Fairmont Hotels in Genf

Having visited geneva before and walked past this hotels frontage with its multiple lake view bars and restaurants on the 1st and 2nd floors I always wanted to stay and experience what always looked to me to be the hotel in the best spot on the lake. My wife and I stayed 3 nights for our wedding anniversary having dinner on the third night, the 13th December which was our anniversary, at Lou One - see separate review of that excellent restaurant - on the first floor with a panoramic glass front overlooking the lake as I’d always wanted to. Some people find the ‘modern’ 1970’s late brutalist architecture to be a turn off but I’ve got a soft spot for places like this (think also the QE2, or the Barbican in London). With the right combination of plush furnishings, continuous updates of modern design respecting the original design language where possible and great service there’s no disadvantage in my mind when comparing to the grand old palaces of the 19th century where I often think that because of the built in opulence the actual hotels don’t feel they have to try so hard. The staff we dealt with were excellent and all genuinely willing to please. The food we ate was delicious especially the breakfast pancakes and the honey fresh from the on site hive was a great touch. The room was immaculately clean with a superbly comfortable bed. The Mai Tais in the bar are excellent as was the service there. Was everything perfect? no. We had a disastrous experience at our first breakfast which was remedied with a bottle of champagne in our room and treatment like royalty the following two mornings - it’s not always what goes awry but how it’s handled is the name of the game. I would suggest that the breakfast experience would be better for staff and guests alike if guests were seated by the greeter and there was communication between waiting staff and the greeter to ensure tables are ready for each guest before letting them go in to an every man for himself free for all and be more willing to overspill into the lounge (which is a perfectly adequate setting for breakfast) in a more controlled fashion as it’s currently just stressful, chaotic and not working smoothly at all if it’s busy and you’ll have guests leaving on a sour note going on to write reviews - my first job was in a Hotel restaurant including breakfast time so I know of what I speak. The building itself internally is clean and more than adequately appointed for a 5 star hotel but is now rather dated - limited plug sockets in rooms and no USB sockets is a bit early 2000’s especially when you see the Ethernet connections available but at least there’s decent WiFi. Externally especially looking at the internal courtyard walls the old girl is very tired with high amounts of missing concrete cladding everywhere and if you look at the front main signage the ‘G’ & ‘R’ of ‘grand’ aren’t illuminated and the word ‘Kempinski’ has been removed leaving an awkward gap without any attempt at adding ‘Fairmo