BZ Emmental: The Hotel Landhaus awakens from its slumber
Rooms can be booked again at the Landhaus. The training and work centre for the disabled has taken over the business – and is running it digitally.
Thomas Wyss taps in a number on his smartphone, then the door in front of him buzzes softly. He presses down the handle and enters the room. Two guests stayed here last night, their empty coffee cups on a table by the window. The Hotel Landhaus in Burgdorf has been open again since the beginning of May.
The training and work centre for the disabled (SAZ) has taken over operations. Thomas Wyss is in charge of infrastructure and catering within the institution.
He is responsible for the project and has put together a team for it. The SAZ was not previously active in the hotel industry. ‘We are therefore delighted to be able to offer our employees and apprentices another workplace,’ says Wyss.
Check in with your mobile phone
The historic building at the foot of Burgdorf Castle Hill is owned by Rona Gastro AG, which leases both the restaurant and the hotel. The hotel area has been closed to the public since the start of the pandemic.
After the rooms had been renovated, however, the SAZ was able to use them for people who were looking for temporary accommodation due to the renovation of the Sonnenmatte residential home.
The SAZ was therefore already in contact with the owner of the property. ‘That’s how the idea of taking over the hotel came about,’ says Wyss.
The room with a view of the Burgdorfer Flühe smells of wood, a black and white picture hangs on the wall – an excerpt from a Gotthelf film. The room is furnished in a simple and modern style, but the original structure of the house has been preserved.
SAZ employees have been working here since the hotel opened. They clean rooms, manage the property, do the laundry and prepare breakfast boxes. Thomas Wyss closes the room door behind him.
‘As soon as everything is ready for the next guests, our team can release the room on the iPad,’ he explains. It is quiet in the hotel, even the reception is deserted. This is because the Concept Hotel Landhaus is predominantly digital.
As soon as someone books one of the twelve rooms, they receive an email. At the touch of a button, they can check in digitally and receive an access link for the front door and the booked room before arrival.
The technology works in a similar way to digital payment methods: as with Twint or Apple Pay, the guest holds their mobile phone up to a reader. The door opens automatically. As soon as the stay in the hotel is over, the digital pass expires.
Those who have booked breakfast can collect a box with croissants, bread, fruit, fruit juice and coffee capsules from a rack in the corridor in the morning. At weekends and on public holidays, hotel guests receive a voucher for the Flury bakery.
Business people and tourists
There is a telephone on the reception counter. It’s not for staff, but for visitors who are less digitally savvy. They can use it to dial an emergency number or the SAZ control centre, for example. Someone is always available, even at night, as the SAZ works with a company that is also responsible for this service in the hotel industry.
‘We have also received booking requests from people who don’t have a mobile phone,’ says Thomas Wyss. The SAZ does not want to exclude them and gives them a tangible badge for the entrance and the hotel room on site.
Employees are therefore only on site when they are actually needed. The digital concept is a new challenge for the SAZ. At the same time, Wyss believes: ‘This is how the hotel industry will work in the future.’
Before the opening, he was expecting bookings mainly from business travellers and people on the Herzroute. For the latter, the hotel therefore has charging stations for e-bikes and a shelter in front of the building. However, Wyss says that he also received many enquiries from families in the first few days, which was a positive surprise.
There is a hall on the first floor of the Landhaus, which is also part of the hotel area. The SAZ rents it out for events, for example to clubs. Catering is also planned in the room. The SAZ is only not responsible for the restaurant on the ground floor.
Restaurant reopens in summer
From 2021 to the beginning of 2024, the Intact Foundation served meals there five days a week. At the beginning of the year, however, the Burgdorf institution announced that it was pulling out of the Landhaus.
The reason: the foundation is realigning itself and focussing more on the placement of long-term unemployed people. The restaurant is currently still closed, but is due to reopen in June.
According to Werner Zahnd – property owner and board member of Rona Gastro AG – who will be cooking there in the future will be announced in the coming weeks.
‘We are delighted that the Landhaus is now coming back to life,’ says Thomas Wyss. It is the first digital hotel in the Emmental – and one of the first to employ people with disabilities. The SAZ hopes that this will inspire other businesses to become more inclusive. People with disabilities have already been working at the Hotel Orchidee in Burgdorf’s upper town for several years; it is run by the Lebensart Foundation in Bärau.
