THREE-STAR HOTEL IN THE SKY

The Spitzhorn – a three-star superior hotel in five-star surroundings. Everything about it exudes beauty and harmony, its location in the Gstaad Saanenland a picture-perfect composition of green for the meadows and forests, blue for the lakes and sky, white for the clouds and snow, grey for the rocks and alpine passes. Towering up high around the hotel are the mountains, the most spectacular of these is the Spitzhorn.

A lively Hollander by nature is Hotel Spitzhorn’s perfect host for the disparate guests that one might come across here at lunchtime – be it the local farmer or the richest of Indian magnates. Michel Wichman dispels the notion of a target group and tells Art of Snow: “We’re all human. People! Stars belong in the sky.” It’s this mission statement by which he and his wife Ilse live, that has turned their hotel into the success story that it is – not to say that the hotel has not earned its share of awards. Small wonder that guests who have been staying in five-star establishments for decades, will fly into Gstaad in their private jets for the Spitzhorn experience!

What does the Spitzhorn do better than other three-star hotels? Essentially you cannot compare one hotel with another. Every hotel has its own charm and identity. It’s about the soul of the hotel. With us everything is a tad more generous, the passages wider, the rooms lighter, the plates deeper, the drinks taller and the champagne sparkles more (the Dutch prankster says with a twinkle in his eye!). Only the bill is more modest. We focus solely on the guests and their wellbeing.

What three words best describe the Spitzhorn? Never insincere, never pushy and always credible! It’s a space where genuine hospitality is what you get from start to finish.

A place to revive body and mind? Anyone entering here stands to leave behind the haste and hectic lifestyle of everyday life. We want our guests to be mesmerised by the lightness of being – made possible with good food, an abundance of wellness and stunning surrounds. The perfect antidote to burnout!

Wellnesswelt mit Indoorpool, Sonnenterrasse, Sauna, Dampfbad, Kneippbecken, Erlebnisdusche, Ruhe- und Fitnessraum.

Lounge

How do you define luxury? Luxury is difficult to define. Perhaps the easiest way to describe it is “better than expected.” We live in complex times: Life is constantly speeding up driven by digital technology. Everyone is connected. Mobile phones, PDAs and laptops are an integral part of our lives and it is becoming increasingly more difficult for us to switch off. We’re all lacking time and space, tranquillity and clarity. Simplicity in a complicated world! Increasingly luxury can be found less in things than in experiences that take us away from our everyday existence. Perhaps an experience that can bring together a family, an experience that can expand our horizons or an experience that can inculcate in us a feeling of freedom. These things are priceless.

What can the Spitzhorn guest expect on a culinary level? Gastronomy is synonymous with music. Both are conducted with passion. When we discuss the kitchen’s culinary repertoire with head chef Tobias Quetk we cannot help salivating. What we prepare does after all have to be the ultimate taste sensation for our guests: fresh often local ingredients, special soup dishes and freshly-caught fish from regional waters: alpine classics like hearty rösti, as well as sweet temptations, not to mention seasonal specialities.

You declined the upgrade to four-star superior classification. Why? Understatement has always been our goal. The answer probably goes hand in hand with the definition of success itself. Success seldom happens on its own. You have to work at it. We’ve always targeted attaining a normal financial return and still do so to this day. We were certain that a good down-to-earth three-star hotel could enrich a region characterised by so many four and five-star hotels.

What do you like the most about this job? Happy and satisfied guests and staff. Happy people are not born optimists but they create their own outlook having learned to focus on the positive instead of the negative. Being surrounded by such people makes hotel life worthwhile.

What goes down the best with your guests? The inspiring quality-of-life hotel that the Spitzhorn is, paired with true hospitality and fair prices. Every guest to the Spitzhorn writes history – you receive your own personal diary to commit your impressions and experiences to. Although the diary stays behind at the hotel in a specially designated library you get to carry on writing your story on your next visit.

WWW.SPITZHORN.CH

HOTEL SPITZHORN***S | 3792 SAANEN-GSTAAD | SWITZERLAND