Opened in November 2021 by the Oetker Collection — the only Geneva hotel where every room is a suite (26 in total), behind a 1901 Beaux-Arts façade on Quai Wilson 37. Le Jardinier holds one Michelin star under chef Olivier Jean; the 1,000-square-metre Guerlain spa is the most ambitious in central Geneva. The contemporary palace answer to the city's historic ones.
"The first Geneva grand hotel of the twenty-first century — Oetker Collection's 2021 opening on Quai Wilson, the only hotel in Switzerland where every room is a suite, behind a restored 1901 Beaux-Arts façade. Le Jardinier holds one Michelin star and the Guerlain spa is the most ambitious wellness floor in central Geneva. The headline new arrival in the city's grand-hotel programme since the Mandarin Oriental's 2010 reopening."
The Woodward opened in November 2021 — the headline new arrival in Geneva's grand-hotel programme since the Mandarin Oriental's 2010 renovation, and the first true twenty-first-century palace-grade addition to the city. The property occupies the former Le Richemond hotel building on Quai Wilson 37 (a 1901 Beaux-Arts envelope on the lake-promenade boulevard, three blocks from Cornavin railway station and four from the Quai du Mont-Blanc grand-hotel cluster) and was acquired by the Oetker Collection in 2018. The Oetker family — Bavarian-German owners of the Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa Baden-Baden, the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc Antibes, the Cheval Blanc St-Tropez (former), and the Bristol Paris — commissioned the architect-decorator Pierre-Yves Rochon (the same designer behind the Four Seasons des Bergues 2014–2016 renovation) to gut the interior and rebuild the property as the Oetker Collection's first Swiss flagship.
The defining proposition is the all-suite configuration: the Woodward has only 26 rooms, every one of them a suite — the only hotel in Geneva, and one of very few in continental Europe, to operate this way. Suite categories run from Junior Suites (60 square metres) through Premier Suites (90 square metres), Heritage Suites (130 square metres), the Penthouse Suite (250 square metres with a terrace overlooking the lake), and the Royal Penthouse Suite (450 square metres, the entire top floor, two bedrooms, a private gym, a private spa room with a dedicated steam-and-sauna programme, a private dining room for ten, and a wraparound terrace with the panoramic Lake Geneva view). Pierre-Yves Rochon's interior is restrained-classical with refined contemporary detailing — Carrara marble bathrooms, French parquet, brass-and-bronze fittings, custom upholstery in soft-grey and ivory, and a light palette that reads as the most refined contemporary palace-hotel idiom in continental Europe.
Le Jardinier is the hotel's flagship restaurant — vegetable-forward modern French fine dining under chef Olivier Jean (formerly executive chef at Le Bernardin in New York). The room is the ground-floor dining hall with a contemporary garden-conservatory aesthetic; Le Jardinier was awarded one Michelin star in the 2023 Switzerland guide and has retained it since. L'Atelier Robuchon Geneva (the city's only Joël Robuchon-named restaurant) operates as the hotel's secondary dining room — the counter-service-and-tasting-bar idiom that has defined the Robuchon group across Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Las Vegas, and Bangkok. The Bar des Lumières is the lobby cocktail venue; the Salon Verde is the morning and afternoon-tea space.
The Guerlain Spa at the Woodward is the most ambitious in-city wellness programme in Geneva — 1,000 square metres on three floors, eight treatment rooms, a 17-metre indoor swimming pool, a hammam, a sauna, a vitality pool, the Guerlain skincare-and-treatment programme as the spa house standard (the Guerlain group's flagship Swiss spa partnership), and a fitness studio with a personal-training programme. The hotel runs longer wellness-stay packages alongside the standard suite-based bookings; the spa's treatments-only operating philosophy (no medical-clinic infrastructure) positions it as the romantic-and-honeymoon answer to La Réserve's Nescens longevity programme. By any honest measure, the Woodward is the most accomplished new luxury hotel opening in Switzerland this decade and the contemporary-palace answer in a city dominated by historic ones.
For Geneva honeymoons the Woodward is the contemporary-palace answer. The combination is unique in the city: every room a suite (the smallest 60 square metres), Le Jardinier's Michelin-starred vegetable-forward programme, the 1,000-square-metre Guerlain spa, the lake-view Penthouse Suite, and the all-suite operating philosophy that makes every booking a milestone-grade stay by default. Junior Suites and Premier Suites are the central honeymoon bookings; the Penthouse Suite for the milestone version.
For Geneva city-stay wellness retreats the Woodward is the strongest in-city answer — 1,000 square metres of Guerlain Spa, the 17-metre indoor pool, the eight treatment rooms, and the romantic-and-honeymoon-grade operating philosophy. The Woodward is the Guerlain spa-and-suite alternative for guests who don't want La Réserve's medical-clinic environment. The longer two-to-five-night Guerlain wellness packages are the central booking proposition.
For Geneva anniversaries the Woodward calibrates as the contemporary-suite answer to the historic-room alternatives. Junior Suites for a quiet anniversary weekend, Heritage Suites for a milestone year, the Penthouse Suite or Royal Penthouse for a major one. Le Jardinier at dinner is the city's most decorated new restaurant of the past five years; L'Atelier Robuchon is the most considered counter-service tasting programme in Switzerland; the Guerlain spa is the supporting layer.
Quai Wilson 37
1211 Geneva
Switzerland
Cornavin station 8 minutes; Quai du Mont-Blanc grand-hotel cluster 4 minutes; Mont-Blanc Bridge to Old Town 6 minutes; UN Palais des Nations 12 minutes by foot or 5 by tram
26 suites (all suites)
Junior Suites from CHF 1,150/night
Premier Suites from CHF 1,650/night
Heritage Suites from CHF 2,800/night
Penthouse Suite from CHF 9,500/night
Royal Penthouse Suite from CHF 22,000/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Opened November 2021 by the Oetker Collection in a restored 1901 Beaux-Arts envelope; Le Jardinier 1 Michelin star since 2023
Le Jardinier (1 Michelin star)
L'Atelier Robuchon Geneva
Bar des Lumières, Salon Verde
Guerlain Spa (1,000 m²)
17 m indoor pool, hammam, sauna
All-suite configuration (26 suites)
Oetker Collection elite-status programme
From CHF 1,150/night for the entry-level Junior Suite. Premier Suites and Heritage Suites book three to four months ahead for spring and autumn weekends; the Penthouse Suite and Royal Penthouse Suite book six months ahead for the entire calendar year.
Book This Hotel →Opened 1834 — the oldest hotel in Geneva, on Quai des Bergues facing the Rhône and the Jet d'Eau. The historic answer to the Woodward's contemporary palace.
Michel Reybier's lakeside flagship in a four-hectare private park, with Tsé Fung's Michelin star and the Nescens medical spa.
230 rooms next door on Quai Wilson, with the 1,800 m² Royal Penthouse Suite — among the most expensive hotel suites in the world.