On course for five generations: owned and operated by the same family since 1908

The Waldhaus was opened on June 15, 1908 by our (great-) great-grandparents, the realization of a life-long dream. For many years, Josef Giger (1847–1921) and his wife Amalie had managed large hotels in Bad Ragaz, in Russia, in Italy and finally in St. Moritz. Now they built one of their own, exactly as they wanted it.

Next came their daughter Helen and her husband Oskar Kienberger, who brilliantly steered the Waldhaus through many difficult years. In the third generation, responsibility passed to Rolf Kienberger (1917–1994) and his wife Rita (1926-2006). Starting in 1977, the fourth generation Maria and Felix Dietrich-Kienberger assumed responsibility for the next 33 years first with Maria’s parents and then starting in 1989 with Maria's brother Urs Kienberger.

Since summer 2010, day-to-day operations have been in the hands of the fifth generation, the brothers CLAUDIO AND PATRICK DIETRICH (born in 1977 and 1980). Claudio is primarily in charge of everything concerning food and drink, while Patrick has responsibility for accommodations, from reservations to housekeeping. Uncle Urs Kienberger has stayed on as “CIO” = Chief Intellectual Officer. Together they continue to give the hotel a face and its very personal character.

The Waldhaus is still a true family affair without any outside shareholders or managers – something which has become exceedingly rare for a hotel of its size and class in Switzerland. Since 1908, we have never missed a summer season. Winter seasons started in 1924, but were interrupted from 1939 to 1955.

The Waldhaus would not have survived without changes and new ideas. We spend 3 to 4 million Swiss francs a year on maintenance and improvements and have done so for decades. But the hotel has remained virtually the same size. A deliberate choice. Otherwise, we would not be able to welcome and care for our guests as our ancestors did.

Our main goal in this is to preserve and enhance the old, rather than to replace it. This is expressed by many of our most recent building projects with the architects Miller & Maranta from Basel and Armando Ruinelli from Soglio.

Our efforts were richly rewarded when the Waldhaus was named Swiss “Historic Hotel of the Year” in 2005 by ICOMOS Switzerland, the International Council on Monuments and Sites.

And that, in the end, is the point of it all. A hotel is only as good as its guests. Can we tempt you to become one? Just like Theodor Adorno, Thomas Bernhard, Joseph Beuys and David Bowie, or

GUESTS

Theodor Adorno
Thomas Bernhard
Joseph Beuys
David Bowie
Kathryn Bigelow
Claude Chabrol
Marc Chagall
Neville Chamberlain
Peter Drucker
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Albert Einstein
Pierre Fournier
John Kenneth Galbraith
Andreas Gursky
Clara Haskil
Hermann Hesse
Theodor Heuss
Arthur Honegger
Isabelle Huppert
C. G. Jung
Erich Kästner
Otto Klemperer
Primo Levi
Max Liebermann
Rolf Liebermann
Thomas Mann
François Mauriac
Alberto Moravia & Elsa Morante
Maurizio Pollini
Emil Rathenau
Michael Redgrave
Max Reinhardt
Gerhard Richter
Paul Sacher
Maximilian Schell
Rudolf Serkin
Georg Solti
Rod Stewart
Richard Strauss
Rabindranath Tagore
Richard Tauber
Luchino Visconti
Vico von Bülow
Bruno Walter
Fred Zinnemann