With a floor space of 12 square metres, one bed, a toilet, a shower and a sink, it has a right to stake a claim as the worldÂ’s smallest hotel. Its name, however, suggests otherwise.
Vesterbro’s Central Hotel and Café on Tullinsgade is due to open in April and for 1,500 kroner a night you can have the pleasure of being the hotel’s sole overnight guest. The ironic nature of the name reflects the fun and quirky attitude that co-owners Leif Thingtved and Jacob Kampp Berliner have exhibited building their labour of love.
Thingtved said the idea for the hotel “came as a practical thought as to how we can best make use of the first floor”. There was no grand business plan, no ten-year visions or nifty money-making schemes – just an organic thought as to how to enhance one of Vesterbro’s most infamous small buildings.
Up until this year, the coffee bar that currently occupies the ground floor was aptly named ‘Verdens mindste kaffebar’ (The World’s Smallest Coffee Bar) – that is until Thingtved and Berliner renamed the building the Central Hotel and Café in order to incorporate its growing nature.
Thingtved said his aim for the hotel is to have its guests feel a part of the neighbourhood.
“Tullinsgade is a very special area of Vesterbro,” he said. “There aren’t many places left in Copenhagen with small but lively streets that are really beautiful. We’d love for tourists to experience that.”
Thingtved dabbles in interior design, so he said guests can expect an extremely hyggeligt experience.
“The hotel will be designed like people would want their own homes to be – but aren’t,” he said.
Before the grand opening, though, Thingtved and Berliner may forfeit their unofficial title of the ‘world’s smallest’ as they attempt to slightly enlarge the room.
“Every inch counts,” said Thingtved, and it certainly does – a matter of inches is all they can actually enlarge it by. The aim is to make it to 12.3 square metres.
So what can you expect from a stay at the Central Hotel? Wine, flowers, small treats and even a free minibar are among the ideas being tossed around. You can also enjoy a comfy stay on a bed measuring 1.40m wide – definitely a plus considering guests will be spending most of their time on the bed as there’ll be limited room for other activities. And when you wake up refreshed, a scrumptious breakfast awaits you at the coffee shop downstairs or Granola, a café/restaurant run by the pair, down the street.
It may still be a few months before Thingtved and BerlinerÂ’s hotel comes under public scrutiny, but next week it will face its toughest critic yet: ThingtvedÂ’s mother-in-law. HereÂ’s hoping she likes cramped quarters.
