The eight holiday flats from the couple have been part of the Pretty Hôtels family since summer 2022. Not only are they ideally located between Lake Chiemsee and the Bavarian Alps, they also have the incomparable charm of two historic houses.
To be precise, it’s an ensemble of three buildings, as Angela and Marcus Schelling also live in a marvelous house opposite of their holiday apartments. Both are doctors. Angela used to work as an ENT specialist, Marcus works as a gynecologist and prenatal expert in Munich. He currently commutes between Munich and Lake Chiemsee.
We caught up with them on the terrace of their home, where during the summer they host a weekly aperitivo – with homemade natural sparkling wine made from quinces and apples, herbs and organically grown vegetables from their garden. Everything here is very organic and sustainable. Angela runs an organic beekeeping business – the beehives are picturesquely scattered across a meadow full of fruit trees – Marcus has started producing vinegar. The Albererhof’s own apples are stored in the cellar and a new grape jam has just been created for guests – all made by hand.
How does such a “business” actually start – it doesn’t really look like a business at all if you look around here?
Marcus: Actually quite naturally and almost by chance. We bought the old midwife’s house 20 years ago as a holiday home – for the weekend, to get out of the city. In 2011, we learnt that the house diagonally opposite, the old local police station, was for sale. We had always found the house interesting. At the time, we thought we could use it for the children and/or visitors. But when we crunched the numbers for the renovation, we quickly realized that it would be quite costly and that we needed some refinancing – either with flats that could be rented out permanently or with holiday flats.
Angela: I liked the idea of holiday flats much better because I’ve always been interested in furnishing and designing rooms. I love going to flea markets and interior design fairs and had already amassed a large collection of beautiful things that we used to furnish our own holiday home. I had also just had a small break in my professional life. I had sold my online shop for home accessories and furniture and could have gone back to practicing as a doctor – or taken on a new challenge: Renovating and renting out holiday flats.
Marcus: Angela has really travelled to every flea market – when you walk through these markets with her, she is approached by many traders because they know her: ‘Yes, look, I have something here and there…’. She has a great passion for unique and attractive pieces with a history and you can see that in the flats. We even lived in one of the holiday flats ourselves for six months. The reason was, that we didn’t have proper heating in our house and I always had to add wood to the stove at three in the morning. At some point I got fed up with that, so we moved over for the winter.
And then at some point we started renting out, a rather easy transition in the end.
Where do most of the guests come from?
Marcus: There are a few Swiss, sometimes a few Dutch, but otherwise they mainly come from northern Germany. Our weekly Aperitivo in the garden during the summer helps to get to know them and the guests are usually very open. That often leads to great conversations.
Angela: There are guests who are perhaps a little reserved at first glance, but when you get to know them, sometimes even friendships develop. We are really blessed with our guests. The people who stay with us appreciate something special and are also special themselves – in the best sense of the word. I always try to welcome all guests personally. I want to know who is staying with us. This is very important to me, apart from the fact that we have very interesting guests – just last week a very exciting artist stayed with us. You wouldn’t realize something like that unless you took care of it yourself.
What proportion of your guests are regulars?
Angela: At least 50 per cent. We even have guests who have been here ten times. From a purely economic point of view, this is of course an advantage, because they book directly for the same period again and you save on marketing. Apart from the fact that we are happy to see beloved guests again.
Another property was only added in summer 2021. The Albererhof – a house from 1767 …
Angela: The listed farm is one of the most beautiful buildings here in Übersee and used to be a smallholding. At the beginning of the 20th century, Maria Kreuz, who worked as the village midwife, lived here. I was recently visited by a 100-year-old lady from Übersee, who gave birth to her son in the kitchen, where the birth room used to be. This son accompanied her during her visit. What particularly touched me was that she gave me the birth certificate from 1945, which she had received at the time and carefully kept all these years. It now has a place of honor in the Albererhof.
What came as the biggest surprise for you in the rental business?
Angela: That I take such great pleasure in being a hostess and that it makes me deeply happy when we have satisfied guests. It’s a whole new kind of happiness.
So you can recommend starting a business like this?
Angela: Definitely.
Financially too?
Marcus: It’s not that easy. If you see it as your main source of income, you probably have to do a different cost calculation. Property prices here in the south of Germany are not the cheapest and if you don’t already own a suitable property, you have to invest a lot of money first.
But the value of the property also increases…
Marcus: That’s true. But you have to remind yourself that that money is fully invested during the “active” period, i.e. when you’re renting out holiday flats. The money is gone for the time being or is used for financing. Renting out is not a sure-fire success and without my income as a doctor, we probably wouldn’t have been able to start the business in this form.
So the guests benefit from the fact that it was “subsidized” by you….
Marcus: You could say that, yes. (Laughs)
Looking back, how important is it to be on site during the renovation?
Marcus: Very important. We renovated the Albererhof within six months. In hindsight, that’s hard to imagine. But that was because Angela was on site every day and also worked on it herself. If you are not constantly supervising, for example an electrician may come and go home again because a cable isn’t in the right place yet. If you’re there, the problem can often be solved together and progress can be made. And at some point you know your way around – which is always an advantage.
Angela: We even received a certificate of honor from the municipality for preserving the old gendarmerie and our midwife house. It’s important to us to preserve historic buildings that give a place its character and charm. We are naturally delighted when this is also appreciated by the local community. We have even saved parts of demolished buildings in the village and then reused them in our houses. Quite sustainable, I think.
Maybe that’s what makes a house like this so charming?
Angela: Yes, definitely. That’s why we are very happy to be part of the Pretty Hôtels family, where there are many of these hosts who value such things.
What does the future hold for the Albererhof and the Alte Gendarmerie?
Marcus: In the long term, I would also like to move here permanently. I realize how much I enjoy cooking for guests – especially with products that we produce ourselves. I’ve also already started producing my own non-alcoholic sparkling wine. Who knows, maybe we’ll have dinner together with our guests more often.
Please tell us three things that make a holiday with you at Lake Chiemsee so unique ….
Angela: Firstly, there’s the lake. Going for a swim in the morning with a view of the mountains is one of the most beautiful things there is. Then, for example, you can immediately set off by bike on beautiful, car-free tracks in the Alps. You could also combine this with a mountain tour – we even have a real gourmet hut at the top of the mountain, the Berghütte Stubn from Aschau. And thirdly, I would recommend taking a day trip to Salzburg by train. Salzburg is only 39 minutes away by train from our railway station in Übersee.
Contacts
Alte Gendarmerie
Dr. Angela Schelling
Max-Brunner Weg 1
Übersee am Chiemsee
Germany
Tel: +4917621154253
www.altegendarmerie-uebersee.de
©Pretty Hôtels
