HERMITAGE Lake Lucerne — Hotel in Lucerne

Our stay at the Hermitage was very good indeed. Everything was very nice and almost as per expectations. Room was fabulous and the comfort and luxury were really good as well. Cleanliness was perfect too. View was just incredible. Breakfast very good for european standards. I would still NOT rate it 5 out of 5 stars. I would give it a 4 star because of some small ( maybe insignificant points for many travellers) points. Firstly the restaurant for lunch and dinner had a very limited menu and could be more creative to say the least. The beach club ( touted as a major selling point for the Hermitage hotel) was lackluster to say the least. The timings of the beach club were supposed to be afternoon to 10 at night, BUT it was open late on day 1 of our trip and by evening when we wanted to go there , they said the kitchen was shut, so we could not use it. the next day ofcourse was a slightly rainy day , so again it was shut. Almost empty all the time and not functional at the time when the weather was Good and we wanted to use it, made the beach club unused by us through our 3 day stay, which was a big reason for us booking the Hermitage in the first place. Also the water sports facilities could be enhanced easily and at not much investment to the hotel. It has a beautiful lake front property and should us it to its advantage. We only used the Kayak, which was fun. BUT it could also add some electric boats for the elderly guests, as the paddle boats are just too outdated and no one really enjoys them. They could also include maybe some more fun and modern water sport activities. Lastly the room air-conditioning was Just About sufficient to cool the room, and mind you the temperatures were about 21 to 22 degrees only outside ! i can only imagine the cooling being completely insufficient on hotter days in summer. Would recommend increasing the tonnage per room maybe ? All in all a very nice stay and i WOULD recommend the hotel to others as well. Just that it could be MORE luxurious, better customer friendly and slightly more thoughtful for improvements , to make it a perfect property. |The hotel can treat this as a constructive feedback OR as most hotels do, dismiss it with a sweet yet " do not care " reply. So its upto them now , if, they are interested in...

First off let me start off by saying the location of the hotel and the room was really good. There is a bus station right outside and the room has excellent views of the lake. They had a sofa bed for my pre-teen which was nice but really uncomfortable - which is why I gave the room 4 stars. Everything else was great!

Service is a whole different thing though. I would have given it 0 star or negative if possible. As context our flight from the US got cancelled multiple times and we finally arrived at the hotel late on Day 2 of a 3 night reservation - that too with just our wallet and passports with us - all out bags were lost/ delayed by the airlines. The reservation was pre-paid - so I understand that they were unable to comp us for that night. We asked if they would do the courtesy of giving us credit towards a future night (in 1 week) - even if it’s 50% and the answer was absolutely not - it’s not in our policy, we won’t even consider it. Not the best outcome or attitude - we have seen many leading hotels make exceptions like this when availability is there. But fine - we moved on. Then on Day 4 morning at check out there was a ton of confusion on the airline system for us where they said all our bags could be at the Zurich airport and we wanted to go collect them if possible. So went to front desk and asked for a 2hr extension for check out (check out time is 12) - and told them the reason also - that we are rushing to the airport and would like to pack up when we come back and def leave by 2pm. Response was - sure - but you will need to pay 100 CHF per hour since that’s our policy for late check out. Note - availability is not the problem - they are willing to give us a late check out - but it would be chargeable!! The complete lack of empathy from the front desk staff for the whole situation was whole another level!

If everything is going right on your trip this is probably a great hotel to stay at. If not...

First, the positives. It is in a beautiful location and the view is spectacular. The food at the restaurant is quite delicious. It is easy to get to even when traveling in by train because you can hop on the bus right outside the train station and hop off right outside the hotel. ||Next, the not so positive: Service. Started with check in. There was one couple checking in at the desk when we arrived with only one person at the front desk. The guy at the front desk looked up, barely acknowledged us, and then went on to checking them in. Understood because he did need to give them his full attention. Well, after that process is done, he heads off with them to show them to their room with not a word to us, nothing about asking us to wait, that he would be with us when he returns... nothing. During this time, a couple of other hotel personnel walked in and out of the office behind the front desk, with none acknowledging us. There were three of us, each with a suitcase, so we were kind of hard to miss. Eventually, someone did come and check us in, but it took a while. ||We dined at the restaurant. The first night, the waiter took our orders, said he'd be back with bread... the bread never made an appearance. It wasn't even a very busy night. We went back the second night because we were too tired to go out again, but truth be told, we didn't really want to go back. However, Valerie was wonderful. She was friendly, warm, helpful, and efficient. She is the only reason I'm scoring the hotel three-stars instead of two. ||There is more to say about the service, but I won't go into more details. ||When you go to a hotel, especially one that isn't a "budget" one, there is a certain level of service professionalism you expect. Other than Valerie, Hotel Hermitage is...