Introduction
The Fairmont Le Montreux Palace was built in 1906 and sits elegantly on the shore of Lake Geneva in the centre of Montreux. Today, the property is part of the All Accor Group that now owns the Fairmont brand.
The hotel is about five minutes away on foot from the railway station. It sits right across the road from the lake.
Check-in
As I approach the main entrance to the lobby, a young man steps outside and welcomes me to the hotel. He asks me if I’m checking in and ‘invites’ me to follow him to reception. And that pretty much sets the tone for my stay. He makes a quick call to the back office for the guest relationship manager to come introduce himself. He hands me his business card and thanks me for my loyalty as an Accor diamond member.
The young man finishes checking me in and tells me that I’ve been upgraded, “and I hope you’re going to like this upgrade…”.
He then asks me to follow him through the grand foyer to the elevators.
The Quincy Jones Suite
We take the elevator up to the sixth floor, and then from there a set of stairs up to the seventh floor, which is where the entrance to the suite is. In passing, the young man tells me that there’s only the suite on this floor, “so you shall have peace and quiet”.
He swipes the key card, opens the door and steps aside to let me go in first… and it’s hard for me not to let out a string of expletives to express my amazement at the sheer size of the room.
The door opens to a wide entryway. Facing the door is a large window looking out over the park and the lake.
This is where I set up my laptop to work on my thesis later on. I’m not sure I’ll manage to get anything much done with such a view to distract me, though.
I make a right turn, which leads me to the dining and living room areas.
There is a Nespresso machine set up on the credenza, and there is cream in the fully stocked fridge under the wall-mounted television.
There are two doors leading off the living room. One is for the walk-in closet, and the other is for the toilet and shower.
Across the foyer, on the other side of the suite, is the bedroom.
The main bathroom leads off from the bedroom. It has a separate bath and shower.
Had I already mentioned the view? The suite has three windows overlooking the promenade. In addition, there is a balcony with deck chairs leading off the bedroom, and another with loungers leading off from the living room. And the views are breathtaking!
The Service
A few minutes later, there’s a tap at the door. I open to find a waitesss standing there holding a tray with a plate of fruit, chocolates, a card and a bottle of still water on a tray. She apologizes for disturbing and then steps inside to place her gifts on the dining room table. And then she wishes me a nice day and leaves.
Facilities
The hotel has a spa area at the lower ground floor level. It features an indoor and outdoor pool (the latter is closed during my stay because of the season) and also has a large and very well equipped gym with a good selection of free weights and a whole row of cardio machines overlooking the park and the lake.
Dining
There are several restaurants. Afternoon tea is served at the Montreux Jazz Club behind reception. I’ll be posting on that separately.
The Montreux Palace is famous around town for its extensive Sunday brunch, starting at noon and carrying on until the late afternoon. Reservations are essential if you want to attend that.
Conclusion
The Fairmont Le Montreux Palace is a lovely hotel in a very grand old building that dates back to the Belle Epoque. Of course, I’m aware that I was incredibly lucky to get that upgrade – the suite is simply spectacular.
During my visit, Montreux was very quiet. I can only imagine how busy it must get during the summer down on the promenade. I guess I’m just going to have to come back to find out for myself!
How the other half live!!!——-jealous.
OKwilliam——-not quite ‘jealous’——– but you do seem to stay in some amazing rooms when travelling——-Swiss proffessors must get paid VERY Well!—— Me? ,ive stayed in various qualtity hotels over the years,but always paid and never upgrades because i was a member of some frequent traveller group Among others ive stayed in the Bellevue palace Bern[Not great!] The three sisters in Tallinn[now closed it seems] The Negresco in Nice[rather strange and infested with cats!!!]——– so in short i;m a believer in quality hotels!!!! keep up the good work!!,Best,Peter
I think I was just very lucky. I suspect it also had something to do with the fact that one wing was closed for refurbishment, so they didn’t have their full capacity available. Even so, it’s still nice That they gave me upgrade. The fine print says that they are subject to availability. They could have just pretended to be full and I’d been none the wiser.
And You’d have liked the flight from Gatwick to Tallinn. It was on a rather cute EstonianAir 737-500,with a rather unique 2X3 layout of Navy leather seats in their Business class which they called’Blue Vevet’!!—– i managed to get 2 seats to myself—– food awful—-‘service’,soviet, but overall very interesting——and a great colour scheme.
That is one heck of a nice upgrade.
Lovely lobby too. I love those old grand hotel style lobbies. So European in the best way possible.
Yes, it‘s a very classic style. And the upgrade was quite impressive, I must say.
Ams?
That was my fingers being faster than my brain.