You can even pay any amount you wish for this unusual hotel experience
Photos: dasparkhotel
Normally, we would never in our right minds want to stay overnight in a sewer pipe. But the three concrete pipes at dasparkhotel are not your normal sewer pipes.
Going green is more than just a trend today; it’s a vital lifestyle commitment. Dasparkhotel invites you to look at everyday resources like our sewer pipes in a whole new way. Mostly underground, the sewer doesn’t tend to cross our daily paths, let alone our minds, even though the water supply we use runs through them every day. So we don’t know how many pipes lie abandoned when they could still perform many functions. One of them, Austrian designer Andreas Strauss discovered in 2004, is hotel accommodation.
By repurposing old concrete industrial sewer pipes, Strauss transformed them into clean and modern hotel ‘rooms’ about two metres wide. The result is dasparkhotel, a one-of-a-kind living experience on a beautiful grassy field in Ottensheim, Austria.
Its cosy space is beautifully decked out in a glass skylight and wall paintings by Austrian artist Thomas Latzel Ochoa. Your comfort is ensured by the simple furnishings of a double bed on a Eurofoam mattress, fresh pillows and blankets, a safe to store your valuables, and power outlets for your electronic devices. Oh, and several air holes so you can still breathe when the door’s closed.
Thanks to the concrete walls, the pipe rooms will keep you comfortably cool in the hot days and warm enough when autumn approaches, as the hotel is only open from May to October.
Visitors seeking an adventure have kept dasparkhotel busy, allowing them to upgrade the rooms just this year. A second location was also opened in Bottrop, Germany, boasting five rooms compared to the three in Austria. The original location still remains the more popular choice, though. With the iconic Danube River just steps away, it’s not hard to imagine why.
The sewage sounds like the complete opposite of sanitary, but guests as dasparkhotel can easily access clean toilets and showers, all provided by the public space and just a short walk away. With a bunch of cafés and restaurants also nearby, you can find everything you need within the scenic park.
Not sure if you’re up for such an adventure? Well, at the very least you won’t have to worry about forking up a huge sum for it. Dasparkhotel’s unique experience extends to its pay-as-you-wish policy, so you can make a reservation online without payment and leave however much, or little, you want upon leaving. The amount will go towards covering the costs of cleaning and repairing, as well as supporting the project’s international expansion efforts.
Das Park Hotel, Rodlstraße 21, 4100 Ottensheim, Österreich, Ottensheim, Austria
Germany location: Ebelstraße 25 a, 46242 Bottrop, Germany
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