History of our hotel
Often cities have a symbolic building. Some kind of icon. A reference sometimes more sentimental than aesthetic. A place linked to or who have been important personalities. At events too. Hotel la Prairie is all of these.
Certainly "La Prairie" has not always had easy days but it has always been able to exist thanks to the will, the commitment but above all the passion of three personalities: Otto Rohrer, Charles Decker and Jean-Claude Vagnières. Three businessmen who have no hotel training, but who in turn loved this place and made it one of the jewels of the region.
Throughout history, the thermal spring of Yverdon has played an important role in the tourist and economic activities of this small provincial town, well situated on the Swiss plateau. The evolution of La Prairie is intimately linked to that of hydrotherapy.
1840
Since all spa guests could not afford a hotel stay, in 1840 a boarding house - the first building on the Prairie - was built nearby.
Throughout this period, the Peytermann pension (La Prairie) lived with crises and revivals, in the shade or in the sun of the baths.
1899
La Prairie (Pension Peytermann) will retain this status until the arrival of a particularly dynamic new owner, Otto Rohrer, who wants to give the place splendor. He was the first to perceive the potential offered by the 62,000 m2 park surrounding the original building.
1903
Discovery of the La Prairie mineral spring, then called water of Yverdon, will then become Arkina.
1905-1910
Otto Rohrer aims to make this pension a real hotel. It was enlarged between 1905 and 1910, intended for more affluent customers.
1914-1918
The Great War (14-18) wiped out the European economy and hydrotherapy was hit hard. The Hôtel des Bains is threatened with disappearance.
1921
Puzant Masraff (Armenian businessman) acquired half of Otto Rohrer's property in 1921 and developed the La Prairie source, renamed Arkina, name of a famous source in Armenia.
1932
The Hôtel des Bains closed in 1932. La Prairie was the only establishment available to spa guests coming to the Bains d'Yverdon.
1939-1945
Although it hardly received tourists during the great world conflict which ravaged Europe, the Hotel la Prairie welcomed many soldiers, then refugees.
If the Prairie had lived in the wake of the Bains for a long time, it would be different in the post-war period. At the end of the conflict, the establishment is in a sad state.
Despite the efforts of Otto Rohrer's successors, his family failed to raise the resources necessary to renovate the hotel.
1946
It was under these circumstances that Charles Decker bought the hotel in 1948. It would become the place we talk about, the place where we pass, we eat, we entertain, the meeting place of good Yverdon society, but also one from which no one is excluded.
Charles Decker hires André and Eva Curchod. André aux fourneaux and his wife Eva at the reception, an inseparable couple from the longest prosperous period of the hotel.
1974
Jean-Paul Curchod took over La Prairie operations until the end of 1982.
After which Charles Decker (deceased in 2004), then his hoirie, put in management several successive operators, more or less happy.
2014
As the sky of this flagship hotel turned gray, Jean-Claude Vagnières took over the operation of the La Prairie hotel and bought it in early 2015.
He ensures a smooth transition with the staff in place, sharpens his strategy and prepares major works aimed at bringing this historic establishment to a level never reached until now.
We can speak of a real reconstruction of a good part of the hotel.
It now houses luxury air-conditioned rooms with spacious bathrooms, meeting rooms with all technical equipment and bright openings on the park.
