Family traditions of the Moar-Gut hotel (Grossarl, Austria)

25 ноября 2014




Austria is kind of a small quiet world inside the big world. Local people are surrounded with grand mountains and valleys and it seems like they are cut off from global problems. From year to year they carry on their ancient family traditions for their descendants with stability that is peculiar for Austrian mentality. These people delight foreigners with their inimitable love of life.
Of course, we knew that traditions are better saved in small towns and villages. That is why we tried to communicate with local people. Masters of the Moar-Gut hotel, Nora Kendlbacher and her grandfather Ferdinand Prommegger, became our most interesting interlocutors in Grossarl. They told us about principles of their family business, about specific nature of kinder-hotels, about family traditions, farming and, of course, about Austrian nature.

 Nora:
 «All started from the farm, which appeared in our family in 1914. Its territory was rather big and it made its masters to rent rooms for guests in the middle 60-es. At first the house was small, then gradually its square got bigger. My parents inherited this farm with the hotel. They decided to turn it into kinder-hotel. This format means that there is everything created for the family vacation: here we have kinder theatre, play spaces, swimming pool and family rooms with double beds and separate rooms for kids. Also we have a small zoo that doesn’t relate to kinder-hotel, but it can be visited by anyone.

We want to comply with the highest standards. There are only families among our clients; 60% Germans, 30% Austrians, the rest are from other countries, including Russia. We cook from local products. Vegetables, meat, dairy products – these all are local, nothing is imported. I think our food has a very high quality, it’s very important for us. Apart from that, we are satisfied with what we have now. For example, we don’t want to  expand the number of rooms even, if it gives more profit, as in this case we will lose our personal approach towards our guests.

Our family is a great team, we all live with the hotel, it has become our lifestyle. We have lunch together every day – this is our principle. Of course, the hotel is big and there might be many issues to solve, but all family members should have lunch together. My fathers is authority for us and we all listen to elder people in our family. I think that our stable and close-knit family is the integral part of our success.

If you have a goal and you know what you want, then it’s not difficult to do what you do; moreover in the case of family business. My life path was always clear for me from my childhood, nobody forced me to deal with the hotel, I decided it myself.

Also it’s very important for me stay with the nature alone. For example, I love going up to the mountains and looking at the beauty from there. This is fantastic feeling».


Ferdinand:

 «There was a time when it was difficult to be the resident of Grossarl. There were big families, the best ones should stay at farms, the others should leave. That time people had goals, they were stronger and they had more responsibility.

Those, who are living here now, consider themselves patriotic and genuine Austrians. Religion also affects our lifestyle. We don’t pray every day, like it used to be in the past, but in autumn we celebrate a special holiday, when we thank and honor God for everything. There are reputable persons here, whose opinion is always considered: priests, old teachers, head of village and big farmers.


At my time of life all farm work was done by hand. Only after Second World War technique appeared. To my mind, it’s better to do by hand rather that by machines. Now machines are substituting people. Moreover, people used to live at costs of their farms, but now many farmers have to work somewhere else. This is how new ideas (like creating hotels) appear. Then it all is passed to descendants as it is practiced in our family.


I think, it’s important to be honest with everyone, to be respected by others. You can’t sell your family house: you can build what you want but never sell – this is very important. It’s necessary to study, to have goals, to be proud of what you do and never forget native land and home. Never be afraid of life.  If you are standing on the land with both of your legs, all fears sooner or later will disappear».

© gayanat project, 2014