Venues
The Appenzeller Huus Is GaultMillau's Hotel of the Year — and It's in a Village of 1,500 People
5 min read
The alphorns came first, three of them in the garden. Then a man in full Appenzell dress, rolling a coin around an earthenware bowl (Talerschwingen) until it rang and singing over the top of it — a Zäuerli, the wordless Appenzell yodel. There is no shortage of culture in this corner of Switzerland.
That was the warm-up. Then GaultMillau named the Appenzeller Huus its Hotel of the Year 2027 — in Gonten, a village of 1,500 people with one church. From the rooftop pool you look straight at its spire, and behind it the Alpstein.
Three Houses, Not One Hotel
The Appenzeller Huus isn't a building, it's three of them. HUUS BÄREN 1602 is the oldest structure in Gonten. HUUS LÖWEN 1878 sits alongside it. HUUS QUELL is the new one, holding the spa and the rooftop pool.
It's the project of Jan Schoch, who came out of finance and chose a village most people pass through on the way to somewhere else. The new work is traditional Appenzeller timber frame built from Mondholz — moon wood, felled on a particular phase of the lunar cycle — and assembled without nails or screws. In the old houses, ceilings and floors are under Denkmalschutz and can't be altered: 120 million francs of building work stops at certain doors.
"De Wii Muess Drunke Werde"
Seven cellars, and a Kellermeister — Hans Rhyner — who could easily have turned them into a trophy cabinet and didn't.
De Keller sell kes Museum si, de Wii muess drunke werde — und zwar hie.
The cellar shouldn't be a museum; the wine has to be drunk — and drunk here. He means the last part literally: you can't buy a bottle and carry it home. That rule sounds restrictive until you see what's on the racks. One shelf holds a Richebourg Grand Cru from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, and three bottles of Leroy's Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru 2007 lying side by side.
Inside the cellar there's a round room, curved in wood like the inside of a barrel, with a single table under a chandelier of glass droplets: the Chef's Table im Weinfass. On the scheduled evenings it seats nine — six courses from Michael Gollenz, wine pairings, and a winemaker hosting the table. Booked privately it takes ten.
The Kitchen
Executive chef Michael Gollenz cooked at the ceremony himself, alongside the house's catering team: ravioli finishing in brown butter at one station, a tartare being plated at another, a dessert of green herb sorbet over crumble and fruit. International in feel rather than strictly Appenzell, and genuinely good. GaultMillau gave his kitchen 16 points at its debut.
The à la carte rooms are Bärenstobe for the fine dining, Löwenstobe for something more casual, and Quell for sharing plates.
Botanicum
The bar works almost entirely with local ingredients and is already on The World's 50 Best watch list. Overhead, a hand-crumpled copper cloud hangs the length of the room, low enough over the counter that it changes how the whole space sounds.
Quell Spa
2,200 square metres over three levels, and a rooftop pool with the Säntis in front of you. The programme is branded L3 — Long Lasting Lifestyle and splits three ways: Wellbeing (massage and treatments), Activity & Nature (yoga, trail running, coaching), and Holistic Health, which is where the equipment lives — a cryo chamber at minus 110°C, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, MCS and the Flow System.
One Thing to Know Before You Book
If you're picturing a winter offsite with skiing attached, adjust: this is cross-country terrain, not downhill. The Loipe Gonten runs 20 km of skating and 35 km of classic trails from the Loipenhöttli at 900 m, and the Kronberg has the longest toboggan run in eastern Switzerland. The village lift, Alpsteinblick, is a beginners' slope rather than a ski area — real downhill means driving to Toggenburg and Wildhaus, roughly three quarters of an hour away.
For most groups that's fine, and arguably better. But it's the wrong base for a ski week, and worth saying out loud.
Booking It for Your Own Event
This is where it gets interesting for anyone planning an offsite:
- Kronbergsaal (HUUS QUELL) — 90 m², 22 to 60 people depending on the setup
- Löwensaal (HUUS LÖWEN 1878) — 100 m², 26 to 80 people
- Boardroom Appenzell (HUUS BÄREN 1602) — 29 m², 12 people
- Boardroom Gonten (HUUS BÄREN 1602) — 23 m², 8 people
- Chef's Table im Weinfass — up to 10 people, minimum consumption applies
Gonten sits on the Appenzeller Bahnen line, five minutes from Appenzell and hourly. From Zürich it's just under two hours with one change at Gossau SG; from Bern, a little over three. No car required, which matters if there's wine involved.
Weighing it against something closer to town? We've also rounded up where to host a corporate event in Zurich and the most unusual wedding venues in Switzerland.
Our Take
It's a new gem, and the setting does half the work. Appenzell already has the culture and the history — the traditions, the cheese, the landscape — and the Huus gives you somewhere to sit inside all of it. For a team offsite or a milestone weekend it's close to ideal. And it's the rare place we'd go back to on an ordinary weekend, rather than saving it for an occasion.
Photo credits
- All photos: Meetz, Gonten, 23–24 August 2026.
- Award, investment figure and the 16-point rating as reported by GaultMillau.
- Winter and trail information from Appenzellerland Tourismus and Loipe Gonten.
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