Beau-Rivage Genève

"Elegantly posed behind the Rotonde du Mont-Blanc, this grand neoclassical-Italian-style building has operated as a hotel since 1865, originally run by the Mayer family and now more recently by the Casacubertas family. Rooms are deeply traditional—wall sconces, chandeliers, and gilt-frames. The most recent spate of renovation, which concluded in 2018, saw the addition of 17 rooms on the fifth and sixth floors, including half a dozen split-level ‘duplexes’ and a new Royal Suite, which really is pharaonic. The main fine-dining restaurant, Le Chat-Botté, opened in 1967 and remains a thriving local institution. Michelin -anointed chef Dominique Gauthier has been there for a quarter of a century, famous for his traditional French dishes, including frogs’ legs and foie gras. For a more intimate affair, La Terrasse Alpine served up cheese fondue in heated gondola cabins."

"What makes the Beau-Rivage Genève so special, apart from its lakeside location in the heart of the city and its luxury amenities, is the rich history of its architecture and decor, as well as the family heritage the hotel has embodied for more than 150 years. The entire hotel team is dedicated to and recognised for the exceptional and very personalised service it provides, for hotel guests and locals alike. One of its hallmarks is meticulous attention to detail and the quest to exceed our guests’ expectations in every aspect of their stay!The most valuable and fundamental thing from EHL that has informed my whole career is dedication to guest service, excellence, attention to detail, working together as a team across the organisation and respecting the cultural environment and diversity I work in, while also being culturally sensitive to the individual needs of our guests." - Le Guide MICHELIN

"Set the scene You’re halfway down the Quai du Mont-Blanc, on Lake Geneva’s rive droite, facing the water. To your left, the elegant curve of the Bains des Pâquis jetty, with its toy-like lighthouse at the end; opposite, the mesmeric plume of the Jet d’Eau, the stately façades of the Quai Gustave-Ador and the spire of St Peter’s Cathedral. On the far shore you can discern the leafy billionaires’ colony of Cologny and, in the background, the rippling silhouette of the Alps, including, on a clear day, Mont Blanc itself. Turn your back on all that. Step inside the hotel. Soaring, salmon-coloured columns rise from a mosaic-tiled floor; you feel yourself caught in a tractor beam of natural light, drawing you, or at least your gaze, ever upwards. So there you are, head tilted backwards, at the still centre of a glossy vortex of loveliness. Your first impression is likely to be something along the lines of: ‘Gosh.’ The backstory The Beau-Rivage opened in 1865. For 155 years it was owned by the Mayer family. Five generations of Mayers were born and grew up, lived and worked there. Then, at the end of 2020, the Mayers sold the hotel to another family, the Casacubertas, from Barcelona. The rooms Superb, ranging from the deeply traditional to the profoundly traditional. This is no place for wacky experiments. That said, there is a good deal of modulation in mood and tone between individual rooms, depending on the size, situation and particular admixture of Victorian, Edwardian, Art Nouveau and Art Deco design elements. The larger suites are stupendous. The smaller ones are stupendous too—plush, gilt-framed, wainscoted, typically with at least one or two pieces of furniture or objets d’art of a kind you would expect to find in a museum or the saleroom of a posh auction house, rather than a hotel. Many rooms have quirks that reflect the peculiarities of an old building that has evolved slowly over time—your bathroom might turn out to be only fractionally smaller than your bedroom, for instance, or there might be a small sauna where you expected to find an ironing board. These oddities are to be treasured. The most recent spate of renovation, which concluded in 2018, saw the addition of 17 rooms on the fifth and sixth floors, including half a dozen split-level ‘duplexes’ and a new Royal Suite, which really is pharaonic. Another nice feature of the hotel is the fact that its façade is not straight and, as you might expect, parallel to the Quai du Mont-Blanc, but has several angles. These little tilts make quite a difference to the lakeside outlook. Food and drink The main fine-dining restaurant, Le Chat-Botté, opened in 1967 and remains a thriving local institution. Michelin-anointed chef Dominique Gauthier has been there for a quarter of a century. The frogs’ legs in tempura for which he is famous might almost be a practical joke—a means of persuading squeamish foreigners not merely to try them but actually to enjoy them. The fact that Gauthier is also able to draw on one of the best-stocked wine cellars in the city does nothing to hurt his cause. Though serious about what he does, he is also very down to earth—there have been recent ice-cream and Sachertorte collaborations, as well as a life-affirming Fondue Therapy package. In addition to Le Chat-Botté, he oversees the outdoor restaurant La Terrasse—which becomes La Terrasse Alpine in the winter months, with heated vintage gondola cabins from Gstaad. Downstairs is a Thai restaurant, Le Patara. With all these distractions, Albertine’s, the little bar that you pass on your way from the lobby, might easily be overlooked—though not by this reviewer, in whose opinion it is one of the hotel’s loveliest spaces. Formerly a reading room, it retains a certain serene seriousness of purpose, uncommon in bars these days, that is very becoming. The spa In a world in which so many hotels make such a song and dance about their vast, elaborate wellness facilities, the Beau-Rivage makes do with a single treatment room—its Bellefontaine Suite—in which one therapist takes care of one guest at a time. Which is refreshing in itself. The area It is difficult to imagine anything untoward occurring on this opulent stretch of the Quai du Mont-Blanc. Yet it has seen one or two hairy moments over the years. In 1898, Elisabeth, Empress Consort of Austria was stabbed outside the Beau-Rivage by an Italian anarchist while on her way to board one of the paddle steamers that ply the lake to this day. A small bronze plaque marks the spot. She was a guest at the hotel at the time and died in her suite shortly after the attack. There is a cabinet containing a pair of her gloves and a piece of bloodstained ribbon. The effect is less morbid than it might sound. Glamorous, tragic Sissi is a big draw. The fact that she is remembered for dying here—rather than, say, for throwing a fabulous party, getting tight and leaping naked into the lake—seems not to put her fans off in the slightest. The Sissi Terrace Suite is booked solid. The service Beyond reproach, and as clued-up as it is polite and efficient. The concierge desk at the Beau-Rivage has long served as a sort of finishing school for future holders of the coveted Clefs d’Or. Eco effort Considerable, commendable and, given the hotel’s willingness to provide statistics, apparently also a source of some pride. It intends to be 100 per cent carbon neutral by 2025. All of its greenhouse-gas emissions from energy consumption are offset; so too are those linked to its sales team’s work-related flights. The hotel also encourages ‘soft mobility’ among staff by providing them with bicycles. It has adopted the so-called GeniLac programme, a thermal-exchange network that uses water from Lake Geneva to cool and heat local buildings. Similar schemes have been very successful elsewhere in Switzerland; authorities say it will reduce the city’s fossil-fuel consumption by 39 per cent by 2023. The hotel’s current waste-recycling ratio is 76.5 per cent; it plans to reach 85 per cent by 2025. Unused hygiene products are recycled through a charity, Youth for Soap, and unused kitchen ingredients—two thirds of which are sourced locally—are resold at low prices through the Too Good To Go association. The hotel also sponsors three Les Miels de Stéphanie beehives in nearby Satigny, which provide the honey served at breakfast. Accessibility for those with mobility impairments The entire hotel is wheelchair-accessible, with special entrances off the Quai du Mont-Blanc to the lobby and the key public areas, including Le Chat-Botté and La Terrasse. Lifts service all floors. The Henri Dunant Suite has a second bathroom adapted for wheelchair users, with grab rails in place. Anything left to mention? The Beau-Rivage has a permanent population of more than 150 angels in various forms—painted, sculpted, carved. You will feel entirely at home among them." - Steve King

"Picture yourself halfway down the Quai du Mont-Blanc, on Lake Geneva’s rive droite, facing the water. On the far shore you can discern the leafy billionaires’ colony of Cologny and, in the background, the rippling silhouette of the Alps, including, on a clear day, Mont Blanc itself. Turn your back on all that and step inside this hotel; soaring, salmon-coloured columns rise from a mosaic-tiled floor; you feel yourself caught in a tractor beam of natural light, drawing you, or at least your gaze, ever upwards. So there you are, head tilted backwards, at the still centre of a glossy vortex of loveliness. Superb, ranging from the deeply traditional to the profoundly traditional; that said, there is modulation in mood and tone between individual rooms, depending on the size, situation and particular admixture of Victorian, Edwardian, Art Nouveau and Art Deco design elements. The larger suites are stupendous. The smaller ones are stupendous too—plush, gilt-framed, wainscoted, typically with at least one or two pieces of furniture or objets d’art of a kind you would expect to find in a museum." - CNT Editors

"How did it strike you on arrival?I think I dreamt about staying at a hotel like this when I was a little girl—although, frankly, I don't know if I was that imaginative. This place truly is a palace; think someplace a Russian monarch (pre-Revolution, of course) would've holidayed in the spring or summer. From the front, it's a little tough to discern just how immense this place is, though; you pull into a private, paved drive, with a fairly modest entrance, and a beautiful, if somewhat smallish lobby. It's not until you make it out to the back of the hotel that you realize the absolute enormity of it: Set on a hill overlooking the aquamarine (yes, actually aquamarine) waters of Lake Geneva, you’ll notice the immaculately manicured gardens, the thin strips of outdoor pools, the piqued tent tops under which people are taking their lunch outdoors; turn back the other way, towards the hotel, and you’ll see the magnificent dome—La Rotonde, now the connecting feature between two halves of the building—at the base of four levels. The whole building looks like Boulevard Haussmann; so, basically, I was impressed. What’s the crowd like?This is a hotel for European elites—oh, and wealthy Eastern European travelers. The two, though diametrically opposed in presentation and attitude, make up a perfect whole; the former is always suited up in supple Loro Piana pieces, mouths tightly set, observant eyes roving over the property and other guests, where the latter is loud, flashy, and unembarrassed about documenting the whole luscious experience on Instagram. It was a lot of fun to watch. How was check in? I don’t remember lifting a finger the entire duration of my stay: Bags were brought up, water bottles were offered, maps were given, and I was given a complete (though not drawn out) walk-through of my room. And it’s little surprise; not only is Switzerland home to one of the premier hospitality schools in the world, but it’s also, well, Switzerland—so everything is proper, everyone is polite, and there’s a system for everything. I stayed in the newer half of the building, the “Palace Wing,” whose rooms were redesigned by none other than Pierre-Yves Rochon between 2012 and 2014; and, to my delight, all the technological wingdings were easy to find, though very subtle in appearance (think, buttons for nearly every single light, window shade, and curtain, along with USB outlets, located on both nightstands). One of my favorite hotel indulgences is the ability to open the window shades from my bed in the morning, and adjust to slowly to the day; so I was especially grateful for that. The good stuff: Tell us about your room.Oh, right, let me tell you more about my room—I miss it so much. My lodgings, a corner Junior Suite on the third floor, are, to this day, the most beautiful, comfortable, and well-thought out I’ve ever had the pleasure of staying in. In true Pierre-Yves Rochon style, it was sumptuous, comfortable, and beautiful, but shy of pomp or gross excess. My bed faced the lake, which was insane to wake up to in the morning; behind the bed was a delicate, almost rust-colored floral patterned wallpaper, which matched both the decorative pillows and coverlet on the bed. Everything worked together—the wainscoting on the walls, the fireplaces, the simple sconces. I had a couch at the foot of my bed, too, facing a television. But by far, the best feature were the two small balconies I had overlooking the lake, where I sat to take my coffee in the morning. I honestly felt like I’d died and went to heaven (or, at least like Marie Antoinette). The bathroom was pretty extravagant, too: Heated floors, a hologram mirror television, an enormous, jetted tub, plus a very covetable bathrobe. How about the little things, like mini bar, or shower goodies. Any of that find its way into your suitcase?I loved the breakfast here: Any kind of pastry or bread you could imagine, they had. Eggs were offered in every form, and every fruit, domestic or exotic, seemed to garnish the buffet table. But, above all, the thing I loved most about this hotel isn’t a singular thing—it’s the sense of true comfort I felt just being here. I hadn’t felt that relaxed in a long, long time. Room service and food: Worth it?Well, of course, there's the Anne-Sophie Pic restaurant, proud owner of two shining Michelin stars; expect refined, European plates, and one hell of a cheese cart (seriously, it was the largest, most diverse cheese cart I'd ever seen); there's also a Japanese spot on site. But my personal favorite, although I didn't get to sample the French bistro, was L'Accademia, the Italian restaurant on-site; the steak I ordered nearly brought me to tears. Staff: If you could award one a trophy, who gets it, and why?Really, every staff member at this hotel went above and beyond, from the front desk, to the concierge, to the bellhops, bartenders, and servers: Everyone could answer questions about everything, and the second you looked even a little confused or lost, you were slowly approached, and offered help. Oh, and everyone was really, genuinely nice, and seemed to care that you were enjoying your stay, and impressed by the hotel. Anything stand out about other services and features? Whether it’s childcare, gyms, spas, even parking—whatever stuck with you.The pool and spa complex was terrific; the former can be taken from a completely indoor pool, to an indoor-outdoor pool which is lovely when it's nice out. Bottom line: worth it, and why?Absolutely, and unequivocally." - Betsy Blumenthal