Earlier this year we loved our stay at Giardino Ascona therefore for an upcoming special occasion we thought it would be a good idea to book at Giardino Mountain.  In a previous review I called Giardino Ascona a hidden gem because it’s one of the lesser known category 8 hotels which nobody talks about; St.Moritz is a lot more known to the casual traveler so it’s not “hidden” and while the ownership of both Giardino properties is the same and both hotels are cat 8, I think the one in St.Moritz is a notch below Ascona at least in our experience.  It was good but not a “gem”, especially not if comparing with the competition which is more stiff in St.Moritz than in Ascona.

This was my third stay in St.Moritz so while I am not an expert of the area by any means, I do have some comparison points.  I previously stayed at Hotel Bären, Kempinski, and now Giardino Mountain.  I usually prefer hotel chains but I have to admit that St.Moritz has very strong independent properties to choose from.  

Location

Giardino Mountain’s location is not ideal because it’s actually in the neighboring village of Champfèr rather than in St.Moritz proper. To make up for this, the hotel offers a shuttle; their Range Rover can pick up guests from the St.Moritz train station upon arrival and drive guests to St.Moritz city center or various other locations on demand, including requesting pick-up at the end of the day from St.Moritz which was very convenient.  While the location is not perfect, I have personally found that in St.Moritz the premium for being right in town is a bit steep and I would rather have better hardware and better service a bit out of the way for the same price than lesser properties where you pay a premium for the location.  This is different than in some other destinations where I believe the premium for being in the middle of the action is well worth it. Kempinski is out of the way and Giardino even more so, and I have picked them based on value.

Room

While St.Moritz can be very nice in the summer for hiking, hotels are far busier in the winter so for our dates hotel occupancy was not very high.  I booked the “double room small” room type and was upgraded one category to a “double room large” room type, despite seeing junior suites available online. Technically speaking the Design Hotels are now included in the Marriott Platinum suite upgrade program so I think we should have been given a suite given low occupancy and also because we are Marriott Ambassador elites, and perhaps also since we were kind of repeat guests since we stayed in Ascona just two months prior.  Anyway I did not say anything because I was happy with any kind of upgrade, and just took the room we were offered but it was clearly less generous than in Ascona where we got a 2-category upgrade (below suite) when the hotel was full.  

Our room was not very big with only 25 square meters but better than the smaller room type I booked which is only 20 square meters. The hardware of our room was clearly better than in Ascona, particularly the bathroom which is very well done with stones in the walk-in shower floor, heated towel rack, and it just felt more fresh and more recent all around.  The entry door to the bathroom is perhaps a bit strange since it’s a glass door but the toilet door is a frosted glass door which was better.  In the bedroom the hardwood floor was as nice as in Ascona plus it has a floor heating system which we did not need at this time of year but it would be great when staying in the winter.  We had a small terrace outside but the view was blocked by a tree so not as enjoyable as in Ascona.  The room felt hot so in the night we had to open windows and doors to let some of the 10-15C air to come through, but the drawback is that we could hear some noise from the outside on occasion so we had to choose between noise or warm.  

Dining

Food in Ticino is usually fantastic so it was probably unfair to expect the same quality breakfast in St.Moritz than we had in Ascona despite both hotels being on the same level in theory.  The choice of fruits in St.Moritz was disappointing and fairly standard such as pineapples and melon, while Ascona had more choice such as strawberries and kiwi.  Ascona also had more variety of cheeses, pastries, cold salads, and hot dishes. Regarding cold salads in St.Moritz we liked the carrot salad, quinoa salad, and couscous salad but those from Ascona were more varied and a bit more creative.  The hot dishes in St.Moritz were similar to Ascona in a way (cooked fruits with nuts and spices or a mix of veggies) but there were more of them and more variation from one day to another in Ascona.  For example in St.Moritz on day 3 we were already back to the offerings of day 1.  Both Ascona and St.Moritz had excellent smoked salmon, but Ascona had baby shrimps and free flow Prosecco to top it off, neither of which were to be found in St.Moritz.  So overall a nice breakfast in St.Moritz, but you can find better elsewhere.  Fortunately our breakfast was free but it’s because it’s included in all cash rates at this hotel, rather than because it’s a Marriott Ambassador Elite perk.  I suspect those booking on points won’t get breakfast.

Service

Service in the restaurant was very good and some staff remembered our order from the day before.  Service at reception was excellent as well and staff did a good job explaining the various day tours available.  We received a free card to access gondolas and lifts in the various surrounding mountains which is offered by most 4-5 star hotels in St.Moritz during the summer if staying at least a couple of days.  This has decent value because going up to Piz Nair would normally cost about 100 CHF for a couple round-trip.  Having the hotel car available to go to St.Moritz on request was also quite useful and we did not have to wait, in fact if the driver was not available the hotel just called us a taxi which was provided for free. Service all around was on par with Ascona and perhaps a bit higher with only one (big) exception.  The hotel did not recognize our special occasion at all, despite being arranged ahead of time by my Ambassador so they clearly dropped the ball.  It did put some shadow on an otherwise good stay.  Regarding housekeeping they missed a few things for example they did not always empty the trash and they did not always refill the soap dispenser in the shower or near the sink when when they were nearly empty.

Wifi

Wifi was excellent with speeds of 40-60 Mbps.

Overall

Overall we had a good stay but there are so many great hotels in St.Moritz that the main draw of this property is to earn Marriott points and night credits, more so than elite perks since the 1-category room upgrade was nice but nothing to write home about, and breakfast was included in our rate.  In Ascona our experience was generally better and competition is more limited so upon returning to Ascona I will almost assuredly book at Giardino without shopping around, but in St.Moritz I might return to Giardino but I would be more inclined to consider alternatives.  I compared Ascona and St.Moritz in this review simply because they are part of the same mini-chain, but if we compare to other mountain destinations in Switzerland I also preferred our stay at W Verbier a few months ago which had considerably better elite recognition and the hardware was as nice as Giardino Mountain if not better, plus the fact that our suite was far bigger than our room in St.Moritz, not to mention that W Verbier did not drop the ball regarding service. So for the hotel alone I would probably pick W Verbier before Giardino Mountain, and regarding location W Verbier is in an ideal spot in the village unlike Giardino Mountain as mentioned above. In the winter it’s probably not an entirely fair comparison because W is more expensive than Giardino Mountain, but the rate difference in the summer is much smaller and in fact W can be cheaper at times, maybe in part because St.Moritz might have more to offer in terms of hiking and mountain biking than Verbier.  So all in all Giardino Mountain is a good Marriott option but it does not stand out as much as Giardino Ascona and if someone is looking for a Swiss mountain destination in general then you might do better at W Verbier than in Giardino Mountain in St.Moritz.