In 1869/70 Bucher & Durrer built their first hotel, the Sonnenberg-Hotel in Engelberg. They sold it at a profit after a year. In 1871 Bucher purchased the lakeside Trittalp meadow located on a ridge on the Bürgenstock (mountain). Here he built the 220 bed Grand Hotel Kurhaus, subsequently renamed Grand Hotel Bürgenstock, which opened in 1873. Bucher oversaw the construction himself. The luxury hotel was a success, which led to expansion. Between 1887 and 1905 the Bürgenstock Hotel grew into a substantial hotel resort-complex. In order to improve access to the inherently inaccessible mountaintop hotel, a funicular railway, claimed to be the first electric railway in Switzerland, was opened in 1888. After early technical challenges had been overcome, the funicular became a highly effective tourist magnet. The Bürgenstock also featured electric lighting and electric elevators many years before these features became mainstream, and long before public power supplies became the norm. Bucher built a hydro-electric generating plant, which came into operation in 1886/87, for the growing complex. An additional use for the power supply came with the construction in 1905 of the remarkable Hammetschwand Lift / Elevator, an outdoor device that carries visitors up a vertical distance of more than 100 meters on order to access a look-out position with views across Lake Lucerne.