Glion vs Les Roches: how the two Sommet Education schools differ

Glion and Les Roches are the second and third names in Swiss hotel education, they sit two and three in the main ranking of the field, and since 2016 they have had the same owner. A student who has decided on Switzerland and ruled out EHL, or been ruled out by it, usually ends up choosing between them. This page sets the two side by side on the facts the schools and their accreditors publish, says where the differences are real and where they are small, and ends with which student each suits. The individual pages on Glion and Les Roches carry the full detail and the sources.

The common owner

Both schools belong to Sommet Education. The American accreditor NECHE recorded in a 2021 report that Sommet Education acquired Glion in 2016, and Sommet’s own release on the 2026 QS results describes Glion as “Part of the Sommet Education network” and Les Roches as “Part of Sommet Education, worldwide leader in hospitality education.” Common ownership shows in small ways: Les Roches students can take a study period at Glion’s London campus, and the two schools announce their rankings together. It does not mean a common faculty, a common campus or a common degree. For the applicant the practical point is that the group has no reason to steer you toward one over the other, so the choice is yours to make on structure and geography.

Side by side

Sources for each row are on the two school pages and in the list at the end of this one. The QS positions were read through a third party reproduction of the 2026 table and checked against Sommet Education’s release, which carries the reputation scores.

Where the differences are real

Geography. This is the largest difference and the simplest. Glion’s third campus is in London; Les Roches’ second and third are in Marbella and Abu Dhabi. A student who wants Britain in the degree, for the market or for the work permit that may follow, has one choice. A student who wants Spain, Spanish, or the Gulf hotel market where several of the general managers in my books have run properties, has the other. Both Swiss campuses are in the French speaking part of the country, Glion and Bulle near Lake Geneva and Fribourg, Crans-Montana in Valais; the practical difference between them is a hillside above a lake and a resort village in the mountains.

Degree range. Glion’s Bachelor in Luxury Business is a degree built for the luxury sector as a whole, with luxury marketing, distribution and brand strategy in the curriculum and the same two internships as the hospitality degree. Les Roches has no equivalent at bachelor level; its luxury program is a master’s in marketing and management for luxury tourism. Les Roches in turn has a sports business bachelor and master’s degrees in sports and in entertainment and events that Glion does not. A student set on hotels will find the core hospitality degree at either; the difference is in what sits beside it.

Practical structure. Glion builds two six month internships into every undergraduate degree, a figure both the school’s brochure and NECHE’s report give. Les Roches builds one 20 week internship into the three year BSc, with a professional immersion available in the final semester, and offers the Preparatory Experiential Year before the degree for students who want a practical semester and a second internship first. A Les Roches student who takes the preparatory year ends up with four years and two internships, close to Glion’s total; one who skips it finishes a year sooner with less time in operations. Glion’s path is fixed; Les Roches’ is a choice.

Swiss recognition, by date. Both schools now hold the same federal status as University of Applied Sciences Institutes. Les Roches held it first; its seventieth anniversary release of September 2024 already names the Swiss Accreditation Council. Glion’s recognition came on 15 July 2025, after what the school describes as a two year evaluation. For a student applying now this is a difference of history rather than standing, but it explains why older comparisons list the two schools differently.

Where the differences are small

Ranking. Les Roches at second and Glion at third in QS 2026 are separated by half a point on employer reputation and a point and a half on academic reputation. Glion rose three places from 2025 to get there; Les Roches held its place. Neither movement says anything about a classroom. QS builds this table from reputation surveys and research citations, and CEOWORLD’s 2026 list, which puts Les Roches thirteenth and omits Glion, is a survey of a different population with a different weighting that also omits EHL. No authoritative world ranking of hotel schools exists that measures teaching or graduate outcomes directly.

Outcomes. Both schools claim 98 percent employment and alumni networks of sixteen to seventeen thousand. These are the schools’ own figures, unaudited, and almost identical. NECHE’s independent figure for Glion was “well over 90%.” Les Roches is more specific about who hires, naming Four Seasons repeatedly and quoting a Four Seasons regional vice president who graduated in 1989; Glion’s named employers lean toward luxury goods, which reflects the half of its alumni that NECHE records working outside hospitality.

Accreditation. Identical in kind: NECHE from the United States and federal institutional accreditation in Switzerland. A degree from either is a degree from a federally accredited Swiss institution, which is the line that separates these two schools and EHL from the Swiss schools that award degrees through British partner universities; the Swiss hotel schools page explains that line.

Who each school suits

Choose Glion if London matters, if you want luxury as a sector rather than hotels as a trade, or if you want the practical structure settled for you with two long internships and no decision about a preparatory year. Ralph Radtke, who ran Çırağan Palace Kempinski Istanbul when I interviewed him, is the one Glion graduate in my books, and his path through the school ran from Le Bristol in Paris, through two training periods at the Hotel Cipriani while enrolled, to the Ritz Paris afterward. His full account is on the Glion page.

Choose Les Roches if Spain or Abu Dhabi matters, if you want the option of a practical year before committing to the degree, if sports or events are a possible direction, or if Four Seasons is the group you have in mind, since no Swiss school names it more often. None of the hoteliers in my books attended Les Roches, though its dean of graduate studies endorsed the first of them; the honest connections are on the Les Roches page.

If neither geography nor degree range decides it, visit both. Marc C. Brugger, who chose EHL over a Paris business school, says the atmosphere of the campus settled it for him, and nothing in a comparison table can do that. Ask each school the same two questions: how many weeks a graduate has spent serving paying guests, and where last year’s class went by campus. Then read the second chapter of The Luxury of Attention, The Apprenticeship, on the years that follow either school.

“No one in this book taught themselves. Every master in these pages is the product of another master.” The Luxury of Attention (2026), Chapter 2

Sources

• Glion, home page
• Glion brochure, Bachelor in Luxury Business
• Hospitality Net, Glion awarded Swiss federal accreditation (July 2025)
• NECHE, Pit Stop 28: Glion Institute of Higher Education (September 2021)
• Les Roches, About
• Les Roches brochure, BSc in Global Hospitality Management
• Les Roches press kit (2019)
• Hospitality Net, Les Roches celebrates 70 years (September 2024)
• Hospitality Net, Sommet Education release on the 2026 QS rankings
• Reproduction of the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, Hospitality and Leisure Management
• CEOWORLD magazine, Best Hospitality and Hotel Management Schools in the World for 2026