Before arrival from Italy, the host remarked that we should "be kind" and get tested, which we had. We were an American family traveling during Omicron and were very careful about testing requirements wherever we went. Our daughter had recently finished a semester abroad in Switzerland and we were traveling with a party of four so we could pick her up and bring her home, which also meant that we had a lot of luggage to carry. We had documentation of being boostered and fully vaccinated and tested in Italy two days before our arrival to Interlaken but because the host insisted that we get tested again, we stood in the cold rain in Florence for two hours the night before our arrival. All Swiss and Italian train conductors, etc. said that was not necessary but we did so out of respect for our host. In addition, the host required that we pay 200 francs in cash and hand it over to a woman who did not speak English the day of our arrival to Interlaken. We arrived on a weekend so getting to a bank immediately after travel was complicated but we did as instructed (very stressful!). We were not comfortable traveling with a large amount of cash and were using mostly credit cards as most travelers do. We inquired as to why we had to hand over cash upon arrival for the deposit and why they couldn't just use our credit card and were not given an adequate answer. Furthermore, the host said she had to stop by Christmas day for inspection (two days into our visit) but we pushed back saying that it was a family holiday. She relented and said she would come the next day. This impacted our plans to visit other places during our stay. And then, she failed to show at all! The personality of the host was untenable. We are what I consider to be a nice family and were hoping to receive a warm welcome to Switzerland. All of our other stay hosts were delightful and warm and the transactions went smooth.
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