The hotel drama of Sachrang

Created: 2022-12-16 06:06

By: Carina Zimniok

A church village on the border with Austria: Sachrang has almost 600 inhabitants and belongs to the municipality of Aschau.

© Reiter/Municipality of Aschau

A picture book village in Chiemgau needs a hotel.

But the plans that investors have are causing horror.

When Andreas Gruhle, 38, walks through Sachrang on a late winter afternoon, it is pretty gloomy in some corners.

“Whole blocks of streets,” he says – with no lighted windows.

The reason: There are dozens of apartments in the houses that are used as second homes.

The owners might come skiing during the holidays, or go hiking in the summer, that's it.

Gruhle was particularly annoyed when Gruhle spent almost three years looking for a larger apartment in a property for his family.

So much living space is empty – but it is still not available.

second homes.

This is a hot topic in many pretty places in Upper Bavaria, in fact, also very pretty, very special.

"We have a 40 percent second home quota," says Martin Stuffer, head of the building authority in Aschau, to which the property rank belongs.

"Our village dodels," says one who lives there.

This is due to the second homes, but also because there are hardly any overnight accommodations apart from a few holiday apartments.

A single pizzeria.

No cafes.

That should change.

Two real estate entrepreneurs promised that a new hotel with a restaurant should bring more life to the town on the Geigelstein.

But suddenly the property rangers found themselves in the dreaded second home trap again.

Demolition date: The Springwater bosses Jürgen Böhmler (right) and Michael Cnyrim in autumn in Sachrang.

© Springwater Group

In 2020, the Springwater Group from Tegernsee bought the old Sachranger Hof at the entrance to the town, the price is secret.

"We want to bring Bavarian tourism forward," says Jürgen Böhmler, one of the two managing partners.

His concept: Renovating hotels in need of renovation, adapting them to modern requirements.

In Schliersee they are currently converting the old Hotel Reiter into apartments.

In Reit im Winkl they have redesigned a hotel, where it is already running – according to their own statements, well.

"In terms of rank, it was planned to be similar," says Böhmler.

Because the former hotel was contaminated with asbestos, they planned a new building.

The head of the building authority, Stuffer, remembers well the information event in July 2021, when the plans for the “box seat, property rank” were presented.

"There was applause," he says.

Finally a hotel, a bit of momentum.

It shows pictures of the ceremonial start of the demolition work in the fall.

Men in suits, with helmets and shovels.

Michael Cnyrim, the other Springwater boss, raves about the sustainable construction.

The head of tourism at Sachrang says: "Your heart opens up." Mayor Simon Frank is looking forward to apprenticeships and says about the plans: "Absolutely what we stand for in town." What the community representatives had no idea when they spoke to the cameras: They praised a project that was to look very different than they thought.

"We were really annoyed," says Stuffer, head of the building authority, and also directs the displeasure of the mayor and the head of tourism.

What upsets the Sachranger is Böhmler's statement in the video.

He speaks of "Alpine Lodges, where I can also live long-term, up to six months".

The Sachranger think that has nothing to do with a hotel.

Suddenly there were 100 square meter apartments with kitchenettes in the plans.

Previously, the maximum talk was of a coffee machine.

Second homes through the back door?

And do these luxury plans fit into Sachrang, an official mountaineering village that is supposed to be about gentle tourism?

“We are very dissatisfied,” says Stuffer.

Others speak of "horror".

When the municipality invited the planners to the municipal council meeting last week, "things got really hot," as one participant says.

The message to Springwater: You can come back if you want to build a hotel.

Springwater is concerned.

Böhmler explains that plans have changed because times demand it.

There are hardly any staff to run a hotel - and nowadays customers no longer want a classic hotel with 20 square meter rooms and fixed meal times.

Hence the plan with the apartments, from which the guests in the region digitally order their breakfast basket and book the mountain tour.

second homes?

“No!” says Böhmler.

Springwater now wants to revise the concept.

"A mixture of an alpine sports hotel and an alpine club hut", a "mountain house in the valley" is conceivable.

Instead of 30 units, you are now planning again with 50, as at the beginning.

It is also possible to only stay one night, not at least three.

The community should know the details first.

The property rangers are skeptical.

"The lost trust," says Stuffer, "will be difficult to regain."