We had a wonderful stay in September. Tim was an excellent host-- very reasonable, helpful and otherwise personable.
We found out after our arrival that this appears to attract almost exclusively readers of Rick Steve's guides (admittedly this is how we found out about it, too). However, it turns out this demographic is largely retired people. While one couple our age was there, meals were shared with a group who had been making an annual pilgrimage since retirement and an Australian couple just passing through.
Tim did a great job communicating the possibility that dinner would not be cooked if Walter (the proprietor) didn't feel well or not enough people requested it, so it was no surprise when we needed to find our own meal at the pension down the street on the first night.
Tim also let us rent hiking poles (which turned out to be essential) very cheaply, and while we ended up on a bit of an ambitious hike considering our fitness level, we felt very prepared with Tim's advice and the map he drew.
There were no private rooms when we booked, but Tim let us take two beds in the quad room, which he kindly pushed together. No one rented the other two beds, but I wasn't sure whether Tim purposefully blocked them off for us or they just weren't filled. Either way, the view from the balcony was beautiful! The cows across the street wore bells that sounded like wind chimes, so for us city folk it was a happy medium between mountain quiet and street noise.
There are about 3-5 other B&B/pension/hostel-type establishments in the village part of Gimmelwald. Hotel Mittaghorn is a 5-minute walk uphill beyond the village (or 10-15 with luggage taking the longer but paved and less steep route). The entire village consists of about 20 buildings: 3-5 B&B/pension/hostels, and then a bunch of cottages and barns.
I'd return to Gimmelwald and Hotel Mittaghorn but I might split up my stay to see what the other places in the village are like. read more