While the line “the customer is always right” is an often overused adage in the hotel industry, there are some moments when staff have to go arguably too above and beyond to satisfy guests: a luxury hotel in the Swiss resort of Gstaad has revealed the weirdest requests made to them by super-rich guests. From champagne steaks for dogs to using Evian water for showers, here are some of our favourites.
Speaking to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Andrea Scherz, the director of the Gstaad Palace hotel, revealed all of the most famous and weird requests made by guests over the years. Owned by the family since 1938, the hotel is one of the most luxurious hotels in what many would argue is the most affluent ski resort in Switzerland, up there with the fox-fur-cladded splendour of St. Moritz.
Scherz told the newspaper that customers have become more demanding in recent years, especially when it comes to the speed of fulfilling their requests. He added that “old money” customers are a lot less of a hassle than “new money”.
Some of the most common outlandish requests made by guests include demanding food or special items within half an hour of calling and booking taxis or limousines in the early hours of the morning with no notice. When it comes to food, the manager noted that 50 percent of dishes served at the hotel are not actually on the menu.
Along with the standard demands, Scherz highlighted some cases where staff had dealt with some very strange requests. Here are some of the most weird and wonderful demands made by guests at the hotel:
First, and most expensively, one guest from the United States demanded that the floor of his suite be raised by 30 centimetres. The man in question complained that he was unable to get a good view of the mountains and scenery, and so demanded that the floor be raised.
Amazingly, the hotel obliged. A team of workers laid a new floor in the room and covered it with carpet before the guest returned.
Next, it’s clear that the jet-set attitude rubs off on pets too. For instance, the lap dog of one of the guests in the hotel would eat nothing but cuts of meat in a champagne sauce. Every night, the chefs would prepare the dish for the dog, spending hundreds of francs on meat and fine wine.
As a joke, one night the chef replaced the champagne with a cheap prosecco. Once served, the dog actually refused to eat a single bite of the common steak. After a complaint, a new cut was served, doused in Perrier-Jouët champagne - a bottle retails at Coop for 58 francs.
Sticking with dogs, perhaps unaware that the snow in Gstaad meant that the weather was cold, a guest demanded that a grass carpet be placed in the shower so that he didn’t have to go out with his dog when it needed to do its business. Of course, as soon as the man returned to the room, the carpet of freshly mown grass was there.
On one occasion, staff received a request for 25 litres of Evian water to be sent up to a room every day. Rather than becoming the most hydrated person on the planet, the guest revealed to staff that the water was being used to wash his hair every day.
Finally, while it isn’t weird, it sure is romantic (and expensive). Famously, movie star John Travolta proposed to his late wife Kelly Preston at the Gstaad Palace in 1990. To make it truly a night to remember, Travolta ordered that the Salle Baccarat in the hotel be converted to look like Preston’s favourite restaurant. A year later, the two were married.
With such outlandish requests, you might think that the hotel would be tired or even reluctant to fulfil them. Not so, with Scherz concluding that while the requests are very time-consuming, the Gstaad Palace is happy to fulfil them, so long as guests are okay with footing the bill.