It was a pleasure to talk to Hans Jörg Buff about his latest project Buff Medical Resort, a new luxury health resort next to the beautiful Bodensee lake in Germany
Tell us how you started your career, how was your beginning, did you always want to become a hotelier?
I grew up as a son of a hotelier in St. Moritz. My father Jean Jacques and my mother Margherita started their hotel Nolda in 1968 and in 1990 they added the second one hotel Noldapark. When I was young I wanted to be a Pilot and I never thought to become a hotelier. I studied economics in Zürich and made my diploma in the eighties. Then I worked for privat banks in Zürich as a dealer on the stock exchange. Later on I quit the banking career and went towards the hotel business. I learned the hotel business, learning by doing, for two years I worked in a hotel and ended up to be a director in a 4 Star Hotel in Zürich. After these experiences I went into my parents business for two years, then I left there because my parents still were young and they did not wanted to go in pension as early. Then I went into Import – Export business and founded my first company, doing business with Latvia, I imported shoes and exported wood for the tile industry to make pallets in Italy. Then I sold the business because I got married to my wife Gunda. We went back to St. Moritz and opened a discotheque and one coffee-bar. That was the start for my hotel career, step by step I bought several hotels with restaurants and clubs. This is now the Swiss Mountain Hotel Group.
With your Swiss Mountain Hotel Group you have a wonderful hotel selection, how many hotels do you have and how do you usually choose the location for your hotels?
At the moment we have six hotels from which five are located in the beautiful Engadin valley. One hotel is located in Bivio just 20 minutes drive over the Julier Pass, this hotel is managed by my daughter Celine and her husband Abiner. The location to chose for me is very simpel. I search, I go and have a look, I fall in „love“ and I try to buy it.
You have an exciting new project, a luxury wellness resort in Germany tell us bit about it?
Seven years ago I got a call from an agent which I always had a relation to. He is a well aged person and he had my words in memory. „if one day you will find a location where a big hotel could be realised, but only on a tripple A location“ get in touch with me. In 2015 he called me up and wanted to see me in Konstanz for a coffee. We met on a Sunday and walked around an unbelievable peace of land at the southside directly on the lake of Konstanz, the so called Konstanzertrichter in the best part of the town called musician quarter. 39000 square meters green land to build a hotel in a old park called the Büdinger Park, who was hosting a hotel 100 years ago, this hotel has been teared down in the 1970.
What can guests expect and for who would you say it’s the ideal place to visit?
Our guests can be sure tho visit the best medical Resort worldwide. We will offer on the medical side the combination of detox with FX Mayer, we will be the only one to offer analysis of your walking, then we will be the only one to have an MRT, with one of the best experts in analysis of your heart and bloodstreams. In every room or suite we will be able to produce air composition as of up to 5000 m height, which helps the Cells to grow better. Our SPA will offer a 25 m outdoor pool, an indoor pool of 15 m and all the other facilities that a SPA should offer. Every guest will be feeling at home, all our rooms are looking towards the south side and the lake. Our ideal guest will be the women and men who would like to stay as long as possible in good health, learn how to move every day to maintain the gained fitness. I am sure once you have visited the Buff Medical Resort in Konstanz, you will come back to our family.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt in your career?
Don’t talk, do it. Be honest and try to stay near to the nature, which was made by god.
What are your top 3 business tips?
The business tips I could give are:
- a) Invest in what you know.
- b) Think big and be always focussed on what your goal is.
- c) Do it and thank god for every day
What is one motto you live by?
Take always care of your family and forgive faults, because everyone is making mistakes.
Hans Jörg Buff
Buff Medical Resort is planned to open its doors in Q3 2024 and specialises in the topics of detoxification, nutrition, cardiology and beauty to offer the worlds best health resort.
