Hotel Olden

Hotel Olden

On Gstaad's promenade, where it has stood for more than a hundred years, Hotel Olden sits at Promenade 3780, close enough to the pedestrian street that Suite 19 is sold on its direct view of the action below. The hotel holds only twelve rooms, arranged across individually numbered and differently decorated suites, so a night in Suite 16, promoted by the hotel itself as its most romantic, with two bedrooms and a private balcony over the promenade, reads nothing like a stay in the two-bedroom Classic Suite down the hall. What Olden has that few twelve-room hotels manage is range: a restaurant built around international menus, a separate wine cellar called La Cave, a plainer pinte for simpler meals, and free e-bikes guests can take out to cover the ground between Gstaad's villages, on top of a ski school and storage room for winter. Couples after that balcony suite will get their money's worth; families travelling with children have a dedicated family room, babysitting on request, and a staff fluent in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Skiers can walk straight from the door to the Eggli or Rutti-Bodmen lifts. Anyone who needs step-free access should book elsewhere, since the hotel says plainly it isn't set up for disabled guests. What's left is a small, personally run hotel that has kept its position on the promenade and its personal service while finishing a new chalet next door, and that mix of scale and service is the actual draw, not any single amenity. Twelve rooms on Gstaad's promenade, each suite individually decorated, with a restaurant, a wine cellar and free e-bikes doing more work than the room count suggests. Couples and skiers will find plenty to like; guests needing step-free access should look elsewhere.