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Irma Meister inherited Villa Ludwigsburg, a very attractive private residence dating back to 1898, in November 1924 and decided to transform it into a small guest-house with just over twenty rooms and only one bathroom. She gave the villa her own name, Irma, and her first guests were mainly holiday-makers from Germany and Austria plus a smaller number of Belgians and Dutch.The 1932 hotel brochure reads like this: Meran, very popular, well-known spa town in a lovely position with good air. Room and full-board with three generous meals and a roast every day..The guest-house was a great success and the building was enlarged for the first time in 1933 although traces of the original construction are still to be seen.Everything changed with the outbreak of the Second World War when the International Red Cross took over the Irma to use it as a hospital. Much of the original furnishings were lost at that time and a number of hoteliers, including Gottlieb Meister, the youngest male member of the family, left Meran as life became more and more difficult. Gottlieb travelled as far afield as Indonesia where he managed hotel Van Hengl in Bandung until the Japanese occupied the country. He was forced to leave at a moment's notice and was later taken prisoner. He was interred in a British prisoner-of-war camp on a British-held island where, with true hotelier instinct, he managed to open a bar of sorts. When he eventually got back to Meran in 1948, Gottlieb and his wife Lydia returned to managing the Irma. The hotel needed much re-building work before it could again welcome guests and the year 1954 saw the beginning of extensive re-furbishings.Gottlieb, of course, had excellent contacts abroad after the years he had spent in Indonesia and was one of the Meran people who helped develope the town as a modern tourist resort. He managed to bring more than six thousand holiday guests to the town in 1950 and many local hoteliers had him to thank that their rooms were full. He was also a member of the South Tyrol Hoteliers Association and taught at the local Hotel and Catering School of which he was also director for several years. Lydia, seen here on the left, insisted on good food for their guests and on a well-stocked wine cellar, too. Then, as now, fine food and good wines have been one of the most important features at Hotel Irma.A fourth floor was added to the hotel between 1957 and 1958, a lift was installed and all the new rooms had private facilities with bath or shower. The Irma was the first hotel in town to have its own private outdoor pool in 1960 as well as a lovely 12,000 sq. mt. landscaped garden.The fifth floor was added in 1966 and that same year saw plans being made for the first hotel indoor pool in South Tyrol. A traditional, seventeenth century wooden-panelled Stube was incorporated into the building in 1970 and the original outdoor pool was replaced by a much larger one in 1972.Gottlieb and another Meran hotelier, Lardschneider, then owner of Hotel Adria, were both tragically killed in a terrible car accident in the nearby Puster valley in 1971, just before the pool was ready to open.After some time spent working in various international hotels, Walter Meister returned to Meran in 1976 and took over the running of Hotel Irma together with his very talented wife Ilse. The garden bar near the outdoor pool was opened in the same year.The hotel expanded and was renovated and refurbished from year-to-year and its capacity increased to 147 beds including 52 singles and double rooms as well as a number of elegant suites.The reputation for fine food at Hotel Irma grew accordingly and the kitchen team won a number of gold medals at various Frankfurt International Cookery Exhibitions. The dining-room and reading rooms were renovated and remodernised and later South Tyrol's first solar system was also installed. Sports fan, Walter, insisted on having the town's first hotel tennis courts in 1979 and, in 1988, the park was re-designed and the spa health-and-beauty department and a large underground car park were ready. 1994 saw the appearance of South Tyrol's first sea-water adventure pool together with a very original, specially-designed sauna area. The hotel complex also included a library, wine cellar, new rooms, a bar and the breakfast terrace on the fourth floor as well as sun-beds and a romantic little lake where the hotel swans live. The Meister family bought a neighbouring 3,000 sq. mt. piece of land in the winter of 1997 to make a total of some 16,000 sq. mt. landscaped parkland.In 1999, the Meister family acquired a further building on the other side of the road which they originally planned to exchange for another property. A number of changes also took place behind the scenes when a new laundry was added in 2000 and the kitchen, store-rooms and the hotel office were remodernised in 2001. Nearby Villa Buenos Aires came on the market in the winter of that year and the Meister family decided to buy the very attractive, romantic little residence, too. Roman coins and other finds came to light during the on-going restoration of the villa, proof that the Romans also appreciated the mild climate and lovely natural surroundings of the area. Villa Buenos Aires was opened and re-named "Villa Amore“ in the year 2003 and the park was extended to include 18,000 sq. mt., making it the largest hotel park in the entire Meran area.The laundry was badly damaged by a fire in December 2004 and smoke seeped through into the spa department. The winter of 2005 was spent repairing and extending the spa and relaxation areas, making them lighter and more welcoming with wooden flooring and thick rugs, cosy sofas, candles and sumptuous curtains. Spring 2006 saw the appearance of a delightfully perfumed, romantic rose garden when the Irma garden staff planted something like four hundred precious rose bushes. Hardly a year passes at Hotel Irma without some rebuilding project or nother taking place as we improve, enlarge or remodel the already-existing hotel facilities. The Irma is not "complete" and never will be! We always have new ideas in store and never tire of wanting to change something although we still hold the traditional character of the house very dear in our hearts. Today, as a 4 star superior hotel, the Meister family's Hotel Irma counts as one of the very best hotels in the area, just as it did years ago when our grandmother was running everything and now, with fourth generation Alex and Claudia managing it, the Meister family intends to meet future challenges and do everything possible to ensure that their guests have a wonderful holiday here at Meister Hotel Irma.
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