Outdoor Spaces for Hotels
From the terrace and planting to the chlorine-free pool: we design, build and maintain the entire outdoor area – working hand in hand with your building services team.
The outdoor area is part of the promise
Guests choose a hotel for the overall impression – and that begins at the front door. For hotels, we take on the entire outdoor area: design, construction and maintenance, from the terrace and planting to the chlorine-free pool. Three hotels in the Bavarian Oberland on this page show what that looks like.
What we do for hotels
Everything that comes up in landscape gardening – as a complete service or as an individual trade.
The entire outdoor area
From arrival in the car park to the last corner of the sauna garden – paths, paved areas, walls, steps and green spaces.
Terraces and natural stone
Surfaces in natural stone and timber from our own joinery – surfaces that are walked on every day and stand up to it.
Planting
Perennials, trees and hedges, designed to look good for ten months rather than flower for two weeks.
Water
Swimming pond, Living Pool, plunge pools, spring stones, streams – chlorine-free or classic.
Roof and façade
Where there is no room at ground level, we go upwards: roof terraces and green roofs and green façades.
Technology in the background
Automatic irrigation and lighting – both belong in the design, not at the end.
Maintenance during operation
Long-term or as a supplement to your own team – scheduled around your occupancy plan.
Training your staff
We show your caretaking team and gardeners how the grounds work. More on this below.
It's best to talk early
The most common avoidable mistake in hotel projects is that we join too late. An example: with concrete pools, the structural contractor often builds the pool too – which makes sense. But the pipework, plant rooms and connections then have to suit the water treatment that goes in later. If that is only discussed afterwards, it becomes expensive or simply no longer possible.
The same applies to converting an existing pool into a natural pool: whether it works depends on pool volume, ground conditions, the space available for treatment and the plant room. We are happy to give this assessment before the design stage – even if the answer is sometimes that it doesn't make sense at that location.
An early appointment costs you nothing, and we then coordinate smoothly with the architect, the structural contractor and the other trades. Request an early assessment
Why hotels build chlorine-free
The reasons hoteliers give us are rarely romantic. They are about guest experience – no smell of chlorine in the sauna area, no irritated eyes after swimming – about running costs without buying chemicals or a dosing system, and about hotels whose whole concept is built around nature and health. A chlorinated pool simply doesn't fit that picture.
Technically, it is the same principle as in a private garden, only bigger and with tougher demands on availability: Living Pool with biological treatment instead of disinfection. As a Biotop partner with over 440 water features built, we design and build this – and, if you wish, take care of the service afterwards.
Naturhotel Tannerhof, Bayrischzell
The Tannerhof is a nature hotel and health resort on a slope above the Leitzach valley – founded in 1905, now run by the fifth generation of the family, with a view of the Wendelstein. In 2025, something unusual for the hotel industry was created there: instead of a large wellness complex, as originally planned, the project was deliberately scaled back – to a “Badeharpfe” and an outdoor pool.
The Badeharpfe is a long timber building modelled on Alpine hay-drying racks, designed by Florian Nagler Architekten, and houses a sauna, a relaxation room and fitness rooms. In front of it lies the pool: 25 × 5 metres in stainless steel, built by Berndorf Bäderbau – naturally cleaned instead of chlorinated, heated from April to October – and used for ice bathing in winter.
Our share is clearly defined: we supplied the Living Pool technology from Biotop and some landscaping work directly around the pool. The hotel's gardens and open spaces were not designed by Fuchs baut Gärten – we contributed the water.
The difference from a private garden comes down to one number: the biological treatment is designed for 30 bathers a day – the scale at which a hotel pool is planned. Our part was built in 17 days on site in June and July 2025.
| Hotel | Naturhotel & Gesundheitsresort Tannerhof, Bayrischzell |
| Clients | Burgi v. Mengershausen and Roger Brandes |
| Architecture | Florian Nagler Architekten |
| Pool | 25 × 5 m stainless steel outdoor pool by Berndorf Bäderbau |
| Water | naturally cleaned, chlorine-free |
| Design capacity | biological treatment for 30 bathers a day; around 175 m³, water depth 1.35 m |
| Operation | heated April to October, ice bathing in winter; with a roller cover since 2026 |
| Completion | 2025 – our part in 17 days on site, June/July |
| Our work | Living Pool technology (Biotop), landscaping work at the pool, steps and roller cover in 2025/26 – the system has been serviced by us ever since |
Information based on the hotel's press release and our construction documents. The full story with all the pictures: 25 metres without chlorine. More about the building from the hotel itself: The Badeharpfe · Summer at the Tannerhof · natur-hotel-tannerhof.de
A pool designed with winter in mind
What stands out at the Tannerhof is not the size, but the dual use: the same pool is a 25-metre swimming pool in summer and an ice bath in winter. That only works because the system stays filled all year and the treatment is biological – a chlorinated pool would have to be run differently.
For a hotel, that means one investment, two seasons. And for guests, an offering that hardly any hotel has in this form. If you are thinking about cold water yourself, we also offer ice baths and plunge pools as a stand-alone solution.
Hotel Bergeblick, Bad Tölz
Hotel Bergeblick sits above Bad Tölz on the Wackersberger Höhe. Here we built not one pool but five – each with a different purpose: a main pool of 15 × 5 metres with a roller cover, three small Living Pools of 2 × 3 metres each at the lodges, and in the sauna area a Gumpe, a plunge pool with a stone look in traditional Bavarian style.
Everything is built in exposed concrete, framed by timber decks, stone slabs and gravel. The water is treated without chlorine using Biotop filter technology; the three lodge pools share one pump circuit. The heat does not come from an additional system, but via a heat exchanger from the hotel's own wood-chip heating – up to around 25 °C.
| Hotel | Hotel BERGEBLICK, Bad Tölz |
| Pool | 5 – main pool 15 × 5 m, three lodge pools of 2 × 3 m each, one plunge pool |
| Construction | Exposed concrete with timber decks, stone slabs and gravel |
| Water | chlorine-free, Biotop filter technology; main pool with Grander water |
| Heating | Heat exchanger from the hotel's own wood-chip heating system, up to around 25 °C |
| Award | 3rd place Biotop Design Award 2024, Living Pool category |
| Our work | Design and construction of the water features |
“The company had already built my swimming pond and proved itself reliable and true to its word.”
Technical details and quote from the project by our partner Biotop. All the pictures and the full story: Fünf Becken für den Bergeblick. Visit the hotel: hotel-bergeblick.de. Photos: Victor Liska photography for Biotop.
The plunge pool in the sauna area
The plunge pool is our favourite part of this project. A stone-look plunge pool set into a room of raw concrete, indirectly lit – after the sauna, you step into it as if into a mountain stream. You can experience it in person, as the hotel is open to the public.
Pools like this are technically more demanding than they look: small volume, heavy use, low temperature – and still chlorine-free. This is exactly what Biotop technology is made for.
Alpenhof Murnau
The Alpenhof Murnau lies right on the Murnauer Moos, the largest surviving continuous bog in Central Europe. We have been involved with the grounds of this hotel for a long time: they were designed by Jan Vandebotermet – our colleague for twenty years – and built and maintained by us.
The heart of the grounds is the sauna courtyard: log cabins stand on plinths and between natural stone walls, with polygonal paving in large-format Hellas quartzite and large granite stones in between. The walls hold the beds on several levels and turn a slope into a place to linger. More pictures at Walls & Fences.
The second theme is the planting: the perennial beds by the pool and in the sauna courtyard are ours, with mountain pine, rusty-leaved alpenrose, Japanese anemone, hellebore, iris and many more perennials. You can see the wellness area on the hotel's website.
The full story with all the new pictures is in its own project page. With this project, the garden made the longlist of the Callwey competition Gärten des Jahres 2024.
For the sake of completeness: the outdoor pool itself is not ours – it was already there before we started. What surrounds it is ours.
The sauna courtyard at the Murnauer Moos
Log cabins, natural stone walls and large-format polygonal paving – the sauna courtyard at the Alpenhof Murnau shows what natural stone can do on a slope. The walls don't just hold back soil, they create levels: seating areas, beds, steps, a watercourse. Built as dry stone walls, with planting joints for perennials to grow into.
For a hotel, this is more than design. The courtyard is where guests sit between two sauna sessions – it has to be safe to walk on barefoot, safe in the rain, and still look good after twenty years. That is exactly why natural stone is the right material.
Perennial beds by the pool
By the pool, we created the perennial beds – the transition from the sunbathing area to the Murnauer Moos beyond. The planting picks up what grows in the surroundings and still remains a hotel garden: grasses swaying in the wind, Japanese anemones and hellebores for the late season, mountain pines as an evergreen framework.
Beds like these need more care than lawn, but they are interesting for ten months of the year. Because our maintenance team looks after them itself, they keep developing in the direction they were designed for.
Das Freudenberg on the Tegernsee
Not every hotel job is a new build. At Das Freudenberg on the Tegernsee, we take care of the maintenance – and it shows well what is different from a private garden: shaping the tall specimen trees above the lake terrace is only possible with a lorry, loader crane and work basket. The equipment stands on the drive of a hotel where guests are having breakfast at the same time.
That is why such jobs are planned not by the weather, but by occupancy: early in the day, outside meal times, with agreed routes and as few visits as possible. Afterwards the terrace is a terrace again – and that is the real measure of success.
Leonhard Unterstaller from our maintenance team was on site. If you need something like this for your hotel – regularly or as a one-off job with specialist equipment – get in touch.
Maintenance in a hotel means: respecting the business
A crane above the lake terrace is not a blemish, it is the reason this is possible at all: specimen trees of this height can't be trimmed from a ladder. What matters is that the equipment is there only briefly and that the schedule is agreed with the hotel.
We need very little for this: one contact person, a time window and clarity about which areas must stay free. What you get is a cut that lasts a year – and no discussions with guests.
What a natural pool means for hotel operations
Six points that regularly come up in conversations with hotels.
No chlorine on site
No disinfectants to store and dose – and no smell of chlorine overpowering everything in the sauna area.
Heat from existing systems
Heating can be linked to an existing heating system. At the Bergeblick, the wood-chip system takes care of it.
Two seasons
Filled all year round: a swimming pool in summer, an ice plunge pool in winter – as at the Tannerhof.
Fits the architecture
Stainless steel, exposed concrete, natural stone, timber deck: the technology disappears, and the design stays in the architect's hands.
Several pools, one circuit
Small lodge pools can be connected together. This saves plant room space and maintenance.
Predictable service
On request, we take on the seasonal service long-term – twice a year, with dates timed around your occupancy schedule.
And what you should know
A biologically treated pool is not a chlorinated pool with a different label. The water temperature is close to natural, at around 25 to 28 °C, the biology needs time to establish in spring, and hygiene is assessed under different rules than for DIN 19643 systems. For a hotel pool open to the public, we clarify this early with the public health authority – better before planning than after opening.
Working with your team
In a hotel, we are never the only ones looking after the outdoor areas. There is a caretaking team, often in-house gardeners, someone for the technical side. In our experience, it works best when we work with these people rather than alongside them.
In practice, that means two things. First, training: we show your team how a swimming pond is cleaned, what to watch for when maintaining a Living Pool, when each filter needs attention and what is better left alone. It isn't rocket science, but it needs to be shown properly once – after that, your hotel can manage well on its own day to day.
Second, a clear division of labour. In practice it usually looks like this: your caretaking team mows the lawn, and we take care of the perennials – simply because we know which perennials are planted where, which are cut back in spring and which stay standing over winter. In return, your team helps us with watering and keeps an eye on the grounds when we're not there. We agree who does what together beforehand – not when there's a dispute.
What carries all this is mundane and yet decisive: communication. A fixed contact person on both sides, short lines of communication for questions and a willingness to tell each other what stands out. The hotels we have worked with longest are exactly the ones where this works.
How we work with hotels
Most often we join a project that already has an architect. That is the normal case and it works well: the design stays with the architect, and we contribute hydraulics, filtration, water treatment and the pool surroundings and coordinate with the other trades. At the Tannerhof, our part was exactly that – the technology and the work on the pool, not the design of the hotel.
But we also work as a full-service provider when a hotel wants its garden and water features from a single source. And we work discreetly in the background when another firm is managing the construction – there is more on this on the For businesses page.
We are most useful early on. Whether a pool can run chlorine-free depends on volume, frequency of use, temperature and plant room space – and that can be clarified before the design, not after.
Landhaus Benediktenhof, Arzbach
The swimming pond at Landhaus Benediktenhof in Arzbach near Bad Tölz is one of the oldest we have built – and it is still in use. When the hotel needed more water surface, we renovated it once rather than replacing it. Built in 1996, renewed in 2016 – twenty years of continuous use, then a complete overhaul: the liner was dirty and the regeneration zone had become completely overgrown. We cleared it out and replanted it, removed the old liner, reworked the walls, smoothed the foundation, laid new timber on the jetty and welded in new liners. The shape and location stayed the same, because the whole hotel grounds resemble a natural garden. Today it has 70 m² of water surface: 30 m² swimming area, 40 m² regeneration zone, 2.0 m deep.
This is exactly what sets a swimming pond apart from a technical pool: the sealing, substrate and filter media can be renewed, while the established planting stays in place. Afterwards the pond is up to date technically – but it doesn't look brand new. For a hotel that has lived off its garden for decades, that is the decisive point.
If you would like to see a swimming pond in long-term use before building your own: this one can be visited by arrangement – find out more under Water in the garden.
Nine views of a pond from 1996
Swimming in the water is Fred Fuchs, the father of our owner – for decades he designed natural gardens for us, including the party retreat in Lenggries. There are also photos taken after the renewal: reeds and purple loosestrife on the bank, water lilies in the shallows, the timber jetty, the stainless steel ladder into the swimming area. The last picture shows something you would never normally see – the open technical chamber beneath the timber deck. The submersible pump sits underwater inside it, and the water flows to it without pressure. That is exactly why you hear nothing at the edge of the pond, even though the technology is working a metre away – and why the pump does not have to be removed in winter.
The picture above shows the pond in earlier years; the photos below were taken after the renewal. The full story: The swimming pond at Benediktenhof.
Posthotel Hofherr, Königsdorf
Not every hotel project is a new build: the inner courtyard of Posthotel Hofherr already had a natural swimming pond – in 2023 we renovated it and renewed the entire water technology. What it looks like: Chlorine-free in the middle of the village.
Inns & beer gardens
The region's inns are among our clients too. In 2017 we rebuilt the beer garden for the Klosterbrauerei Reutberg in Sachsenkam (klosterbrauerei-reutberg.de): granite setts laid in arcs, steps and edging – robust enough for five hundred guests on a summer evening. At the Floßwirt in Lenggries (flosswirt-lenggries.com), the greenery around the beer garden is ours – yew and privet hedges, planted in 2019. And at the Zehenthof in Kirchheim we built the beer garden of the farm brewery Zehmerbräu (zehmerbräu.de), plus the new courtyard terrace in 2023.
And one special case: at the Arzbacher Hof in Arzbach (arzbacherhof.de), just a few minutes from our company, we designed and built the entrance – and inside, we have been holding our Christmas parties for years.
More commercial projects
Besides hotels, we built the water technology for the Marina de Monaco in Munich, two municipal natural outdoor swimming pools and the company garden of the Rudolf Group in Geretsried (rudolf.com). For special projects we also travel further – so far to South Tyrol, Salzburg, Kitzbühel, Corsica and Sardinia, among other places.
Related: Living Pool · Swimming pond · Ice bath & plunge pool · Natural outdoor swimming pool for municipalities
More impressions: hotels
Answers about hotels
Do you also take on the entire outdoor space for hotels?
When should we bring you into the project?
Do you work with our caretaker and our gardeners?
Can a hotel pool be run without chlorine?
How warm does the water get in a natural pool?
Can the same pool be used for ice bathing in winter?
Which pool materials are an option?
Do you work with the hotel's architect?
Do you also do maintenance alone, without having built the project?
Do you also take care of servicing?
What are the hygiene requirements for a hotel pool?
Let's talk about your project
We are happy to advise you in person, with no obligation.
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