Breeding, as they say, will out. It is as true of hotels as it is supposed to be with people. One of Europe’s last ‘grand hotels’ and recalling the days of coach travel the Grand Tour, its magnificent architecture and décor have been aspired by generations of emulators.
The sumptuous marble and soft furnishings which are integral to the character and atmosphere of the Beau-Rivage Palace produce, when housed in a characterless post modern glass and concrete pile of a luxury ‘chain’ hotel, an effect rather like hanging an old master in the Tate Modern. Herein lies the charm of the place. It is original, it feels less like a hotel than a well serviced and appointed home and the staff is utterly discreet and efficient without a trace of the professional servility so often found more modern establishments.
None embodies the spirit of the place more than Irmgard Muller, who as Directresse presides over the staff and guests with a charm and grace that comes from total confidence in her formidable abilities and 36 years of her life devoted to the hotel and its guests.
Irmgard Muller — or ‘Madame’ as she is deferentially referred to in the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva in Lausanne — is in her business-like tweed suiting and softly coiffed hair, is in her way as much an institution as the hotel.
Leaning forward conspiratorially over the petit fours, Madame whispered, “You know, I just love a challenge.” A polyglot in European languages, she learned Chinese, “to help me develop the market there,” she said. “I never got married and I had to decide — the hotel or family — have to be totally committed to one or the other. One cannot do both.”
The hotel stands on 10 acres of exquisite gardens on the Lausanne lakeside. The first wing of the hotel, the Beau-Rivage, was built in 1861 and was a focus for the titled, the wealthy, and the renowned and opened its doors on March 24, 1861.
The hotel façade was built in the new architectural style for hotels then, using palaces and castles as models. An annex, Le Chalet, was built in 1864, and the second wing, the Palace, was added in 1908. The Beau-Rivage and the Palace are now joined together, and boast 169 individually decorated rooms, 29 suites, and 27 deluxe rooms with lake views.
Over the last 144 years, the owners have gone to enormous lengths — the last restoration alone was in the region of $72 million — to preserve the architectural evolution of the building from 19th century Italian renaissance style through the early 20th century neo-baroque. It is this awareness and understanding the value of its own history that is a leitmotif for the hotel and provides the context for and the continuity of style of service that is, alas, becoming rare in other hotels.
Madame came to the hotel in 1969 with a background in banking and business. “I had a chance to meet people who had come to the hotel every year for over 50 years,” she said. “It was good to hear these foreign visitors told me that for them that the Beau-Rivage was their Swiss home.”
That characteristic still affects the young modern breed of businessman. “Even those who come for the first time — they tell me exactly what I heard in 1969 when people who knew the hotel 50 years before said that the atmosphere is something special. They feel really at home.”
There is a subtle balance between opulence and modernity in the hotel. The rooms can hardly have changed much over years. Television and the central air conditioning — which runs on an ingenious system using the water from the nearby lake — are standard but otherwise they could pass as period reconstructions. But they are not.
“It is this way because people like it this way,” said Madame. “We started some renovations 10 years ago and currently we are building our spa which will be finished this year. Then we will have to start to renovate again; you never finish in a hotel.”
In the ‘grand hotel’ tradition that predates the egalitarian room design, much favored by modern chains, the rooms vary widely in terms of space and position. They vary from somewhat sparsely furnished and facing inland to the more luxurious, which have Oriental carpeting, wing chairs, and private balconies overlooking Lake Geneva.
If you want luxury, it is to be had in the style to which you would like to become accustomed. The Royal Suite, at just over $3,600 a night for two guests gives you a 5 window drawing room the size of a tennis court opening onto a balcony with a view over the lake toward Evian-les-Bains on the opposite bank. Aubusson carpets cover the wooden floor, 17th and 18th century portraits sit comfortably on the walls and a profusion of fresh cut flowers explode from huge vases.
The bathroom — with a marble tub big enough to float in and with a very effervescent jaccuzi and piles of Bulgari toiletries and gold tissue boxes — provides an attractive holiday destination all on its own.
Leisure activities include the full host of luxury hotel offerings and then some, from tennis, golf and sailing to reflexology, lymph drainage, and Chinese medicine.
The Beau-Rivage Palace is owned by the industrialist Sandoz family. “They invest money in the hotel to create work for people here, to keep up the tradition the hotel has established and because they like to invest in this part of Switzerland,” Madame confided. “They have 80 percent of the shares and they don’t even take dividends for themselves — they re-invest.” It shows.
There are three excellent restaurants within the hotel. Fifty or so chefs provide a cuisine that is not at the cutting edge of gastronomic innovation but comfortably traditional, satisfying and beautifully presented. The Rotonde, an excellent French restaurant with its elegant curved dining room and wonderful views from the terrace, had the atmosphere of an exclusive club. The service was discreet and impeccable.
The guest list for the hotel sounds like a ‘who’s who’ of world leaders. Madam Muller mentioned a score or so — kings, queens and presidents all — every one front page in his or her day. What brought them, I asked?
“Our staff gives them the attention they need. We treat them and all our guests as our personal guests. We see them when they are not being world leaders. We never cross the line — ask for autographs for example. We just leave them to be — they are clients like anyone else — they appreciate that very much.”
Therein lies the essence of the Beau-Rivage-Palace.
“I know many interesting stories,” said Madame with — was that a trace of a wink? “But I would never tell them. They’re family.”
