The last guests have checked out - farewell to the Arabella Brauneck Hotel

Created: 2022-11-25 04:54

By: Andreas Steppan

As the last guests of the Arabella Brauneck Hotel in Lenggries, Gertrud and Peter Ries from Straubing said goodbye to hotel manager Christoph Seitz (right) and managerial assistant Barbara Schober (left).

© Arabella Brauneck Hotel

The last opening days of the Arabella Brauneck Hotel were an emotional farewell for the employees and regular guests.

A reopening of the hotel is planned for 2024.

Lenggries -

"An era is coming to an end." Christoph Seitz and Barbara Schober have read this sentence in many letters in recent weeks.

It was always these words that regular guests used to describe the closure of the Araballa Brauneck Hotel in Lenggries.

Saying goodbye is also an emotional affair for the hotel director and the managerial assistant, the employees and, last but not least, many people from Lenggries.

The last guests left on November 9th, and the keys will be handed over on November 30th - 50 years after the opening of the hotel.

It has been around a year since the forthcoming turning point in the history of the 108-room house opened in 1972 for the Olympic Games became known: As reported, the Schörghuber family's Blue Lion GmbH sold the house to a company headed by the Lenggries-based real estate developer Christoph Hertwig sold.

The new owner announced a comprehensive renovation and then a reopening.

For Hotel Director Seitz, all of this is understandable.

"After 50 years it is necessary to rebuild, it is imperative for the place that there is a contemporary, attractive offer," he says.

The new owner Hertwig has "the right approach, it all sounds very, very good".

Only: "What's incredibly close to me is that we're not doing it," says Seitz.

What he means is

"Isarwinkel is happy about top specialists"

For him and his team, this means that they now have to say goodbye.

Even if the hotel has been empty for about two weeks, there is a lot of activity there these days.

The employees pack, sort, lug boxes out - and greet everyone who comes by, just as warmly as ever, even if many may not be so cheerful inside.

The feelings are also clearly noticeable in Christoph Seitz and Barbara Schober, who report on the course of the last few days of the hotel in its current form.

"The house has a special soul," says Seitz, who has managed the hotel for the past seven years.

“There is so much warmth and kindness in it.

And when this heart breaks, there is pain.”

Depending on the season and the number of temporary workers, up to 60 or 70 people worked in the hotel, he says.

Many of them were employed in the house for ten, 20 or more years.

Seitz has calculated that the team has lasted more than 700 years of "serving guests" in the Arabella Brauneck Hotel alone.

The house was also her place of work for 22 years as assistant to the manager Schober – and more than that. No wonder that special bonds developed there.

Many guests were always happy to return to the familiar faces in Lenggries - and vice versa, you could see with the guests how the second and third generation of the same families checked into the "Arabella" over the years.

"In the last few weeks, all the regular guests have come again," reports Schober - from all parts of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Berlin.

The married couple Gertrud and Peter Ries from Straubing explicitly wished that they were the last guests - and that's how it ended up being.

"Yes, it was really something special, this Arabella," the couple wrote in a farewell letter.

"It lives on in our hearts with the wonderful pictures and moments." A "very sad day" was the last opening day for her, admits Barbara Schober.

About 20 more guests were seated in the breakfast room, and each one was toasted with a glass of sparkling wine before checking out.

New operator will be announced soon

There had already been farewells in instalments, starting with the fourth "open house party" in mid-September, which became a "farewell party in disguise", as Seitz reports: "200 guests and 50 employees had a lot of fun".

At the last Sunday breakfast, the Arabella team welcomed 70 à la carte guests alone.

"I can't remember anything like that," says Seitz, otherwise there were no more than 30 or 40 at the top at Christmas.

And the restaurant was packed again on the last opening night.

Because numerous Isarwinklers also wanted to say goodbye.

Seitz repeatedly emphasizes how "highly professional" the whole team continued to operate until the last day.

Incidentally, not a single employee was made redundant.

"We were able to come to an agreement with each individual." No one is going into unemployment now, but "the Isarwinkel is happy to have top specialists".

Many have found new jobs in the local catering industry, and the Bergeblick hotel under construction in Bad Tölz can also draw on the staff who have become vacant, "and a good handful will remain with the group of companies," says Seitz.

That means: Like himself and, for example, the chef de cuisine, they are moving to the Araballa Hotel Spitzingsee.

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The inventory is now sorted.

Some things remain in place because the new owner bought them, others are still used at Spitzingsee, some are also donated, for example to local clubs, the middle school or the kindergarten.

Seitz also got his hands on a guest book in the past few days.

None other than King Albert II of Belgium has immortalized himself in it.

Sabine and Stefan Pfister, who use the Kaminstubn there as a cultural venue for their "KKK", also cleared out the Arabella Brauneck Hotel.

Seitz wants to stay in touch with them, he announces.

And anyway: "We're not out of the world." For the hotel on Münchner Straße, co-owner Hertwig is meanwhile aiming for a reopening in the "first quarter of 2024", as he says when asked by our newspaper.

The future operator will be announced shortly.

There were several well-known applicants.

The development plan procedure for the conversion measures is currently still running.

According to Hertwig, the building application should then be submitted as quickly as possible.

You can find more current news from the region around Bad Tölz at Merkur.de/Bad Tölz.