Nine days in Costa Rica: Swiss hotel invites employees to a dream holiday

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Nine days in Costa Rica. On the Pacific coast, on suspension bridges in the jungle, on a volcano, crocodile watching or in pineapple fields.

St. The staff of the Hotel Waldhaus am See in St. Moritz GR experienced all this these days. At the invitation of the hotel management (20 Minutes reported first)! Sandro Bernasconi, 38, a tenant of the Hotel Waldhaus am See, explains when Blick contacted him on the phone shortly before his return home: “For some of them, it was their first trip by plane or outside of Europe.”

Bernasconi raised approximately 100,000 francs for the employee trip. However, the value of the journey is 150,000 francs. Bernasconi charges nothing for some hotel accommodations and other services.

Exchange of ideas among hotel staff

The hotel manager explains how this trip came about: He has been friends with Urs Schmid (38), the general manager of Hotel Capitan Suizo in Tamarindo (Costa Rica), since he was young. The two Engadiners went to school together and completed the RS.

Despite the great distance, they stay in touch and discuss a “job exchange” in which one of them would temporarily manage the other’s hotel. This becomes a “team swap”: One team’s entire squad must be allowed to go on vacation with the other team.

After the delay due to Corona, it was November 12: 26 of Waldhaus am See’s 35 employees, some with private escorts, set off for Liberia (Costa Rica) with Edelweiss Air for nine days. They incur no expenses other than private expenses, they just have to give up their vacation days. Bernasconi notes that these are volunteer vacations, not some kind of “team-building activity.” However, the trip “is also good for team spirit” with a catamaran cruise or a small local football tournament.

In October 2024, the entire staff of Hotel Capitan Suizo will leave St. He will come to visit Moritz.

This is the second hit

This is not the first time that Waldhaus am See employees have benefited from a free holiday. “My parents took the entire staff on a trip to London 23 years ago,” Bernasconi explains.

In fact, everything goes back much further. Waldhaus am See is owned by the United Dairy Farmers of the Middle East. This was initiated in 2016 by the Winterthur Dairy Association and St. It emerged from the merger of the Gallen-Appenzell Dairy Association. Waldhaus am See was purchased by the Winterthur Dairy Association shortly after the Second World War. Our own employees in St. In order to enable them to have an affordable holiday in St. Moritz.

Bernasconi smiles: “Employees today are going a little further on their company-sponsored holidays.”

However, travel is not the only investment for employees. During your stay in Costa Rica, the 13 employee rooms at Waldhaus am See have been completely overhauled. Bernasconi’s wellness area has also been renovated. “Things have been going well for us over the last few years, so we are now investing in the future,” he says.

Swiss rope teams make dream trip possible

To ensure Bernasconi doesn’t overextend financially on his trip to Costa Rica, he’s not just saving on overnight stays at Capitan Suizo. There are discounts at other travel stops, too: two days in La Fortuna, near the Arenal volcano, and two more days in Jaco, further south on the Pacific coast.

A Swiss man is in charge of the group in the field: Stéphane Dähler (38), son of the recently deceased pineapple king Johann Dähler, offers tourist trips to the Central American country with his company Swiss Tropical Costa Rica. He acts as a free tour guide at the pineapple farm and the buffalo farm, and thanks to good contacts, he arranges further discounts for the Swiss group. For example, when visiting the “Fundacion Hagnauer”, a puma sanctuary founded in 1989 by Swiss Werner Hagnauer. Or for a beer tasting with Swiss Marc Bieler, who brews beer with his local wife.

“We want as many Swiss people as possible to be interested in our adopted home,” Dähler told Blick. Dähler will also take part in the Costa Rican hotel staff’s trip to Switzerland. So that Urs Schmid’s chefs, service staff and receptionists can also have an unforgettable adventure away.

Source :Blick