Original Hotels

The Grand Daddy Hotel is a luxurious four star hotel full of the newest technologies and an impressive decoration. Both creativity and magic rule in this hotel in Cape Town, in South Africa.

This curious hotel has several different types of rooms. Prices vary according to the type of rooms and season, but during the low season, a double room can cost around 85€ per person per night, while a trailer can reach 140€ per person per night.

The superior rooms are the most chic rooms at this hotel. Each superior room has air conditioning and its own marble bathroom. The interior design is full of silver details and African motives, such as carved figures on the bedposts. Furthermore, a large black globe stands proudly in the room, with fine silver lines indicating the countries one should visit next.

Another type of room are the two Sugar Daddy suites. These luxurious suites, each one of them with a private patio, an elegant living room and plasma televisions, are full of technology and intricate design. Each suite has a kingsized bed and a luxurious bathroom.

The penthouse of this curious hotel resembles a wide rooftop with several exclusive vintage trailers. All seven of these trailers, or American Airstreams, have been refurbished in order to be able to accommodate two people, and each room has been designed by a local artist. All the trailers at the top of the hotel have breathtaking views to the world below. From the rooftop, one can observe the Mesa Mountain situated in the Kirstenboch National Botanical Gardens. Each one of the trailers has its own double bed and a bathroom.

All of the trailers have been designed and redecorated by a team of local artists. Each trailer has its own theme, all of them definitely rather eccentric and original.

The Afro Funk room is decorated with traditional African motives and draped in colors of the dessert. Love of Lace is a quirky room decorated in light pink colors, and has a large boudoir. The Dorothy room is another room with light blue walls decorated with extra large polka dots, where everything is decorated in the same way, and even the tea cups sport decorations of polka dots in several tones of blue. In the Goldilocks room, characteristically enough, everything is multiplied by three, and many figures of bears can be found in the room. The Ballad of John&Yoko is a rather large and curious room dedicated solely to music, with an extra large bed and several musical instruments. The Pleasantville room serves as an iconic reminder of the 1950’s decade, and is furnished with 1950’s materials and furniture. The Earthcote room is a room dedicated to the Earth, with peaceful colors and several layers symbolizing the layers of our planet.

Each one of the trailers has its own small front garden, decorated with a small mailbox and other small details. During the summer months, visitors can walk across their gardens and visit the Pink Flamingo Cinema, a free open air cinema on the roof.

The Grand Daddy Hotel has its own bar and restaurant. The Daddy Cool Bar is one of the most renown bars in the region, decorated with light colored leather furniture, golden decorations and shiny metal tables. The bar has a truly exquisite wine and whisky menu. Next to the bar one may find a curious digital art and photography gallery. Furthermore, the hotel restaurant, the Showroom Café, is the ideal place for one to taste a different breakfast every day. This restaurant offers its clients a wide variety of home made food and organic products, as well as many local foods, such as fresh fish or large steaks.

The Cartuja de Cazalla hotel is a small and slightly unusual hotel in an ancient charterhouse in Cazalla de la Sierra, in Seville, Spain. The century old Carthusian monastery used to belong to the Order of the Carthusians, and is located in the Northern Sierra of Seville.

The hotel is located in a very quiet and picturesque place. The historical monastery was built on a natural plateau, which in turn has thick walls and a 30 mere cliff guarding its perimeter. Those tourists who would like to stay here will have the best views of the Sierra Morena, and will enjoy sundowns and sunrises from the very heart of the Sevillian Sierra.

Near the hotel, tourists can find a natural water source and enjoy the amazing views around them. This site is considered to be a site of historical importance, since centuries ago it was a holy place for religious gatherings. Studies have managed to confirm that this site already existed before the Phoenicians opened the Silver Route. Nearby, one can still find the ruins of antique mosques and houses dating from the VIIIth Century, as well as some old mills.

The old building where the hotel is now used to be a mosque, and later on became a hunting house for the King. By the start of the XVth century, the building became the Monastery of the Jeronimos, and by the end of the XVth Century, the monastery became the Monastery of the Carthusian Order. The small decorated chapel then became known as the Pilgrim Chapel.

In the 1970’s, the building was bought, and was conserved as an historic building which housed the Center of Contemporary Art and Culture. It wasn’t until years later that the building was transformed into a small and comfortable hotel.

The hotel has a total of four suites in the monastery, as well as two individual rooms and eight double rooms in a small annex called the Hospederia. Each bedroom has its own ensuite bathroom and comfortable furniture. Another house on the hotels territory, the Gardeners House, is ideal for accommodating large families or groups, and has two bedrooms, a large living room, a kitchen and a bathroom.

Price per night can vary depending on the type of room or the season. An individual room costs 50€ per night, while a double room costs 80€ per night. Each suite costs 120€ per night, while the Gardeners House, which can accommodate up to five people, costs 300€ a night. Each extra bed costs 17€. However, prices can change, and cost per night is lower after the first night.

The hotel also has its own restaurant, where one can try and savour the best local meals. Most of the products used are ecologic, including poultry, meat, eggs and even vegetables, which grow in the hotel gardens.

This historic place also offers its guests many entertainment options. Guests can take long walks around the countryside, watch the sundowns and sunrises, and relax in the hotel garden. This hotel also organizes several art exhibits and even has a concert room. The hotel also has its own art gallery which has several different art collections by various local artists, and guests can enjoy arts and crafts classes. Guests can also participate in activities such as swimming in the hotel pool or horseriding.

The Hotel Residenza D’Arte is a romantic and poetic luxury hotel in Italy. The hotel follows an art theme and has several paintings exhibited in its halls, and many different art expositions take place in this hotel. The Residenza D’Arte is an original hotel ideal for those who enjoy the tranquility of the Italian countryside and who want to relax amongst the many art paintings that fill the hotel’s walls.

As one steps into this magical hotel one immediately realizes that this hotel lives and breathes art. This artistic and unusual hotel is located near Sienna, and the rustic building is flanked by hundred year old olive trees.

The hotel can be found on a hill full of cypress and olive trees, a rather inspiring panorama for the many artists who designed this hotel. The reception hall is a grand hall with wooden tables and carved chairs, stone walls and sculptures that decorate the walls. The rooms are designed in a variety of styles, colors and shapes. The hotel also has its own park, ideal for those who like taking long walks or who enjoy painting.

The hotel has three different types of rooms, each one with its own particular paintings and its own bathroom. Prices can vary between 400 and 550€ per night. The Junior Rooms are a set of comfortable rooms full of paintings and all the necessary comforts for a luxurious stay. The Superior Rooms are larger rooms with their own entrance hall and all kinds if luxurious details. The Suites are more like a set of luxurious apartments with two big rooms and a living room connected by a wide hall.

The hotel is exquisitely decorated with a large variety of  paintings in may different styles, sculptures, arches, marble floors and stone walls, all of which have been recently renovated. Each room has a double bed, a renovated bathroom, a fridge and a plasma TV, and most of the rooms have their own private entrance from the small park.

The Hotel Residenza D’Arte offers its guests a wide range of services and activities. One can enjoy a guided excursion to the charming neighboring town of Torrita di Siena, a XIVth Century town. Guests can also participate in painting and cooking classes, go on trips around Siena, relax on weekends at the Montepulciano spa, enjoy horse riding or bicycle routes, as well as renting luxury cars and visiting Siena, Montepulciano, Montalcino and Chianti.

Furthermore, fashion lovers are in for a treat. Only 45 minutes away from the hotel one can find the best outlet shops of the most exclusive Italian brand names, such as Gucci, Valentino, Giorgio Armani, Agnona, Bottega Veneta, Ermenegildo Zegna and Salvatore Ferragamo, amongst many others. One can buy their products at a 70% discount rate and hire a chauffeur who will transport them to and from the hotel.

The Qbic hotel chain has three different hotels in three different Benelux cities. Those three curious and low budget hotels are located in Amsterdam, Antwerp and Maastricht.

All three Qbic hotels are low cost hotels designed by a group of artists, and they are ideal for groups who want to stay in those cities for a couple of days. Price per person per night starts from 69€, including all taxes, but guests are encouraged to book in advance since there may be lower fares.

Each room, called a “Cubi“, has a rather futuristic design and is shaped like a slightly distorted cube. Each room has a Hästens bed, designed by Philippe Starck, a plasma TV, a security box and Internet access. Each Cubi also has a different set of lights that can change the colour of the room depending on the guest’s preferences.

The hotel also has a range of touch screen computers in its hallways where guests can search for entertainment options, such as the movies at the cinema, the shows at the theatre or the restaurant where they would like to have dinner. Moreover, both the reception and the check in are also digitalized, which means that guests will not have to wait in a queue to check themselves in and only have to pick the key up at the reception.

In the lobby we can find Grab&co, a small establishment where new painters, decorators and designers can experiment with art. Here we can find all types of vending machines, some selling home made food brought from a local bakery by catering, while others sell objects for personal hygiene and clothes.

The hotel chain has three hotel in three different cities. Qbic Hotel Amsterdam is located in the city’s financial district, while Qbic Hotel Antwerp is in the very heart of the city center, as is Qbic Hotel Maastricht, which is comfortably surrounded by small coffee shops.

The Fox Hotel is an interesting project started by 21 young artists from different countries in Denmark. The hotel has 61 rooms designed by the 21 artists, and each one of them is a display of different types of urban art and graphic design.

The hotel is located in the center of Copenhagen. Some of the rooms remind us of the best of urban art, while others are fully dedicated to Japanese Manga style. Each room has its own name and themes, such as the Japanese Garden room, Sensuality room or the King’s Forest room. All rooms are decorated according to the main theme, with pictures and paintings and graffiti filling every available space and surface. The walls in each one of the dormitories are fully decorated with images of fairies, friendly monsters and hidden treasures.

All rooms are non smoking rooms. Each room has an individual or double bed, a bathroom and all kinds of details designed to make the guests’ stay more comfortable. Price per night is around 125€. A couple of larger rooms are available for families or groups.

Breakfast is served at the hotel restaurant, which is open from 7 to 10 a.m. on weekdays and from 8 to 11 a.m. on weekends. Price per person is 17€. The main restaurant, called Sushitreat, opens at 16.30 and is famous for its excellent sushi dishes.

All rooms have Internet access and plasma TV’s which can also be used as computer monitors. There is also a curious collection of “Minibags” in the minibar next to the drinks and food, and each bag has a specific theme, such as the “Hangover Bag”, especially designed to alleviate headaches.

Visitors at this hotel can always read the free international press found at the lobby or go to the hotel bar for a drink. From there and the rooftop terrace guests can enjoy the panoramic views of the city, though if they want to actually see the city they can always rent a bicycle and an iPod at the hotel.

The Künstlerheim Luise Hotel is a rather curious hotel in Berlin, Germany. The guests of this hotel have a rather unique opportunity to live and sleep amongst various art pieces in their art themed rooms.

This hotel has fifty rooms, each one with its own bathroom. Each one of the rooms was designed by a different artist, and the hotel subsidizes all of the painters and decorators that made each room unique. The artists who worked on each room receive a percentage of revenue that their room generated, and have the right to stay there for free.

Each one of the fifty rooms enjoys a rather personal style, and each one has a different theme. Price per night varies between 120€ and 150€, but it can change depending on the season. The hotel also has its own restaurant, the Habel, where visitors can taste traditional regional dishes and the best wine.

The hotel is located in the center of the city, in a grand classic building that dates from the XIXth Century. The hotel used to be a residential building that was abandoned, and by 1984 it was transformed in a hotel with shops. Years later, another building was added to the compound, and a patio was formed.

The reception hall is usually decorated with new art works and houses new art exhibitions each time, something that distinguishes the hotel amongst its competitors. Even though the facades have not changed since 1825, several major reformations have managed to change the classical style building into a monument to modern art.

The hotel is located in the heart of the city, near Tiergarten Park and the Spree River. Near the hotel, one can find the famous Reichstag, the Friedrichstrasse and Unter den Linden streets and the great Brandemburg Tör.

The Tokyo Palace is located in an historic 1937 building in Paris. This building usually hosts a variety of cultural expositions and is located in the very heart of Paris. The Tokyo Palace was built specifically for the Universal Exposition and is near the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysées.

Inside, or rather on top of the Tokyo Palace, one can find the Everland Hotel, right on top of the roof. The hotel isn’t a commercial hotel, but is one dedicated to innovation and culture. Every single detail is designed by well known designers whos main objetive is to show that innovation and art blend in together.

From the hotel room the guests can enjoy spectacular views of Paris, and one can lie down and see the Eiffel Tower glowing in front of them, a headlight to the vast city that spreads before it’s feet. The interior of the hotel itself has been carefully designed by leading artists in contemporary art and interior design, as well as using the very best materials to complete this little masterpiece.

The Everland Hotel guests can stay in a room that definitely has the best views of the city. In the morning, the guests are served an exclusive breakfast at dawn. Even the bathroom itself is quite on the unusual side, since its innovative and even slightly futuristic design has managed to captivate the attention of every visitor. The panoramic landscpae of the city and an interesting, colourful and curved design make this curious hotel an irresistible place to stay at.

The Everland Hotel is a small nomadic hotel which is constantly moving around. Price per night at such a kingly hotel is around 444€. This hotel has previously been in other locations, such as Yverdon or Leipzig. The most curious thing of all is that one has to reserve the hotel with several months in advance, and the reservation page only appears at several different times in a day. Furthermore, the hotel moves every one or two years, and one has to pay a lot of attention and find out the exact dates that the hotel is in a particular city.

The hotel Atelier Sul Mar is a very interesting hotel in Castel di Tusa, between Palermo and Messina in Italy. The hotel was the idea of the italian artist Antonio Presti.

This hotel breathes with a passion for contemporary and modern art. Most of the rooms were designed by contemporary artists and decorated in varying manners, according to the style of each room. The hotel has a total of 40 rooms, while 11 of these are exclusive artworks of leading artists.

Each room is different, and has a certain modern art or poetic meaning to it. According to Presti himself, the hotel is also a socially friendly one, since some of the revenue goes towards the promotion of art to other less well off regions. Price per night is at a fixed 70€ rate.

One of the designed rooms is called the Profet’s Room, in memory of the italian intellectual and poet Pier Paolo Passolini. This rooms was designed by three reknown artists, including the founder of the hotel himself together with Adele Cambria and Darrio Belleza, who was also the author of one of the poems that decorates the room’s walls. The other walls are decorated with poems written by Passolini himself.

The Trinacria room has a peculiar triangular bed, while the room called Sigismundo’s Tower has an enormous window on the ceiling. This window can be opened at any time and the guest can enjoy the precious views of the sea. Yet another one of the rooms is fully dedicated to the utopian ideology.

Apart from the more artistic rooms, there are others which are more traditional and have an impressive view of the sea. Of course, even these rooms are slightly more innovative in their own way, since the walls are decorated with paintings and detailed furniture designed by various artists.