Hotel Säntis Lodge

We staid 3 days in Säntis Lodge and I can definitely recommend it as for a short stay and for a long vacation. The hotel is very well maintained! The people, who work there really care about the customers. The room we had (137) was very spacious, with a big balcony and comfy bed. The hotel has an inside children entertaining room (including a cinema room!) and outside playground. Breakfast is excellent and oriented for kids as well. We had dinner twice and both times were happy with quality of food, how fast it was served, representation and taste. There are a lot of hiking trails around. You can find easy routes with kids (e.g. Klangweg Toggenbutg) at Iltios cable car or Laui and a lot of options for experienced hikers. If you are interested in tennis or bouldering, there is a sport center 300 meters away. Coop supermarket is also in walking distance. Unterwasser public pool is very close! We would definitely get back to the hotel another time! Very welcoming and cozy place.

Our family has visited this “lodge” for over 30 years. Recently, there has been a management/ownership change and our last visit was a monumental disaster. To begin with, the morning breakfast went from “the best”, to horrible. The only good thing was the employee taking care of breakfast guests. The room was clean, however, the management clumped several rooms together around us who were nonstop noisy, loud and boisterous 24/7. The rest of the floor, about 20 rooms were empty. Trying to find someone to change our room was fruitless. No room phones, management was hardly there. We did, however, complain to the breakfast staff (again, excellent people) who were greatly concerned. All in all we rarely got a good nights sleep. If the above wasn’t a nightmare already, upon checkout (and relating our nightmare stay), our bill came and it was not what was indicated on our online reservation form. It was far from it and our pointing out the discrepancy was met with nonsensical excuses from the head manager checking out our bill. Indeed, there was a major difference in their favor and it was way off. We paid nevertheless, but we will never visit this nightmare of a lodge/hotel ever again while this inadequate and totally inexperienced management runs it. The irony in all this is that we own a flat practically across the street our family has owned for 30 years as well. We loved to stay there when too many of our family gathered or we just wanted the hospitality served to and paid by us. Moreover, we are a family that travels much and some travel for business, so we have much exposure to hotels, lodges, BnB’s, etc. We are Swiss, Italian and American but mostly Swiss. Our recommendation to travelers is to find another place to stay. But beware! The owners own the Sun lodge and yet another in that valley. Best of luck and if you have to stay, maybe speak up louder to the staff than we did. Incidentally, I’m sure the management will answer with the same nonsensical and empty excuses as they did to our faces. Such a pity a greatly run business taken over by people that just want to fill their pockets. Moreover, it doesn’t even feel Swiss anymore. Such a shame!