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The doors of the Palace were closed for five years. Now you can stay in the luxury hotel again.
It is a magnificent building enthroned on the shore of Lake Lucerne: the Hotel Palace in Lucerne. Built in 1906, a testament to the Belle Époque.
From September 24th you can stay in the luxury hotel again – for the last three years, craftsmen have been coming and going here. The Chinese entrepreneur Yunfeng Gao, who owns the Palace, had the five-star hotel renovated. The costs of the renovation are not precisely quantified; the figure of 100 million francs is circulating.
Monument protection has accompanied renovation
Director Christian Wildhaber, a man in a perfectly fitting suit, invites you to take a tour. The construction work went hand in hand with the preservation of monuments, he says. “We’ve made sure we respect the history of the building but can also incorporate more recent art and furniture.”
Six people worked on the ceiling of the Salon Alpine for six months.
The Salon Alpine looks just like it did in 1906: the door frame is gilded, the walls are dark red, and the ceiling is full of stucco. “Six people worked on the ceiling for six months,” says Wildhaber.
The specifications of the monument protection did not always correspond to the plans of the hotel managers. An example: The kitchen of one restaurant is on the floor below. “Besides would have been ideal for us.”
The hotel has a total of four restaurants and 136 rooms, including 48 suites. According to the website, the cheapest room costs around 850 francs per night on average, with suites starting at 1750 francs.
Certain rooms don’t even have a price tag anymore. Intended for guests who value privacy. Wildhaber: “We talk directly to these customers to ensure that they receive the service they expect.”
Important group of guests is a long time coming
The luxury hotel can now be booked under “Mandarin Oriental Palace” – based on the operator of the same name, a hotel group with Asian roots.
Asian tourists are an important segment of the hotel’s guests – but their number in Lucerne is still very manageable. China’s zero-Covid policy makes travel massively more difficult. The Palace will feel this, says Jürg Stettler, who heads the Institute for Tourism and Mobility at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. “It will take longer than originally planned until the business profitability is reached.”
Individual travelers and small groups are likely to return in the course of 2023. But more patience is needed before larger groups from China can march across the Chapel Bridge again.
The conditions are there for the Palace to become a success story.
However, nothing has changed in terms of travel needs. Stettler is therefore convinced that the calculation will work out. Lucerne is an attractive destination, the Palace is an excellent hotel and Mandarin Oriental is a thriving operator: “The conditions are in place for this to be a success story.”
Every detail has to be right
At the Palace, however, nothing is left to chance. Inside, the employees go through all the processes again, outside the gardeners replace the summer flowers that have already been ordered with autumn plants, depending on the lower temperatures.
Everything should fit perfectly for the reopening, not just the suit of Christian Wildhaber – the hotel manager who has been at work for three years but is only now allowed to say to guests: “Welcome to the Mandarin Oriental Palace Lucerne.”