Hotel Firefly

Opened on 6 December 2008 by the Kalbermatter family, Firefly began as an answer to hotels they had grown tired of: cramped rooms, fixed breakfast hours, no kitchen to fall back on. The result sits on Schluhmattstrasse, a short walk from Zermatt's centre and the valley's main ski gondola, with the Matterhorn visible from its upper floors. Sixteen suites and lofts range from 30 to 250 square metres, sleeping two to twelve, each with its own kitchen and most with a fireplace and private bathroom. The Skylight Loft, at 250 square metres with six double beds and five bathrooms, is the largest. Breakfast is ordered à la carte the night before and delivered to the room at whatever hour a guest names. Downstairs, the spa runs to a stainless-steel indoor pool lit in shifting colours, a salt grotto, an ice room and a fitness floor fitted with Nautilus and Technogym equipment. Bar55, the hotel's own bar, keeps long hours and stocks over 70 types of gin, alongside a smokers' lounge, a wine cellar for fondue and raclette, and a games room with darts and billiards. Dogs are welcome throughout. It is a family business still, run by Maria and Michael Kalbermatter with their children Lisa and Timo, and it reads as a house built around one household's idea of what a hotel should get right.