Following the railroad tracks to the luxury hotels
LOCATION The SBB railroad line between Geneva and St. Gallen has some gems in the 4-star and higher segment. MK has put together a selection. A journey from west to east.St.Gallen and Geneva are moving closer together. Thanks to the new cross-city link in Zurich, the train journey time is now only 3 h 53 min. The fact that Switzerland is also becoming increasingly better connected in terms of public transport naturally also helps the conference and seminar segment. The 5-star city hotels in the business hubs between Eastern Switzerland and Lake Geneva can therefore benefit. This is because it is now even easier for participants to travel by train instead of by car. MK asked about the status quo regarding meetings and events in some luxury hotels on the St. Gallen-Geneva axis, starting in the city on the Rhone.
Conferences account for a large proportion of the total volume at the Swissôtel Metropole in Geneva.Off to a historic picnicThe host at the Swissôtel Metropole is long-time hotel professional Stefan Winistoerfer, who lived in Istanbul for many years and has been working in Geneva since 2010. He is responsible for pushing his hotel to the top of the list of Geneva's best hotels. The historic Metropole with its 127 rooms and suites is located between the Rue du Rhône and Lake Geneva, directly in front of the Jet d'Eau. Seven air-conditioned conference rooms are available for work, as well as two panoramic terraces for hire for corporate events with views of the lake and the old town. Of course, the Metropole is not cheap; the average rates in Geneva's 5-star hotel industry are between 400 and 500 francs per night, even though the annual occupancy rate in this segment is only around 65 percent. Winistoerfer on the seminar segment: "Seminars, conferences and business meetings account for around 25 percent of the hotel's total volume. It helps us with our reputation. However, the prospects for the coming years look rather poor. Due to the euro exchange rate, fewer foreign customers are coming to us, while the purchasing power of the Swiss allows them to travel abroad more cheaply." Incidentally, Swissôtel also runs the Parc des Eaux-Vives restaurant - a well-known establishment in the city with seven bedrooms and several traditional rooms. The large park of the same name is the setting for a special Swissôtel product, namely picnic events for companies: Ten traditional British picnic baskets and matching woollen blankets can be hired - with drinks and food for up to 20 guests.Time flies by in a flash36 minutes by train to the east, established luxury hotels in Lausanne, such as the Beau Rivage and the Lausanne Palace, are battling it out with the newcomer Royal Savoy. The latter opened a few weeks ago and belongs to Katara Hospitality Switzerland, making it a sister hotel to the Schweizerhof Bern and the Bürgenstock Resort. Not everything is quite ready yet, but the six meeting rooms in the main building are, and they have a lot to offer, especially the 574 m² large and very elegant ballroom. In addition to the conference facilities, 196 rooms and suites will be available when the hotel opens, as well as a spacious 1500 m² spa and wellness center with indoor and outdoor pools and eight treatment rooms.Not far from the stationThe Hotel Schweizerhof near Bern railroad station likes to sell itself as "the leading hotel in the capital". And in the US "Robb Report", it is indeed one of the 100 best city hotels in the world. Small but nice, you might say, as there are just 99 rooms available. Of particular interest to conference organizers, however, are the 800 m2 of meeting and event space, the Sky Terrace with 360-degree panoramic views over Bern and, of course, the legendary Jack's Brasserie. The hotel is ideally located for business meetings throughout Switzerland, as it is just a few minutes' walk from the platforms of Bern railroad station.
The Hotel Trois Rois in Basel has a regular flow of seminars.A short detourBasel is theoretically less well located away from the direct train axis between Lake Constance and Lake Geneva, but the three-country region with France and Germany as well as the modern exhibition and conference infrastructure make Basel one of the most important trade fair and congress cities in Europe. It is estimated that the events at the exhibition and congress center generate an annual added value of around one billion Swiss francs - driven, of course, by the two monster events Baselworld and Art Basel. The construction of the new exhibition hall by Herzog and de Meuron was a response to the huge demand. The largest hall now offers space for 2,500 participants and - combined with the new multifunctional rooms - can accommodate 6,000 people. Basel's leading hotel, the Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois, also regularly hosts company meetings and workshops, sometimes even from far away. Director Reto Kocher, who is celebrating ten years since the reopening in March 2016, has already welcomed a conference group from China. The Drei Könige offers a total of ten elegant meeting rooms with natural daylight; the largest room is called Belle Epoque and has 260 m2 of space with theater seating for 260 guests.Off to the centerBasel lies to the north of the eastern-western Switzerland axis and can be reached from Bern in 53 minutes by train; Lucerne lies to the west of the federal capital and the train journey takes just under 60 minutes. Just as the Trois Rois tops the hotel rankings in Basel, the Schweizerhof Lucerne plays in the city of lights. Sales and Marketing Manager Roman Omlin proudly presents the storytelling concept under the name "Where Lucerne writes history(s)". "Each room tells the story of a guest who has lived in the hotel. These are personalities from the worlds of art, politics or music, such as Richard Wagner, who actually stayed in one of the 101 different rooms." Added to this is the hotel's successful positioning as a festival hotel and the many events that take place there and are open to the public. "Accordingly, the event sector is central to us and integrated into our strategy." Even if, according to Omnlin, the pure conference segment only accounts for around ten percent of total revenue, a trend reversal can be observed in this segment too: in other words, a very slow increase in demand.
The event sector plays a major role for the Hotel Schweizerhof in Lucerne.On the trainWith all those rail kilometers across Switzerland, you could also use the corresponding travel time for a meeting. SBB's charter department in Zurich has an exciting arsenal of special trains and individual conference coaches for this purpose. The two saloon coaches Salon de Luxe and Salon Liberté are particularly suitable for smaller meetings, as they can even be attached to normal train compositions. The carriages offer projectors or screens as well as microphones and DVD/CD players. It would therefore also be possible to hold sales conferences throughout Switzerland on the train and collect participants from place to place and transport them to Zurich, for example.To the destination for artistsThe journey from Bern to Zurich currently takes 56 minutes by train. And although there are several 5-star hotels offering seminars in the city on the Limmat, there is only one Hotel Widder. The long-standing director Jan E. Brucker introduces it himself: "Our small, fine hotel is ideal for people who love to surround themselves with the finer things in life, such as style, art and classic modernity." Obviously, many companies want to work in precisely this ambience; the proportion of conferences and meetings is correspondingly high. Incidentally, Hotel Widder, which belongs to the UBS Group, is one of the few Swiss hotels that discloses its figures. In 2014, it generated turnover of CHF 16.3 million with an occupancy rate of 71.8 percent; around half of this came from the F&B sector. Almost a quarter of the total business comes from the business segment. What strikes Brucker is that the booking behavior is almost ultra-short-term. "For example, we sell up to 15 percent of our inventory in the lodging segment within 24 hours." Around 80 percent of all bookings come from Switzerland itself or from international companies based in the country. The Widder has countless locations for events, such as the 220 m2 Widder Hall or the Zunftstube for 90 people.Off to the EastAt the end of our Swiss "cross-country rail journey", we want to travel to the eastern Swiss metropolis and need just one hour and two minutes from the new underground station in Zurich. St. Gallen offers a full range of 5-star conference facilities at the Einstein St.Gallen - Hotel Congress Spa. The traditional hotel and the modern and bright congress center built right next door in 2009 have 14 work rooms, an elegant boardroom and the six-meter-high Einstein Hall with 342 m2; with plenary seating for 160 delegates. The General Director is Michael Vogt, for whom the seminar component is inevitably a high priority. "After 2015 was similar to the previous year, we are seeing an increase in bookings for 2016. The average occupancy rate for 4-star superior hotels in St. Gallen is just under 50 percent; we are also at this level. But at around 220 francs, we have the highest average rate in St. Gallen." Nevertheless, the Einstein reports that more meetings and conferences have to be found these days in order to maintain the same number of overnight stays. This is because more and more conference business is taking place without hotel accommodation. This used to be different, reports Michael Vogt, who then takes the next train to acquire new customers somewhere in Switzerland or neighboring countries.
