Deutsch Design

REVIEWS

Roomers

Louis

Ketschauer

Kameha Grand

In a notoriously competitive hotel market, travellers to and within Germany continue to benefit from affordably priced accommodation in comparison with the rest of Western Europe. Data from STR Global, supplier of market performance information to the global hotel industry, shows that for 2009, Germany’s average daily rate was €80.38 compared with an average for Western Europe of €102.51. A 21.5% difference is meaningful. The new hotels we review here face a difficult time with occupancies in 2009 down 4.3% on the previous year, according to STR Global.

Against this competitive backdrop, differentiation through design plays an important part in positioning these properties. A measured approach towards interior design is taken at the Hotel Louis in Munich and the boutique restaurant-with-rooms of Ketschauer Hof in the heart of the Riesling vineyards of south west Germany. Hild und K and Bost Berlin, respectively, have taken a curated tack in developing subtle stories of world travel and oenological analogies at these two hotels to give their designs a narrative thread.

At the other end of the spectrum, both Roomers in Frankfurt and the Kameha Grand Hotel in Bonn have taken bold but wildly differing routes. Interior designer Oana Rosen brings a feminine touch to the masculine interiors of Roomers where the bar and spa provide a very different focus from the city’s usual corporate hotels. In Bonn, the expressive talents of Marcel Wanders have been used in a newbuild property that is as dramatic in its vast interiors as it is bold with its sustainability programming. The appointment of Marcel Wanders at the Kameha Grand Hotel is the only non-German architectural and design appointment in the hotels we review. The result? A radical design for a hotel strongly orientated towards meetings business.

Despite the competitive nature of the market, there is still plenty of new supply, much of it again distinguished by its innovative design. According to Lodging Econometrics, there were 84 projects under development across Germany at the end of Q3 2009. In Berlin particularly, new hotel openings are coming thick and fast, with the recently opened Cosmo, Casa Camper and Michelberger hotels soon to be joined by Soho House, The Weinmeister and the Scandic Berlin Potsdammer Platz. Elsewhere Jumeirah is set to open its first property in continental Europe in Frankfurt in late summer 2010. Also in Frankfurt, UNStudio have won a competition to design a 110m tall hotel tower, housing a 405-room Grand Hyatt hotel, being developed by Vivico Real Estate GmbH.