Bold steps produce great results
It all started with a small guesthouse in the Southern Tyrolean Ahrntal. Today, the Steger family runs a wellness resort comprising two hotels with a spa area covering an area of 5000 m2. Making this change requires a sure instinct regarding what guests want, persistence and the courage of being ahead of one's times – and embarking on daring experiments.
Even founder Johann Steger readily mucked in. Firmly rooted in the region, he recognised the potential of the Ahrn valley early on – even when its touristic attraction was still in its infancy. And hence it came to be that he not only set up the first three-star hotel with a pool, but also established a cable car company together with like-minded associates. Big visions for a small region.
A lot of mettle was needed to tackle such comprehensive projects in an area where tourism is so under-exploited and to offer luxurious features by the standards of the time, but the ambitious experiment simply had to succeed long-term. The biggest trial of courage in the history of the Steger hotel came in 2000: the merger of two separate businesses which the Steger family had previous built up under their own steam: The Linderhof sports hotel and the Hotel Alpenschlössl were linked together through extensive construction work and were given a large joint wellness area. “Quite deliberately, we kept separate receptions and dining rooms”, explains Siegfried Steger, son of the founding father Johann Steger and Managing Director of the Lindenhof, now rechristened the Lunaris. “We wanted to avoid creating huge and uninviting bar and restaurant areas at all
costs and were at great pains to retain the familiar atmosphere”. The investment was worth its while. Instead of frightening guests away, the concept behind the interlinked hotels, each with its own independent common area, is still to this day the most compelling hallmark of the wellness resort which constitutes part of the Southern Tyrolean “Belvita” initiative.
