This hote;l is in a quite unbelievable location - brilliant view of the adjacent Thunersee and the surrounding mountains, with Bluemlisalp, Niesen and Stockhorn the most prominent. During our one week stay we accumulated some glorious photoraphic memories (sunsets from heaven, a rainbow "falling" into the lake) which are now on display in our home; the hotel has a superb gardener. hence beautiful flowers and in all honesty one of the best restaurant terraces we have ever come across. It is also a swimmer's paradise, with easy access into and out of the lake. The food is excellent, and in all honesty we were looking forward to returning in the future. That we have now decided not to do so is entirely due to one man - the Hotel Manager / Owner. He is only 32 at rhe time of writing, so little experience, and oh does it show! One example: he never gets up early in the morning, so is probably unaware of the fact that although breakfast is advertised as starting at 7.00 am, if one goes down at (say) 7.15 there aremany elements of the excellent buffet which are still being laid out - this should all be done BEFORE the first guests arrive, not while they are there - a complete lack of management and direction. Staff "get away with it" because they know that the Manager is never around at that time. We have stayed at numerous Swiss hotels every year sice 1983, so over a 37-year period. The best run hotels are invariably those which are managed by an owner who is not afraid to get his hands dirty doing menial jobs from time to time, and who engages with ALL guets by going to EVERY table at dinner EVERY evening; the owner here is sometimes visible in the dining room but never goes to every table, and in general makes the huge mistake for a hotelier of hiding away in his office for most of the day. Perhaps he is shy, but I doubt that because he showed a callous, ruthless side of his nature during our stay which even now - six weeks after our holiday - still leaves me feeling gobsmacked. My wife is disabled, and on ONE occasion (the Manager claims it was more than one but that's not the case) her right knee seized up in the hotel room and accordingly she didn't make it to the toilet in time - she had an "accident". I was horrified to be charged an extra 350 Swiss francs for "Reinigung" - cleaning of the room. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised by this arbitrary and completely disproportionate "punishment" - since our return, I have studied reviews of this hotel going back four years, and more than once parents with young children have been charged an arbitrary 50 francs extra because the Manager complained about "water on the floor of the bathroom" after teh children had taken a shower. Quite extraordinary. The owner is a fool to himself - we had already provisonally booked for 2021, but as we have now cancelled that booking, he has "gained" 350 extra francs from us but lost over 2000 due to my cancelled booking. Not the best business decision one has ever come across. The rest fo the staff are excellent, in particular a lovely lady called Maya who is the Assistant Manager and who clearly "carries" the embarrassingly incompetent Manager for mcuh of the time. The Manager also lacks what I call human feeling - on Swiss National Day (1st August) minimal decorations were displayed, the menu was a thinly disguised version of the regular one, and no attempt for communal singing of the National Anthem. Most Swiss hotels "go the extra mile" on 1st August - not this guy. One day we will return to this hotel, but not until there has been a change of management. We would have awarded the hotel 5 stars were it not for him.
