For musicians and night owls, the time takes some getting used to: at eight in the morning, dialect hit singer Marc Trauffer (42) and his wife Brigitte (42) opened their hotel, complete with adventure world and restaurant, in Hofstetten near Brienz BE. That’s why there’s no white wine and appetizers, but croissants and coffee. “We are incredibly nervous and incredibly proud,” they enthused.
A distinctive board complex with 31 rooms and 104 beds has been created not far from the wood carving shop, which is well-known throughout Switzerland. The foundation stone was laid 14 months ago, on April 1, 2021. “But what has happened here since then is no joke,” says Marc Trauffer. The complex also includes a village shop and the post office. «Our company also fulfills social tasks and should function as a meeting place.» Then the Trauffers, together with Mayor Anita Abächerli (55), put up the sign for “Holzkuhplatz 1”, as the entrance area is now officially called.
“If it sucks, then it’s right”
The hotel will be open to guests from next weekend, and the booking status is “very pleasing”. But the area is more on the edge of the large tourist streams through the Bernese Oberland. Aren’t the Trauffers afraid of the risk? “Sometimes we’re scared at night, but we’re more scared during the day. We are aware that this will be a huge challenge,” they say. “Opening a hotel here is really not every day, and we don’t have any comparative values.” The Trauffers have neither investors nor a patron behind them, they have their own funds and bank loans in-house. “When it throbs, it really throbs,” says Marc Trauffer, “but if it knocks us out, we get up, straighten the crown and keep going.”
Brigitte Trauffer takes over the management, her husband continues to take care of the wood carving business and is still in focus as a musician – this August with Büetzer Buebe colleague Göla (53) twice in Zurich’s Letzigrund.
The Trauffers see the gastronomy as the biggest sticking point, with which they also want to attract external guests. The restaurant, named following Marc’s grandfather Alfred, is open 365 days a year and offers local dishes and raclette and fondue all year round, as well as burgers and dry-aged meat. “With our company, we have to be a jack of all trades and can’t just rely on conventional tourism,” says Trauffer. For this reason, the event area is also promoted on its own floor. 130 event bookings have already been received by next year. “It takes courage, sometimes even cockiness. But we don’t regret the step for a moment.”
Marc Trauffer and his world
