Box hotel: sleeping in a box

With his Boxhotels, entrepreneur Oliver Blume offers affordable accommodation in city center locations. Provided guests can say goodbye to the concept of the classic hotel room.

The entrepreneur currently runs two hotels, starting in Göttingen and opening the second in Hanover. The idea behind the box hotels: Blume wants to offer guests "a good night's sleep in city center locations at discount prices". This is hardly possible with a traditional hotel, so guests have to adapt to a special concept

Fast WLAN instead of your own toilet

The box hotels have no reception, no restaurant and no parking spaces. You check in using an app and can open the room doors with your cell phone via Bluetooth. Depending on the option booked, the sleeping boxes contain a bed, sofa bed, washbasin and shower. The toilets are always located in the corridor. Each room has sufficient sockets for digital gadgets and fast Wi-Fi.

Optimal use of space

The individual boxes are built on a footprint of just over four square meters and the space is used extremely efficiently on different levels. The entrepreneur has patented the special box construction. And even when converting existing buildings into box hotels, the available space can be used optimally - an important prerequisite for profitability.

Court ruling: maximum three nights in windowless rooms

However, Oliver Blume was not able to realize his idea without any headwinds. The building permit for the house in Hanover was linked to a maximum overnight stay of three nights. The operator took legal action against this because it meant he could not rent out the rooms to tradesmen on assembly or trade fair exhibitors. Without success, the Hanover Administrative Court ruled clearly: guests may not stay in the boxes for more than three days at a time, as otherwise "natural lighting is necessary for health reasons".

Overnight stay from 25 euros

But the concept has been well received and, according to Blume, people from many walks of life use his overnight accommodation. Similar concepts have long existed in countries such as Japan and the USA, and Oliver Blume's boxes are almost luxurious compared to the sleeping capsule hotels that are common there. With his idea, founder Oliver Blume has hit the nerve of the times: People who only come to a hotel to sleep anyway are often happy to do without opulent furnishings if the location and price are right. And the price is impressive - you pay just 25 euros for the cheapest box.