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Barbara Reinisch is a dynamic and inspiring leader with over 20 years of fast-paced success and a proven track record of excellence. Driven by a passion to make sustainability a natural part of beauty, luxury, and the art of living and create a lasting impact, Barbara’s journey began from humble beginnings as a consultant. Her unwavering determination and commitment to hard work have propelled her to new heights.
Barbara’s Inspirational Journey
Barbara’s actual story began with a desire to have her hotel, driven by over 20 years of expertise as a consultant specializing in process analysis, improving processes, creating concepts for companies, focusing on facts, figures, and data, and negotiating with banks for companies to raise money. She consulted some hotels and found that a great concept is worthless if the general manager does not support and understand it.
So there came her wish for having her hotel. During a stay on one of her vacations, Barbara finally got the inspiring idea of how her own hotel should look. She was in love with Canadian log homes and thought it should be. Barbara found a spectacular property in Carinthia with the size of 14ha (140,000 sqm), and it took her years of getting the permissions to construct there, ordering architects, and f inding the right companies and partners to bring her heart project into reality. She found a Swiss Investment company that wanted to fund her project. At the end of the day, Barbara lost a lot of money—even the Swiss company betrayed her, and she did not get the required permissions to build up her resort in Carinthia.
In 2011, during a visit to the European Bike week in Carinthia, she met Andreas (her husband), moved to Styria, and adjusted the concept for a property owned by Andreas. Instead of Canadian log homes in Carinthia, they built modern luxury chalets focusing on high-end privacy and culinary delights in Styrian Tuscany. The property is near Graz airport, has a helicopter landing site, and is close to Michelin-star restaurants. One chalet, Goldfuchs, allows guests to bring their horses with a 600 m² paddock. Five exclusive country chalets, an extravagant premium chalet with a year-round heated infinity pool and a breathtaking, unique panorama loft with its own natural swimming pond and infinity pool were built in three stages over a period of 10 years. Each with private SPAs.
Barbara’s Excellence in Hospitality and Culinary: Driving Force
Barbara was drawn to this landscape because of a desire for superiority in quality, hospitality, and materials. She always focuses on delivering high-end experiences, owing it to herself and her guests. Anything less than superiority was seen as not aligning with their standards.
Maintain Personal Creativity and Inspiration
Barbara maintains her creativity and inspiration through curiosity and a process of analyzing and enhancing things. This automatic process contributes to creativity. The personal touch is crucial, knowing guests by name, their interests, family, and business. Guests become like friends, and Barbara and her team aim to leave no wish unanswered without relying on digital information to collect information. At Golden Hill, the guests are not a number; they are well-known persons.
Maintaining a Unique Identity and Excellence
According to Barbara, “It is not about ordinarily doing things, but doing them in an extraordinary way. Golden Hill maintains its identity and excellence across luxury accommodation and fine dining experiences by striving for the extraordinary in all aspects. Staff members, including the management, strive to go the extra mile every day to achieve extraordinary results in guest experiences and business excellence in accommodation.
Sustainability in Purchasing and Menu Decisions
Barbara places extreme importance on sustainability. Andreas, her husband, founded one of the largest sustainability awards in Austria, the “TRIGOS.” Golden Hill produces over 50% of its energy by using photovoltaic hot water through solar energy, earth- and air-heating systems, recycled rainwater, outdoor-saunas, and the f itness-cube are upcycled container and very importantly, the chalets are built from solid wood. Concerning menu decisions, the company gets most of the ingredients from the farmers close by, offering “regional culinary delights with an international touch.” They use fish from local waters, deer from a nearby private property, and beef from a local farmer. Imported products are generally used when needed due to seasonal limitations.
Barbara’s Take on Mentoring Team Members
Barbara has a small and well-trained team of two ladies who come and help her in the kitchen on Tuesday and Friday, when they have “Barbara’s private dining.” In summer, she offers young people the training opportunity through holiday interns so they can learn, watch, and grow. Barbara emphasizes that every team member is like a piece of a chain, where everybody must be strong for the team to function well. Team members in gardening, housekeeping, and the kitchen go the extra mile to do a great job.
Leadership Qualities in Luxury Hospitality
Barbara believes that in a modern luxury hospitality environment, leadership qualities like empathy, care, and mutual support are crucial. She treats her employees and team members like family, showing understanding for personal needs and emergencies. In other words, the team members support the company in times of need. This familiar approach fosters a strong and supportive work culture.
Latest Technologies and Innovations
Barbara and her team utilize a tool for creating offers for guests, allowing for the quick generation of well-designed, individual offers for guests. These tools also help manage statistics and waiting. Regarding digitalization’s impact on purchasing or inventory control, the team at Golden Hill is still using traditional methods with an old system despite available technologies. Golden Hill is experimenting with AI through a partnership with a specialized company to enhance visibility and be found quickly via AI technology.
Trends in Luxury Hospitality and Culinary
Barbara foresees trends happening in the industry in the coming years, including increased environmental awareness and guests’ emphasis on “sustainability” in vacation decisions. Guests value preserving the environment for future generations. Sustainability is a central component of corporate culture and a conscious lifestyle promoting well being.”
She also feels, health and longevity will become more and more important, influencing kitchens to serve healthy, low fat, high-protein food with a focus on natural ingredients. Luxury hospitality will remain important, valuing silence, natural materials, nature, and disconnecting from digital stress. Providers offering honest, warm-hearted services will succeed.
Evolution in the Role of Chefs
Barbara sees the role of chefs evolving in terms of sustainability, health, consciousness, and immersive guest experiences through a mindset that balances people, planet, and profit. This approach focuses on living in abundance and doing business for people in harmony with nature, prioritizing health, quality, innovation, regionality, ecology, fair trade, wellness, and f itness. These are not just buzzwords but central components. Leadership’s understanding of sustainability is crucial for chefs to consistently choose high-priced organic, sustainable food. The company believes leadership, kitchen operations, health consciousness, and immersive guest experiences need to align.
Building a Legacy
With Golden Hill, Barbara and her husband aim to create more than an exclusive retreat—a stage for surreal moments where nature, architecture, and emotion resonate in harmony and everyday life moves far away. The legacy is rooted in the vision that true luxury is quiet, conscious, and responsible towards nature and future generations.
Golden Hill represents a new kind of touch, enchants, and inspires. The goal is for guests to leave with a lasting experience they will carry in their hearts for a long time to come. Barbara and her husband want to be a “lighthouse” for a future in which sustainability is a natural part of beauty, luxury, and the art of living. Golden Hill—THE HIDEAWAYS HOTEL in Europe.
