front of the grand entrance, with the name of the hotel, the five stars, the white pillars and the fountain as a perfect background. I asked the hotel manager if he could pose to replicate the picture for me, thinking he would for sure claim he was busy the whole afternoon – let’s face it: modelling for a blogger is a hassle.

Not only did he immediately accept, but ten minutes before the shooting he turned up with a wooden barrel and a fondue set, transported it himself while wearing his immaculate suit, and explained to me that he felt the summer fondue would make the photo more fun. Knowing that I don’t drink any alcohol, he also brought two glasses of apple juice – they look like real champagne, don’t they?