How These Family Hotels Have Survived for Generations - AFAR

"Stepping through the gates, with frescoed ceilings overhead and the sparkle of Lake Como visible beyond, I immediately felt this wasn’t a typical high-end hotel; fourth-generation owner Jan Bucher greeted me personally in the lobby, waved off any notion of a sleek reinvention and called the place “like Versailles on the water.” The antique velvet upholstery, hand-painted walls and a new-but-loved waterfront Beach Club all feel lived-in and personal, rooted in a family tenure that stretches back to a great-grandfather who bought the property in 1918 and a hotel operating since about 1850; that continuity shows in genuine warmth from staff who have known the family for decades and in the way returning guests are welcomed like cousins rather than customers, making the hotel feel “sort of like a museum, but with soul.”" - Heidi Mitchell