Hotel Bareiss and Traube Tonbach, Baiersbronn

I’m in the Mitteltal in the northern Black Forest. Here in Baiersbronn, the village of gourmets, are the Hotel Bareiss and the Traube Tonbach, the two dominant luxury and gastronomy hotels of my youth.

The Hotel Bareiss is the realm of Hermann Bareiss. At the age of 29 he took over the house from his mother Hermine in 1973. She had built up the hotel since 1947 and decided that the son should be taken on after he had proven himself in the Hotel Bachmeier on Tegernsee and in many other national and international stations.

I check in I am immediately enveloped by the high intensity of the attention and hospitality that is omnipresent here in the house. The Bareiss has 100 rooms, almost 300 employees, four restaurants and an extremely elaborate outdoor area with a swimming pool, natural bathing pond and dozens of outbuildings. What impresses me the most is the financial strength that the Bareiss puts into their employee training. A separate building and a total of 200 training days per year are available for this purpose.

Hotel Bareiss: Focus on the employees

That pays off. Where other hoteliers might invest in extra rooms or spa facilities, Bareiss took the right path very early on: Focus on the employees – a very sustainable and successful approach. This is why the best trainees keep coming from this company.

During the outstanding manicure and pedicure, Olga, my spa therapist from Kazakhstan, tells me: “We are hired here based on cordiality, many are friendly.” The real attentiveness and constant warm-hearted focus on the guest is always noticeable. The maid down the hall turns off the vacuum as I approach. I ask why. She replies: “It would hurt your ears”.

Claus-Peter Lumpp has been working in the Bareiss restaurant since 1987. He has been head chef since 1992 and has been awarded three Michelin stars every year since 2007. Lumpp is part of the Bareiss family, so to speak. At the breakfast buffet, I sense that Lumpp, as head chef, also feels responsible for the portfolio in the morning. If there were a breakfast rating in the Michelin Guide, then three stars would definitely be due here. I count 28 different cheeses, twelve different hams, three different Bircher muesli, 20 different types of bread and rolls.

Hannes, the son of patron Hermann Bareiss, is now responsible for the hotel. The house is buzzing, with more than 80 percent regular guests. But there are also darker clouds. Since September, guests have had to pay nine euros extra per night for energy – is that enough? Junior boss Bareiss believes that most guests understand that this adjustment is necessary. In fact, hotels are mostly dependent on natural gas. Due to the energy crisis and rising costs, enormous increases in prices are expected in all areas.

On the way to the room I meet Shimo, the house bellboy who has been working in the house for 31 years. He also greets me by name, like an old friend. I ask, “How do you do that with all those names?” Shimo explains, “When I’m standing at the reception desk, I recognize at least 95 people out of 100. I find out the other five percent very quickly before they notice. I am impressed and ask: “How do I find the way to Spa?” Shimo: “By accompanying and leading you there.”

In summary, here at the Bareiss, I appreciate the always self-evident luxury and the masterfully approachable service: calm, relaxed, elegant, precise. The name tag with the inscription “With the heart there”, which everyone wears here, is not needed there. You can feel it anyway.

I’m driving up the valley and I’m excited about the “new” Traube Tonbach with the – again – three-star restaurant “Schwarzwaldstube”. The past two years have been bitter for the house. In January 2020, a devastating fire broke out in the restaurant wing of the world-famous gourmet residence. It burned for 70 hours, later it was found out that a cable fire was the cause.

Hotel Traube Tonbach: A fire and other crises

The five-star hotel continued to operate, but the stars that had been built up over decades were gone. In addition to the fire, there was also the pandemic and other crises. Simply not giving up the focus on true quality here or burying your head in the sand is already worthy of an award. But in the eighth generation you don’t just give up, you try to come out of the crisis stronger. The senior boss Heiner Bareiss and his team succeeded in doing this.

I pull up and am irritated by the strange and uncomfortable arrival situation: two trainees greet me warmly, but the arrivals lobby is empty. “Someone is coming soon,” they say. When after a few minutes nobody has appeared, I pack my suitcase and take the elevator up alone. I drag my luggage down a long, deserted corridor until I finally reach the reception desk upstairs.

The Schwarzwaldstube 3.0.: Culinary art at its finest

Later I notice the ubiquitous art. The in-laws of Heiner Finkbeiner’s son Sebastian own a gallery. More than 100 contemporary paintings, sculptures, sculptures and installations are given a very impressive temporary stage here in the building.

Now I’m very excited about the new Schwarzwaldstube. At first I’m surprised. The old Black Forest room was twisted, enchanted, comfortable, a temple. Now she’s just the opposite. She is open. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Felt 20 meters ceiling height. No curtains. It’s like sitting in the middle of the Black Forest. I still have a hard time liking the new design.

Then the kitchen by Torsten Michel: terrific. Each course beats the next. There are no dropouts. The duck liver, not sweet as you would expect, rather with a tart and sour note on the salad. The brioche baked perfectly. In between: modern dishes, for example the grandiose lobster with lemongrass. The kitchen is younger, more modern, in case of doubt – and that’s not an insult to majesty – even better. It’s subjectively perfect now.

I am fascinated by the fact that the fire destroyed 20,000 bottles of wine. Great Italians, French, all merged. The sommelier did the perfect job, spoke to the regular guests and bought great wines from their cellars. And what I didn’t know: The big wineries, the Margaux’ of this world, have little treasure chests for such emergencies. If a drama really happens, like here in 2020, then they open the basement and help. Now the wine cellar has 32,000 positions again, the big hits are all back. A wine cellar to write a book about.

Conclusion: Comparing the two icons of the German hotel industry is obvious and impossible at the same time. They are only seven kilometers apart. Gastronomically, both houses are absolutely perfect, equal. In terms of pure hotel performance, the Bareiss is ahead. It’s friendlier, more professional, clearer, above all warmer – more attentive. The grape is sometimes a little less clear in its dealings and sharpened in its hospitality.
To put it mildly, both have some catching up to do in terms of hardware. It feels like the Traube has already been renovated, and in retrospect the fire was also an opportunity. But I’m not afraid. With Mathias and Sebastian Finkbeiner, the next generation is ready to continue the life’s work of Renate and Heiner Finkbeiner. And Hannes Bareiss has been at his tireless father’s side for over ten years and has the family energy in him. He knows exactly what he wants. I am sure that the Baiersbronn Valley with its two gourmet flagships will remain a global attraction in the future.

Rath’s travel rating for both houses (current rating in bold)

1. Explicit Travel Warning
2. Better than under the bridge
3. So-so, not oh, là, là
4. Complaining at a high level
5. If only it were always like this
6. Great (classic) cinema

Insider tips:

Jogging route: A route of around seven kilometers meanders through Tonbach out into the quiet Tonbach game reserve.

Cycling tour: Fantastic views over the Baiersbronner Mitteltal from the viewing platform at the Ellbachsee – only about a 30-minute drive from both hotels.

Sightseeing: The Sankenbach waterfalls, half an hour’s drive from Baiersbronn. The two-stage waterfall tumbles down the steep Karwand with full force.

Hike: One of the Baiersbronner Himmelswege: Impressive hike from the Tonbachtal over old wood-making paths.

About the author: As a former grand hotelier and operator of the Travelgrand.ch travel platform, Carsten K. Rath is a professional globetrotter. He travels to all the hotels he writes about for the Handelsblatt on his own account. Rath is the brain behind the ranking “The 101 best hotels in Germany”, whose partners include the Handelsblatt.

Carsten K. Rath, Rolf Westermann: The 101 best hotels in Germany.
Institute for Service and Leadership Excellence AG
521 pages
34.90 euros
ISBN: 978-3033088719

Rath is also the author of the book on the ranking. The next edition of the book will be published with the cooperation of the Handelsblatt at the end of November as part of the publication of the next ranking of the 101 best hotels in Germany.

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