Championing the art of simplicity

If you were putting together a business plan for a perfect place to build a luxury hotel, you probably wouldn’t choose the location of FORESTIS, in the Italian Dolomites. The hotel sits by itself on a steeply sloping, forested mountainside, at 1,800m altitude, far above the valley below. While views are spectacular and the surrounding nature is untouched by human development, there is no village or town next-door. Access is up a winding mountain road; and once you are there, there is little to do except be there. 

And that is exactly how Stefan Hinteregger, who developed the property in its current incarnation between 2016 and 2020, wants it. The hotel is a luxury natural retreat that preaches “the art of simplicity” and every element, from the construction materials to the facilities – and the closeness to nature – is part of a plan to create a hotel that is the antithesis of many luxury hotels today.  

“I sleep with my curtains open and many of our guests do, too,” says Stefan. It’s a quote that is arresting in its summary of the philosophy of the hotel he has created: in a world where hospitality companies compete against each other to provide the blackest blackout curtains, here guests are encouraged to open up to nature. 

The connection with nature runs throughout: the hotel generates its own power, materials throughout are sourced from the local forest and mountainside and it is deliberately spare: not only free of Alpine kitsch, but free of any sort of artwork or decoration (that would require materials and air miles). The cuisine in the restaurant is focussed on ingredients from the surrounding forest. 

 To go with this counterintuitive, almost anti-luxury luxury with a spartan twist, is the Hintereggers’ philosophy. Stefan and his wife, Teresa Hinteregger, took the site over from Stefan’s father, Alois, who had stumbled across an abandoned sanatorium high in the mountains of the Alto Adige, in northern Italy, and turned it into a small hotel in 2010. Stefan and Teresa took over in 2016, with a plan to develop and expand, but rather than identifying a target market and theirrequirements, they did the opposite. “We both travel a lot, and we kept thinking about what we ourselves would like best at FORESTIS. In this decision-making process Teresa and I thought only of ourselves, not about guests. The more you think of your guests when planning your concept, the less authentic it becomes.” He continues: “In the end, the guests notice this and therefore it achieves nothing.”  

 The Hintereggers combined this unconventional philosophy with a thorough sustainability strategy. They needed to expand the building, and did so by painstakingly designing, seeking permission for, and building three towers no taller than the surrounding treetops, so as not to expand the footprint. All wood used was local, stone was local dolomite – which was also processed using a local mechanism so it could be applied in a variety of ways – and all the fabrics were woven locally, in Trentino. As much as possible of the stone, wood and glass in the original building was reused during the four-year reconstruction.

Hinteregger is a true believer in the project; when asked if he would do anything differently, he responds simply that they would do everything the same way if they had to start again now. “One of the biggest challenges for us was opening in the middle of the pandemic. We and our employees had to work with masks for almost two years, which was not easy and exhausting. But during that time, we learned to smile with our eyes. And our guests were wonderful.”

 The hotel uses a 100 per cent carbon neutral and renewable biomass energy system for all its power, with certified pellets for heating, a photovoltaic system, and any electricity they purchase comes from a certified electricity provider that supplies green energy. They also use their own water, drawn from the mountain, throughout.  

Did they ever calculate the cost of ensuring the project was, in his words, as sustainable as possible? “We do not ask ourselves this question, because ignoring sustainability is not an option,” he says. 

It is common knowledge that the pandemic made recruitment and retention in the hospitality industry harder than ever before, as many workers left their jobs, never to come back. With the additional challenge of being in a remote location, the owners had to invest significantly in making their resort attractive for the level of staff they needed to attract and retain. They bought and remodelled an existing building near the hotel, in FORESTIS style, creating 28 flats, an indoor pool, a roof terrace and a fitness room, for staff, which opened in 2023. Staff in the flats have the same view as guests in the hotel, across the forest to the peaks beyond. They also created 38 more staff flats adjacent to the main hotel building, with the same views, and access to the pool and facilities at the other staff building. Such significant investments pay off, say the Hintereggers, and mean that staff recruitment is often done in the best possible way, by word of mouth.

The Hintereggers’ uncompromising vision has served them well: the hotel has won multiple plaudits and commands among the highest room rates of the Dolomites region. And yet it does so with no golf or tennis, no glamorous resort village attached, no family appeal – children are not allowed – and no spectacular art to draw in guests.

FORESTIS now has 120 employees and, from 2024, a new private hire villa in the deep forest above the main building. It was all born out of belief, not a business plan, and anyone in the hospitality industry knows how challenging it is to create a successful new luxury hotel, particularly one with such high standards for sustainability. 

 What is the USP that he and Teresa hit upon? “People nowadays are no longer looking for entertainment, our guests mostly come from the city. They don’t want to be entertained – quite the opposite: they have a very strong need for retreat and relaxation. We want to convey a deeper understanding of silence here. This includes living according to the rhythm of nature.” He gives the example of many guests following their lead and going to bed with the curtains open: “Getting up and going to bed with nature is so simple, yet is one of the central aspects of sustainable recuperation. I have the feeling that people have never sought or needed to distance themselves from the everyday as much as they do today.”