Nathalie Seiler-Hayez to Take Up Reins at Swiss Deluxe Hotels

Zurich, Switzerland, March 29, 2023 / TRAVELINDEX / The board of Swiss Deluxe Hotels – the group of the 39 most exclusive 5-star hotels in Switzerland – has appointed Nathalie Seiler-Hayez as its new managing director. She succeeds Jan E. Brucker, who will pass on the baton at the next General Meeting in Interlaken on 26 June 2023.

Jan E. Brucker has played an influential role in shaping the development of Swiss Deluxe Hotels in recent years. As managing director, he has been responsible for the business of Swiss Deluxe Hotels for three years, having served as the association’s president for ten years and vice president for three years. He was the face of the Widder Hotel in Zurich for 19 years as general manager, but now wants to devote himself to his own projects with his company Brucker Hospitality Consulting.

Nathalie Seiler-Hayez managed the historic Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne for seven years. A graduate of the EHL Hospitality Business School, she began her career at the Hôtel Lutetia in Paris in Sales & Marketing. She then relocated to New York and worked for Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. On her return to Europe, she was appointed general manager of the Radisson Blu Champs Elysées Hotel and supervised the opening of the InterContinental Bordeaux – Le Grand Hotel in 2007. In 2010, Nathalie Seiler-Hayez assumed the running of the renowned Connaught in London. Back in Switzerland, she was named “Hotelière of the Year” in the Sonntagszeitung’s hotel rating of 2018, and, under her management, the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne was named “Hotel of the Year” by Gault&Millau in 2022.

“I feel very connected to this wonderful association, which does so much to promote the luxury hotel sector in Switzerland and provide hoteliers with solutions in a rapidly changing world,” says Nathalie Seiler-Hayez.

The selection process by the board of Swiss Deluxe Hotels saw her application for the post of general manager prevail over the other candidates with a variety of professional backgrounds.

“It is, for us, a great pleasure and an honour to have found in Nathalie Seiler-Hayez a managing director with a proven track record, who brings the experience from the international luxury hotel industry and at the same time knows the needs and demands of the members of Swiss Deluxe Hotels,” says Michael Smithuis, President of Swiss Deluxe Hotels and general manager of the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace in Montreux. “Maintaining the amicable and collegial atmosphere among the members – what we call the Amicale – is a key element of our association, and hence one of the priorities of Nathalie Seiler-Hayez as the incoming managing director.”