Inside Huus Quell, a New High-Tech Wellness Retreat in the Swiss Alps

4 min read

The petite village of Gonten sits at nearly 3,000 feet above sea level in Appenzell, Switzerland’s smallest canton, about an hour east of Zurich. Its 1,400 residents still lead flower-crowned cows down from alpine pastures each autumn. Citizens still gather in an open field to vote by a show of hands. Into this tranquil setting, local entrepreneur Jan Schoch has introduced Huus Quell, a five-star wellness retreat welcoming travelers from around the world. After a soft opening with 30 rooms a few months ago, an additional 43 suites are scheduled to open up in 2026 along with the property’s private residences.

Schoch spent years working in finance in New York and Zurich before returning to Appenzell, where he began quietly assembling what he calls a “lifestyle wellness community,” starting with Huus Bären, a 400-year-old inn that was one of Switzerland’s oldest guesthouses and the site of his parents’ wedding, which he restored and reopened in 2020. A neighboring property, Huus Löwen, followed in 2023. But it was Huus Quell that was always the final destination in his mind.

“It started with a question: can you build something truly modern using only traditional knowledge? In Appenzell, timber construction was once a highly skilled craft, but it had almost disappeared,” Schoch tells T&C. “I wanted to bring that back, not as nostalgia, but as a serious architectural system.”

Huus QuellNot only is Huus Quell the first Leading Hotel of the World property in the Appenzell region, but it was the first establishment to be named to the international organization before it even opened.

Designed by Rüssli Architects, the firm that also designed the Swiss Embassy in Washington D.C., the hotel’s timber-frame construction is built entirely from locally harvested moon wood and uses an ancient Appenzell technique in which massive interlocking beams are joined without a single nail or metal fastener. The hotel’s management quips they look like life-size Jenga pieces. The building is designed to be disassembled and its materials reused. “The use of moon wood, the joinery without nails or glue—it was all about proving that heritage techniques could meet today’s expectations for comfort, precision, and longevity,” Schoch says.

Nikolai Wirsing

The timber structures interlock through a centuries-old technique—no metal fasteners required.

Swiss design house Jakob Schlaepfer, based in nearby St. Gallen and also a textile supplier for Dior and Chanel, produced new fabrics and linens exclusively for the property, which appear throughout the rooms and common spaces alongside the moon wood structural elements. “In most hotels, the materials are decorative. Here, the wood you see is the building—it’s carrying the weight, shaping the space, influencing the air and even the acoustics,” Schoch explains. Combined with the textiles from Jakob Schlaepfer and other textile producers, it creates something that feels very specific to this part of Switzerland, not just visually but sensorially.”

Huus Quell

The guest rooms begin at 258 square feet for a superior single king and rise to 462-square-foot suites with separate living areas.

Huus Quell

Each room comes stocked with Appenzell mineral water sourced on site, a hiking backpack for exploring the surrounding trails, and an umbrella.

The Botanicum Bar is another talking point: head bartender Elmir Medunjanin has eliminated nearly all imported ingredients, rebuilding the cocktail menu from 70 locally grown herbs, regional fruits, and botanicals. A request for a Coca-Cola is answered with sparkling water infused with Artemisia abrotanum, a flowering plant whose aromatic profile approximates the familiar taste through entirely natural means. (That said, the hotel does keep a well-stocked full bar, just out of public view. All guests need to do is ask.)

Huus Quell

The art installation on the ceiling of the Botanicum Bar uses an AI program to mimic the weather, whether it is sunny or cloudy, outside.

“Appenzell hasn’t been reshaped for tourism, it’s still defined by its customs, its craft, and its pace of life,” Schoch says. “Whether it’s the way the hotel is built, the food coming from nearby producers, or simply hearing the sounds of the valley in the morning, there’s a sense of continuity here that’s becoming quite rare. My hope is that guests leave not just having stayed somewhere beautiful but having understood something about this region—how it lives, and why it has endured the way it has.”

Huus Quell

The wine cellar requires a retinal scan to enter, a level of security that feels more akin to entering a Swiss bank in Zurich. But the system is in place for good reason: It’s Switzerland’s second-largest hotel wine cellar, with more than 25,000 bottles.

Perhaps the hotel’s most ambitious proposition is its spa. Luxury ski resorts, especially, have been super-boosting their spas to answer the biohacking movement. And while the Huus Quell isn’t a ski resort, the Quell Spa is ready for the biohackers. “It’s not [for] a typical spa guest. It’s someone who is curious about how things are made, how the body works, how to feel better in a more lasting way,” Schoch says. “The stay is designed to slow people down, but also to give them something more structured. The wellness here isn’t just relaxation—it’s about understanding your own rhythms, whether that’s through the longevity program or simply being in a place where everything is very intentional.”

Occupying 23,000 square feet across three levels, the spa contains nine pools, eight saunas and steam grottos, 14 treatment rooms, and a floating yoga platform. The outdoor and heated rooftop pool also offers panoramic views of the Alpstein massif, a subgroup of the Appenzell Alps.

Huus Quell

Powered by geothermal wells, solar arrays, and a spring water cooling system, the retreat operates entirely on renewable energy.

What distinguishes the spa from the growing number of high-end wellness facilities across Europe, according to Schoch, is a program called the L3 Long Lasting Lifestyle Circle, a five-stage biohacking protocol designed not as a menu of optional treatments but as a sequenced physiological system. The program includes time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to support cellular repair and cognitive function as well as a brief session in a cryotherapy room set at -166°F/-110°C, to reset the nervous system and reduce inflammation.

Huus Quell

Schoch says the spa is “not just a collection of facilities—it’s designed as a progression…If you follow that rhythm, it changes how you feel in a more lasting way.”

“I felt that a lot of luxury hotels had become interchangeable. You could be anywhere in the world and have the same experience,” Schoch says. “Here, the idea was to create something that couldn’t exist anywhere else. The materials come from this region, the techniques belong to this region, and even the wellness philosophy is rooted in how people here have lived for generations—just translated into a contemporary framework. So sustainable and authentic at the very highest level globally.”

Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.