With a portfolio spanning icons such as Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, The Lanesborough and Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, finding new landmark properties with the same allure was always going to take time. “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Oetker Collection’s Timo Gruenert muses. “It’s challenging, and then incredibly rewarding when you find one.” 

And he’s found not one but two, having just opened Oetker Collection’s 11th property and first Italian Masterpiece Hotel, Hotel La Palma, with The Vineta Hotel in Palm Beach following in late 2024. It took a 10-year search to find the latter, and while developments continue in south Florida, for now Gruenert’s attention is on Capri.

The original Hotel La Palma opened in 1822 and it has been transformed into an elegant 50-key Mediterranean retreat under the direction of interior designer Francis Sultana, offering a rooftop restaurant and bar, beach club, pool deck, spa and fashion boutiques.

With footholds across Europe, the UK, Brazil and the Caribbean, Oetker Collection looks for new destinations where existing clients already stay with other luxury brands. Gruenert explains: “Capri and Palm Beach are right on the top of that list. Italy is one of the most sought-after countries for international travel, and Capri is just the best place we could go now.” His future wish list contains the A-list haunts of Aspen, Saint Tropez, the Italian Lakes and Rome.

He compares the development of a hotel to a “typical masterpiece” such as a painting or haute couture dress, which demand attention to detail and craftsmanship. “We try to translate that concept into the world of hospitality. So every hotel is very different, with its own DNA and philosophy.”

Uniting them is the brand’s values, which have been embedded since Rudolf August Oetker bought Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa in 1941. Gruenert explains: “There are three values: a strong family spirit, elegance and genuine kindness.” Today the Oetker family own four of the group’s properties, with the remainder managed by Oetker Collection.

Balancing act

Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc and Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa celebrated their 150th anniversaries recently, and Gruenert explains: “It’s a constant challenge to develop them so that they don’t get old, while at the same time respecting their heritage. It’s my key job to push not for change for the sake of changing, but to take some risks here and there.”

Keeping Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc fresh is the new Dior Spa Eden-Roc, which opened in April offering exclusive treatments inspired by the local landscape, preceded by new Italian restaurant Giovanni’s in May, and 50 renovated suites. “If you have reached such a position as Hotel du Cap, you have to do a lot to keep it there,” Gruenert notes.

Agents remain a “very important piece of the business” for Gruenert, and when Oetker Collection invited trade partners to a live announcement for Hotel La Palma two years ago, it resulted in 20% of the first season being booked within a week. “Our partners are so happy there’s new product coming in, and it’s new product in combination with a reliable partner.

“They don’t exactly know how it’s going to look. But they know what they can expect, and that it will be good for their clients.” Gruenert hopes the openings will help promote the brand to a wider audience within its existing markets, with 35% of guests coming from North America and 10% from the UK.

Sustainability is another major focus for Gruenert, whose mantra is that “luxury hotels have to become good corporate citizens.” Alongside a detailed overarching CSR strategy, each hotel champions its own initiatives. Jumby Bay Island is installing solar panels and leads a project to protect hawksbill sea turtle species on the island, while Eden Rock – St Barths partners with local organisations to restore the island’s coral reefs. Many hotels have their own gardens, hydroponics areas and farms to grow vegetables.

Five years ago, Oetker Collection introduced an annual responsible purchasing questionnaire to monitor suppliers’ sustainability performance, which has resulted in improvements among suppliers. “We have a certain power to change things. Suppliers want to work with us, and we have to tell them under what prerequisites,” Gruenert explains.

His target is to reach carbon neutrality, which he admits “is not easily done”, but he’s positive, adding: “I believe becoming more sustainable overall – including all social aspects – is the sum of many, many small actions.”