There are places where time doesn’t simply pass — it leaves its mark.
In the heart of Courmayeur, among quiet alleyways and stone houses, with a view towards the majestic Mont Blanc, our story begins in 1882.
At the time, Courmayeur was a genuine alpine village, shaped by well-defined seasons, farming, pioneering mountaineers and families who experienced the mountains as an integral part of their identity. It was the era when Edward Whymper and the great alpine explorers were redefining the relationship between man and the peaks — and the Aosta Valley was already drawing those who sought something larger than themselves.
It was in that context that Jean Laurent Berthod built the Maison of the “Moro” — the nickname by which the family was known in the village.
It was a living house: home, workplace and place of welcome all at once. During the summer, when the air grew milder and the first travellers came up to the Aosta Valley to breathe the alpine climate, four apartments were rented out to visitors. It wasn’t yet a hotel, but it was already hospitality — genuine, direct, built on gestures more than words.
And this is where everything began.
Growth Without Losing Its Soul
In 1960, Giuseppe, the founder’s grandson, together with his wife Graziella, introduced the bed & breakfast concept to Courmayeur for the very first time. A near-revolutionary idea for those years, a time when Italy was rediscovering domestic tourism and the Alps were becoming the destination of the first middle-class holidays. But their intuition wasn’t commercial — it was, above all, a calling to welcome others.
Over the years, the property grew alongside the village. New rooms arrived, spaces dedicated to families, a relaxation area carved out of the ancient stone cellars — those same spaces that once stored provisions and tools, and today preserve the wellbeing of guests.
In 2004, the family decided to expand further by restoring the old Mignon building, now a annexe connected to the main house by an underground tunnel. A discreet intervention, almost subterranean in the most literal sense: growing without disrupting, expanding while remaining at the heart of the village.
In 2018, the “Les Crottes” spa — whose name evokes the ancient caves carved into the rock — was renovated and enlarged: hot tub, sauna, steam room, relaxation area. A suspended space, where time slows down and the body finds its own rhythm again after the efforts of the mountain.
Even in 2020, during one of the most difficult moments the world had seen in decades, we chose to invest in hospitality — making it smoother, more modern, more attentive to the rhythms of our guests. Because stopping was never an option: there was still a story to write.
Every renovation, every expansion, every improvement has had a single goal: to enhance comfort, without ever losing the original spirit.
The Mountain, Inside and Outside the Hotel
Staying at Hotel Berthod means experiencing Courmayeur in an authentic way.
In winter, the village dresses in white. Skiers head out early, boots echo in the heated ski room, the air is crisp and clean. Courmayeur is one of the most captivating ski resorts in the Alps, with over 110 km of slopes and a view of Mont Blanc that takes your breath away — even on the hundredth time. After a day on the slopes, returning to the hotel means warm herbal teas, the scent of wood and an evening of spa relaxation.
In summer, the rhythm changes. Mont Blanc reveals itself, the trails fill with footsteps and breathless gasps, and the horizon opens wide. Guests set off with their backpacks, ready to walk the stages of the Tour du Mont Blanc — one of the most celebrated treks in the world, crossing three countries and offering views that stay with you forever — or to explore the forests and landscapes of the Aosta Valley. When they return, they share emotions, encounters, exhaustion and wonder. It’s in those stories that a little of our own history lives on.
Our central location allows guests to experience Courmayeur on foot, among artisan shops, traditional restaurants where fontina cheese and soupe valpellinentze are always at home, and glimpses that tell centuries of alpine history. Here, the mountain is not just a view — it’s a way of life.
Hospitality as tradition
Since 1882, many things have changed. The world has transformed, tourism has reinvented itself, technology has reshaped the way we travel and choose where to stay. But what truly matters has not changed.
Family management is not a marketing line. It is daily presence — knowing guests by name, suggesting the least crowded trail or the perfect slope based on the day’s snow. It is the kind of attention that cannot be learned from hospitality manuals, but is passed down from generation to generation — along with the house keys and the sense of responsibility towards everyone who crosses the threshold.
To welcome someone means to make them feel part of the home. And perhaps this is precisely what has made Hotel Berthod special for over a century: not just the location, not just the services, but the continuity of a family that has chosen, day after day, to share its mountain with those who arrive from far away.
At the foot of Mont Blanc, our story continues. With the same passion as always.
A Door always open
There are journeys chosen for the destination. And others remembered for how they made you feel — that sensation, difficult to describe but impossible to forget, of having been truly welcomed.
If you are looking for a place to genuinely experience the mountain — in the silence of winter, on the high-altitude trails, amid the scent of wood and the warmth of sincere hospitality — the doors of Hotel Berthod are open. As they have been for over 140 years.
Here, in the heart of Courmayeur, every stay is an encounter: with nature, with tradition, with the authentic rhythm of the mountain. And with a family that has never stopped believing that the best place to make someone feel is the one where they feel at home — even far from home.
We look forward to welcoming you. The way you’d wait for someone you know.