The modest facade of the Beau-Rivage Hotel is but a few steps away from the famed Quai du Mont-Blanc and contrasts starkly with the splendour of the hotel’s interior. Sliding doors lead the visitor to an atrium with a magnificent fountain surrounded by pink marble columns. The rooms and suites on the floors above, many of which have beautiful views of Lake Geneva and the city’s famous fountain, are characterised by breath-taking luxury and splendour.
There’s definitely plenty of opulence at the Beau-Rivage Hotel, yet it is restrained, never garish nor excessive.
The hotel’s atmosphere exudes style and elegance, in keeping with the many famous people who have stayed there from Austria’s Empress Sissi to dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and including Prince Aga Khan and even Richard Gere. Welcome to the BeauRivage, one of the Geneva’s last privately owned 5-star hotels.
The Beau-Rivage’s director is Jacques Mayer, great-grandson of Jean-Jacques Mayer, who founded the hotel in 1865.
Since then, this unique establishment has accommodated a host of famous guests, surviving a variety of ups and downs while continually preserving its inimitable charm and hospitality. The Beau-Rivage has achieved lasting success despite the difficult financial climate and its high prices, which are admittedly aimed at an elite clientele. It may be that the key to the hotel’s long success is the Mayer family’s enduring, and even atavistic, passion for the business.
Contrary to numerous other old Geneva hotel dynasties, the family hasn’t been able to bring itself to sell the hotel and has rejected all offers to date of which there have been many – despite the huge expenditure required by the building’s renovation and maintenance costs. The Beau-Rivage has had to evolve in order to keep up with the standards of modern times, which have evolved significantly since the 19th Century. Today, all of the hotel’s 91 rooms and suites are equipped with high-tech equipment (high-resolution flat-screen TVs, a huge choice of films, etc.) whereas Empress Sissi’s rooms did not even have a private bathroom in her era. That particular “luxury” didn’t appear until the early 1920s! Times have changed and ideas on comfort have changed along with the clientele’s tastes and customs. These demanding, and even capricious, guests have always been very affluent people who have had diverse requirements depending on the times and their origins.
The Beau-Rivage has always considered that its duty lies in fulfilling their clientele’s every wish but the hotel has remained true to its basic principles: there can be no talk of changing the hotel to satisfy the whims of a visiting prince or celebrity. Therein may lie another secret to the Mayer family’s success; they manage to stay grounded while rubbing shoulders with their rich and famous clients, welcoming a cosmopolitan clientele while remaining invariably anchored to their native Swiss reality. The Mayers have certain ideas on the art of running a hotel and these have also proven to be successful in hosting numerous conferences and organising a variety of cultural events, including the annual Red Cross Gala and art auctions for Sotheby’s, which has its Geneva office on the hotel premises.
The Beau-Rivage is also known for its excepti onal restaurant, Le Chat Botté. The kitchen is the domain of Dominique Gauthier, who was awarded ‘Chef of the Year 2009’ by the Swiss gastronomic guide Gault-Millau. More sophisticated palates will particularly appreciate the Chef’s Table – a menu prepared by Gauthier and served informally at a table in the restaurant’s kitchen. As for the wine cellar, its standards correspond to that of the hotel: luxurious and exquisite. It is brimming with the best wines, which have been meticulously selected by four generations of the Mayer family.
The Beau-Rivage Hotel offers its clients a salient mixture of traditional and contemporary chic, along with luxurious comfort and attentive discretion – which is exactly what its exclusive clientele appreciates most.
Hotel Beau-Rivage Quai du Mont-Blanc 13 CH 1201 GENEVA – Switzerland Tel: +41 22 716 66 66 Fax: +41 22 716 60 60 E-mail: info@beau-rivage.ch Internet: www.beau-rivage.ch
