A Hamster Hotel? Hotel Beds of Hay?

November 19, 2009 | Uncategorized

Have some European hoteliers gone completely mad? Or have they just found a new — although a bit quirky — market niche?

There’s an article in the British newspaper Telegraph about a hotel in Nantes, France that makes you feel like a hamster. Yes, on your next vacation you can now stay in a room where you can work out on a giant hamster wheel, feed on hamster grain and sleep in hay.

And you can get all this for only about $150, although those on a strict budget could probably hop over to the local Maison Dépôt and buy the cage wire, etc. for about half that.

“The hamster in the world of children is that little cuddly animal. Often, the adults who come here have wanted or did have hamsters when they were small,” Yann Falquerho told the Telegraph.

Falquerho, along with Frederic Tabary, is the owner of the hotel and, according to the paper, was also dressed as a hamster for the interview. Now there’s a fun couple for you.

They warn customers, however, that room prices will soon be going up since today’s hamsters need a giant TV screen and Wifi. Oui, certainement!

This hay craze, although sans hamster, has also spread elsewhere in Europe.

According to CNN some  nature lovers and eco-conscious tourists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland — looking for cheap and unusual accommodations, no doubt — are now staying in converted barns and sleeping on beds of hay.

In one of these Heuhotels (‘heu’ is German for hay), people can now get close to nature even in the wee hours of the morning. The accommodation range from feed stalls with wooden platforms to open lofts stuffed with bales of hay.

Some hotels provide privacy curtains and, in some, a bottle of wine to hit the hay with. Most, however, still require you to bring your own sleeping bag and towels.

And all this for just $16 a night. Hamsters, no doubt, are extra.

Jim Ferri