2024-04-18 02:57:52
18. April 2024
Since 1844, the Baur au Lac has been one of the flagships in Zurich. As one of very few five-star hotels in the world, it is still in family hands. Marguita Kracht, Andrea Kracht’s seventh generation daughter, is now taking the helm – and is turning the restaurant concept on its head. Not everyone likes this break with norms, but it is not for nothing that the owner family can look back on 180 years of success.
Anyone who knows the city of Zurich also knows Baur au Lac (“Baur am See”). Located directly on the lakeshore, the hotel has been one of the top addresses in Zurich, Switzerland and Europe since it opened 180 years ago. The hotel has been run by the founding family since 1844 – making it one of the very few five-star hotels in the world that are still family-owned. Behind the house is the Kracht family, which no longer bears the name of the hotel founder Johannes Baur, but is a direct successor to him. “We have seven generations of history,” says owner Andrea Kracht in an interview with Forbes. This is also necessary, because with room prices ranging from 650 CHF to 6,500 CHF per night and person, the expectations of the guests are not low either. Overall, the hotel generates an annual turnover of around CHF 75 million, of which around CHF 50 million comes from hotel operations and around CHF 25 million from the wine trade.
With up to 350 employees – the number varies depending on the occasion, many employees are only used for banquets or events – the Baur au Lac recently achieved an occupancy rate of 94% of the available rooms, which was also a record for the Kracht family. “People really wanted to travel again after Covid,” said Kracht. “We feel a little less pressure in this regard for 2024, but the year is also developing well.”
And although these are certainly presentable facts, big changes are coming to the house. On the one hand, Andrea Kracht’s daughter Marguita is already the seventh generation involved in the management; The 31-year-old will gradually take over the management of the house from her father. The hotel is also adapting to the new circumstances by undergoing the largest renovation in recent history, during which the Pavillon restaurant is being completely redesigned. After the reopening, which is planned for summer 2024, Mediterranean cuisine at the highest level will be offered there under the appropriate name “Marguita”. The restaurant not only bears the name of Andrea Kracht’s daughter – but also that of his mother. This overall project is called “Baur au Lac Reloading”, which also includes a completely new look for the brand, for which Marguita Kracht is responsible.
“We have to adapt and bring about changes,” says Andrea Kracht about the innovations. “We always want to be top.”
In March 2020, the global hotel industry experienced a shock that was unparalleled before (and since): the Covid pandemic led to travel stops, lockdowns, and the world came to a standstill. Hotels had to close – some temporarily, some permanently. And travel habits changed: guests booked at shorter notice and for shorter periods of time, which made planning more difficult for hotel operators.
The Baur au Lac was also affected, although differently than other houses. “We were always open even during Covid,” says Andrea Kracht, not without pride. But the pandemic meant that the Kracht family also had to react: the renovation of the Pavillon restaurant – which was definitely a flagship for the hotel with two Michelin stars and a top rating of 18 points from Gault-Millau – had to be postponed. “2024 finally seemed like a good time for us,” said Father Kracht.
We must adapt and create change. We always want to be top.
The desire, The idea of rethinking the in-house restaurant was once again fueled by Covid, as the average length of stay of guests at Baur au Lac has become longer again in recent years, which also means that visitors eat in the restaurant one or more times. And: The character of global star gastronomy, in which the ambience and mood often fade into the background in order to sharpen the focus on the food, seemed to the entrepreneurial family to be out of date in a certain way. “Young guests want relaxed and light-hearted gastronomy,” says Marguita Kracht. “Devotive visits to restaurants with a focus on the menu no longer fit the spirit of the times.”
The aim is to have shorter menus and a relaxed atmosphere – in return, the hotel will forego stars and Gault-Millau points in the future. This radical step not only received positive feedback: gastro critics were surprised and also annoyed. The media also shook their heads, figuratively speaking: “How can it be that the hotel just gives up stars and points like that?” wrote the free newspaper 20 Minutes, and the tabloid Blick asked: “Why does such a renowned hotel do without a kitchen that has been successful for years?”
But the owners did not take this decision lightly. Although Andrea Kracht does not want to give any specific figures, he says that the renovation involves “high investments”. He then argues relatively emotionlessly: “Our hotel guest knows the world’s star cuisines – he doesn’t come to the Baur au Lac to eat in the pavilion. Our guests tend to go to restaurants where there is a good atmosphere.”
This is one of the reasons why Martin Brudnizki was once again entrusted with the interior design. The Swede had previously not only developed the in-house brasserie Baur’s, but also Annabel’s in London and The Beekman in New York. “It’s not just about the aesthetics, but also about the layout of the restaurant, the light and much more,” says Kracht. It is essential that the quality is right – “our customers can see that immediately”.
Marguita Kracht is the Swiss cover of issue 2-24 on the topic
“Tourism”
As a native Austrian When Johannes Baur opened a hotel on the shores of Lake Zurich in 1844, it was a sensation. He had already made a name for himself six years earlier with the Hotel Baur, but added another exclamation mark with the Baur au Lac. It was the first of its kind in such a location and set very high standards from the start. The hotel served as a refuge for wealthy people; almost as a villa where they could spend the night undisturbed and unseen. It was the first such house on Lake Zurich and also attracted international attention – not least because of its size. The international press reported widely on the new “giant inn”, as the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung described the house.
The Hotel Baur au Lac relied on the highest quality right from the start, but also benefited from clever moves by the founder. Johannes Baur campaigned not only to build Bahnhofstrasse, but also to extend it to the lake – conveniently directly to his hotel. Early on, the guests included numerous monarchs from Europe and the world, including the Austrian Empress Elisabeth (“Sisi”). Much later, celebrities such as Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot also came to the Hotel Baurau Lac. The legends surrounding the house include the anecdote that Bertha von Suttner in Baur au Lac convinced the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel to establish the Nobel Peace Prize.
Even today the house has a very prominent clientele, and the owner family has also remained the same. Although Johannes Baur’s granddaughter, Emmy, took the name of her husband Karl Kracht after her wedding, the hotel is still in the hands of the founder’s family to this day. From the 1950s onwards, large-scale investments were made in the hotel, and there was also a focus on wine sales, which today accounts for around a third of sales (two thirds come from hotel operations). The fact that the house will continue to be in family hands for the next generation is also due to the fact that Marguita Kracht “never really thought about” not joining the family business.
“Our hotel has had a big impact on me since I was a child,” says the young hotelier. “Luckily, I then had the opportunity to gain my own experience in other companies.” Kracht studied economics in Boston and got to know the working world at Moët Hennessy in the USA and London. “The wine and spirits sector is of course very close to the hotel industry, but cannot be compared to the operations of a hotel,” says Marguita Kracht.
In order to learn the craft from scratch, she then gained professional experience at the Lanesborough Hotel and the Aman hotel chain before becoming part of the pre-opening team at the Peninsula Hotel in London – helping to reopen the prestigious hotel. In 2021 he joined the family business. “At some point I had so many ideas that I was getting on my father’s nerves,” says Marguita Kracht with a wink. Because the daughter wanted to know from her father why certain things in the house were done that way and not the way she had seen it done in other hotels – that meant she was completely caught up in the business.
“It’s all been very fluid so far,” says Kracht junior when asked when she would finally replace her father – and with a view to her father, who was also chairman of the Leading Hotels of the World, an alliance of luxury hotels, for many years , of which Baur au Lac is also a member: “It’s nice to have a passion that you can pursue throughout your life.”
Although so much change can be seen in the house, certain things will not change – because the Baur au Lac wants to constantly change, but without losing its own path. When asked about expansion plans, Andrea Kracht waves it off: “We had a lot of inquiries. However, if we wanted to maintain our standards of service, quality and location, we would have to take over a hotel like the Ritz in Paris, the Beau-Rivage in Geneva or the Sacher in Vienna. And that can actually no longer be paid for today, because the purchase price would be so high that the return simply no longer corresponds to the purchase price. We would want to do this in the long term and not sell it again in the short term.”
And his daughter adds another aspect as to why expansion to several locations would not be compatible with the family philosophy: “As a family, we are very present in the house. If we had a second house in another city, we would no longer be able to show this presence. Then you simply cannot spend the time in the house that is needed to make these long-term strategic decisions.” So it has not yet been decided when the baton will finally be handed over.
All those who are waiting for Andrea Kracht to get out of the business – and perhaps just look after his vegetable garden, like hotel founder Johannes Baur did – will have to be patient. In any case, the future of the luxury hotel on Lake Zurich is secured by the arrival of Marguita Kracht and the fact that the new restaurant will bear her name. And: The eighth generation of the hotelier family has already seen the light of day.
The Hotel Baur au Lac was founded in Zurich in 1844 by the Austrian Johannes Baur. Today Marguita Kracht runs the house with her father Andrea Kracht in the seventh generation.
Klaus Fiala,
Editor-in-Chief
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