Page 314 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

Fig. 1 Fig. 2

AN AMERICAN-STYLE management style, vision of luxury and aggressive expansion
strategy. For Hilton, whose career in the hotel industry had started
MANAGER AT THE BEAU-RIVAGE PALACE. in New Mexico and Texas, excellence was par for the course. He

WALTER SCHNYDER wanted the Waldorf because it was the leading hotel in New York.
The luxury hotels owned by César Ritz may have been individual
‘gems’, but Conrad Hilton’s concept of the chain made his portfolio
into an entire ‘necklace’. It was for Hilton that Walter Schnyder
opened the Castellana Hilton in Madrid in 1954, remaining
there as general manager for three years; he then arrived at his
last port of call, the venerable old Beau-Rivage Palace at Ouchy,
where he immediately began to apply the Hilton philosophy
(fig. 1). Substantial changes and renovations followed both inside
Evelyne LÜTHI-GRAF
and out, and while some of the work may appear questionable
The minutes of the Beau-Rivage Palace’s board meeting of From 1933 to 1937 he worked at Shephard’s in Cairo as front- with hindsight, Schnyder must be credited for bringing the hotel
27 March 1958 announce a dynamic new manager for the hotel: of-house manager and deputy general manager. In 1938 he was up to modern standards and wooing a whole new set of guests,
‘The business in 1957 was marked by a change in the hotel’s management. appointed general manager of the Continental Savoy in Cairo, particularly those from the Middle East. Using his network of
Following the regrettable death of Mr Schaerer, we appointed Mme and in 1939, when he was 32 years old, he opened the winter contacts and bulging address book, Schnyder attracted a host of
Schaerer as temporary manager, as already announced in our last general season at the famed Semiramis, owned by the celebrated Bucher celebrities to the shores of Lake Geneva, magically following in
assembly. We then offered the job to Mr Walter O. Schnyder, and, owing Durer family of Swiss hoteliers. Schnyder’s experiences at the his wake, so that the guest lists of the Waldorf and Beau-Rivage
to favourable circumstances, he was able to take up his position as early hotel would leave a lasting impression on him, and it was here included many of the same names (fig. 2).
as 15 May. Mr Schnyder has fond memories of Lausanne from the two that he forged his lifelong links with the Arab world. Although he dedicated his life to hotel management, Schnyder
years he spent studying here at the business school. His early career in the Europe was now on the brink of war, however, and the still found the time to meet his future wife in 1959, with whom
hotel industry took him to Lucerne, London and Cairo. He subsequently dynamic hotelier was forced to seek work in America, where he ran the hotel until 1979. For the next fifteen years he worked
left for the United States, where he assumed different important positions, he found a position as assistant manager at the Waldorf Astoria for the Leading Hotels of the World group, an exclusive luxury
notably at the Waldorf Astoria, owned by the Hilton hotel chain. He then in New York. The attack on Pearl Harbour quickly propelled hotel ‘club’ founded in 1928 with a strict admissions policy and
moved to the Castellana Hilton in Madrid, and from there came to the America into the war, and Walter Schnyder’s linguistic talents stringent quality control.
Beau-Rivage as general manager.’ 1 were soon spotted by the us Military Intelligence Service. In When Walter Schnyder arrived at the Beau-Rivage Palace
Born in Lucerne on 10 June 1907, Walter Schnyder attended 1941 he was granted American nationality and employed by the in 1957, he was fifty years old and the hotel was celebrating its
the Weggis secondary school followed by the business school of us army’s information service for four and a half years. In 1945 centenary; when he died on 19 February 2007, shortly before his
Lausanne, before making a first language study trip to Florence he returned to the Waldorf Astoria as assistant manager, this time hundredth birthday, the Beau-Rivage Palace was just about to
in 1924. At the age of eighteen he enrolled in the Lucerne hotel in the foreign department. turn one hundred and fifty.
management school and subsequently completed a series of work By the time Conrad Hilton bought the Waldorf in October
placements in Pontresina, London, Zurich, Saint Moritz, Merano, 1949, Schnyder had already spent four years there, and would 1. Archives du Beau-Rivage (ABR), Minutes of the board meeting
Basle, Lugano and finally, in 1930, Madrid. At 23 he was fluent in stay on for another five. He was thus able to experience Hilton’s of 27 March 1958, 101st general assembly.
five languages. Between 1933 and 1939 he spent his summers in rebranding of the hotel at first hand, and also had the opportunity
Lucerne at the Grand Hôtel National and his winters in Egypt. of shadowing the near-legendary hotelier, renowned for his tough

Walter Schnyder and Conrad Hilton in the grounds The Duke and Duchess of Windsor with Walter Schnyder in front of the Beau-Rivage.
of the Beau-Rivage. Photograph, 1962. Photograph, c.1959.

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