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The building dates back to 1878. It once housed a bank and later Estonia’s telegraph company.

Bedrooms look quite traditional. In fact, most of the hotel is quite traditional.

The bathroom: I would have described it as small but rather functional
with a funky mirror, had only the hot water been more reliable.

Nice breakfast: A poached egg in the breakfast style of the Tchaikovsky Restaurant.

A nice bonus for Hotel Telegraaf guests: The Elemis Spa. The use of these
pools and the sauna is free. Both traditional and steam sauna are available.

This is Estonia.
A tiny country with 1,34 million people. Until 1991 it was a part of the evil empire known as the Soviet Union. Still, 19 years later, gloomy remains of the Soviet occupation are to be found here and there, most commonly in post-war architecture. On my first visit to the country, the streets were littered with boozed-up lads. The country had a solid reputation for being the ultimate stag-party destination where you could get a liter of beer for 1 Euro and the young women were rumoured to be, how to put it… ahem, loose. Thankfully, many things in this country seem to be changing.

This is Hotel Telegraaf.
Built by the Revaler Handels Bank in 1878 and designed by Peter Schreiberg of St. Petersburg. Forty years later it became the exchange station for the Estonian Telegraph company, hence the hotel’s name. Honestly, it still feels a little like entering a bank. Spaces are not exactly cool and airy. Well-fed bisnismen would feel more like at home in this environment. As to challenge this, the hotel is listing Lenny Kravitz, Enrique Iglesias, Morrisey and… (drumroll!) Rod Stewart among its famous guests. Well, OK then…

Rooms are on the classic side…
Hotel Telegraaf is by no means offering a spectacular design experience. I enter a clean, pretty comfortable and traditionally furnished little space (it’s certainly not huge). It’s just a nice room and I honestly needed to look at my own photos in order to remind myself of ever having stayed there. No major flaws, although the hot water seemed to be elsewhere for a while, but apparently it only needed a little time to heat up. I was a bit puzzled – when would this place start to collect points? The reviews I’ve read before heading to Estonia were all praising this place. I didn’t find that much worth praising.

First; breakfast. Then the spa…
The hotel’s Tchaikovsky restaurant has been rated in the top-three of Estonian restaurants. No, I didn’t have dinner there as I went for something more… contemporary, but they delivered a hotel breakfast that was way better than expected. Then a walk to the end of a corridor and down the stairs. Just when you think that you’re about the enter the garage through a backdoor, you’re at the front desk of the Elemis Spa. It’s quite a nice facility. There’s a 3×10 meter pool (+27 °C) and a jacuzzi (+35 °C). There’s also a steam sauna and a regular sauna. These are all free to hotel guests. Of course you’ll also find all the treatments you’d ever be able to afford.

After writing all this…
I feel a little sour awarding the Hotel Telegraaf with only three stars. The rating could have been higher if there had been a special rulebook for reviewing hotels in quickly emerging countries that only recently were behind the iron curtain. But, naah… I’d better use the same scale as for any other hotel. However, if you’re about to spend some time in Tallinn, this is a very nice choice. It’s not a bustling place, booming with activity 24/7. It’s more of a… nice choice. Nice and traditional and yet still not so traditional as this is Tallinn, baby.

Telegraaf Hotel
Vene 9
10123 Tallinn
Estonia

+372 6000600

Time to go east? Then click here to book the Hotel Telegraaf through TabletHotels.com!

Tags: , Elemis, Estonia, Estonian, Hotel Telegraaf, Old Town, Spa, Tallinn, Tallinn Latin Quarter, Tchaikovsky Restaurant

It’s been there since the 15th of September 2009: Casa Camper Berlin.

Not glitzy. This is a typical 32 square meter bedroom. According to a
brochure the rooms are “…characterised by their singular, functional design.”

Room 61: Washbasin and shower with a view.

In-room Casa Camper slippers. Not available in stores.

Top floor: Instead of having minibars in the rooms, guests can pop up
around the clock for coffee, tea and snacks. It’s included in the room price.

Thanks Casa Camper. It actually feels like you mean it.

I absolutely, honestly love this shoemaker’s shoes.
I admit it: My feet are shaped like Donald Duck’s. This means that just about no shoes feel good while I break them in. The exception to that rule is Camper. I’m thankful for what this Spanish shoemaker has brought to my wardrobe. Last year I stayed in the first Casa Camper, located in Barcelona’s El Raval neighbourhood. And weird as it may sound, the folks at Camper have managed to take the good stuff from their shoes and apply it to their hotels.

”…as a place for grown-up hipsters with a heart.”
I didn’t invent the grown-up hipster thing. It was something that I stumbled upon while checking the internet for reviews. I don’t exactly know what a hipster is but as for the heart thing, there are little messages here and there, like: ”Walk down. It’s healthier.” That is the message on the sign next between the elevator and the stairs. “Ugly but important.” reads the message underneath the emergency evacuation plan on the back of the door to my room.

OK then, what about rooms?
Rooms are identical in size: 32 square meters painted in that brick red color. A comfy bed. Tolomeo lamps on the wall. An easy chair next to a small table. TV on the wall. Berlin map on the wall. The bathroom is located near the window. The light is flooding. Open closet in oak with Camper slippers. Writers desk next to washbasin. It works. It’s not oozing with luxury. Obviously, designers Fernando Amat and Jordi Tio have been focusing on what’s functional and stylish, rather than bold and glitzy.

Take another look at the pictures above.
First, let’s me just say that the concierge services are excellent. The staff know their city and they are eager to help. Now, back to that picture: See the table with the miniature buffet? That’s what you get instead of a minibar in your room. Guests are invited to go to the breakfast room and help themselves to warm and cold drinks, (including espresso coffee and Pago juice), snacks, fruit and sandwiches. All included in the room-rate. The concept was tried out at the Casa Camper in Barcelona. It’s smart and it works. Which is quite a good way to describe the whole hotel: It’s smart and it works.

Casa Camper Berlin
Weinmeisterstraße 1
10178 Berlin
Germany

+49-30-20003410

Click here to book the Casa Camper Berlin through TabletHotels.com

BONUS INFO: Also, the hotel boasts a great restaurant: Dos Palillos. Here you will build your own sushi and have Asian tapas, prepared under the supervision of Albert Raurich, who used to be the commander in chief at El Bulli. Highly recommended, even if you’re not a guest at the hotel.

Tags: , , , Albert Raurich, Berlin, Berlin-Mitte, Camper, Casa Camper, Dos Palillos, Fernando Amat, free buffet, functional, Germany, Jordi Tio, red, shoemaker, shoes, slippers, smart, Weinmeisterstraße

When you take the first peek into your X-Large room you will see this.
It’s highely likely that you then will say something like “Oh…”.

It measures 118 square meters so prepare to burn some calories while
taking a walk to the bed or to the minibar, (or from the bed to the minibar).

How’s that for a convenient room layout? The bed is only
five steps away from the free-standing bathtub.

Behind the glass wall: A shower room with twin monsoon showers.

The closest screen (TV) is 32″. The one by the wall (for DVD/Blu-Ray discs) is 63″

A department store, opened in 1928, later seized by the Nazis and after
the war housing the Communist Party archives. Now: Club, bistro and hotel.

Not much can prepare you for room #39.
It is a pretty respectable room. Rather sizeable. Quite spacious. No, honestly, it’s frikkin massive. If you find yourself in a X-Large room at the Soho House Berlin, you will have 118 square meters (1270 square feet) to play with. A free-standing bathtub has been strategically placed only a few meters away from a gianormous bed with a garage-sized plush headboard. At the other end of the room there’s a 63″ flat-screen TV. Somewhere in the middle there’s a chaise longue with a separate TV. The oversized bathroom has a walk-in shower room with two monsoon showers. Und so weiter.

Yes, you are in a private member’s club.
It’s private but you won’t feel like an outsider. The staff is on alert to make us non-members feel right at home. On one occasion an overly cautious staff member acts like he wants to stop me – but he quickly gets stopped and hushed at by his colleagues. The concierge capabilities – amazing, (which was expected). The waiters by the pool – top notch. You may order a simple cheeseburger for lunch but you are treated like royalty. The bartenders – fantastic, (even though they were new to the phenomenal drink that I call Averna sour). As readers of this website know by now, I’m particularly sensitive when it comes to the staff members. I give the Soho House Berlin five stars mainly because the people I was in contact with overdelivered on service and friendliness.

Building’s got a story.
In New York, it’s hard to even find the entrance of the Soho House. In London, the Shoreditch House is tucked away on a side street you wouldn’t notice. The Berlin property is quite the opposite. It resides in former department store from 1928, (the Jewish Kaufhaus Jonass with the slogan “Jeden Preis ein Schlager”). Later, the building was seized by the Nazis and used as the cozy HQ of the Reichsjugendführung. Even later it was home to the Communist Party archives. Today, it’s a hotel with 40 rooms, a spa, a rooftop restaurant with a pool, a club room area, a screening room and one event space floor affectionally referred to as the Politbüro. Susie Atkinson is responsible for the design. She’s done a great job, although I’m not a huge fan of the lobby area’s industrial look. It actually feels a little… out-of-date. A pity, as the rest of the house is delivering a very cushy, homey feeling.

Ausgezeichnet! Kommen Sie sofort!
Yes, it’s worth the trip to Berlin to come here. It’s not really a hotel – it’s a house. And when coming here, remember to dress casually. The folks at the Soho House Group request members and visitors to not wear suits and ties. In an interview, Nick Jones, the man behind the Soho House said: ”It has always been a creative, friendly place with a relaxed feel. If there are too many corporate types around then that atmosphere doesn’t occur.” Since the writer of this website is not a banker, he’s not feeling particularly affected. Also, the main priority of the Soho House Berlin seems to be making guests feel at home. A prime example: Along with the room’s complimentary coffee and tea on a silver tray, I also found a box with the text ‘Treats’ on its lid. It contained home-made biscuits. I ate them and yes, they were delicious.

NOTE: As I write this, work on the building is not entirely finished. The Italian restaurant Cecconi’s will open autumn 2010.

Soho House Berlin
Torstrasse 1
Berlin, 10119
Germany

+49-30-405-0440

Book at room at the Soho House Berlin? Simple, just click here!

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View other Soho House Group establishments on this site:
Soho House, Meatpacking District, NYC
Shoreditch House, Shoreditch, London
High Road House, Chiswick, London

Tags: Berlin, Berlin-Mitte, casual, Cecconi's, club, club-room, Cowshed spa, exclusive, Germany, members' club, Nick Jones, rooftop pool, Soho House Berlin, Soho House Group, Susie Atkinson, Torstrasse, X-large room

When will the nurses and doctors arrive? Rooms at the Ku’Damm 101 are sterile to say the least.

Works better here: In the bathrooms you don’t mind the clean and rather antiseptic design.

Tell me, honestly, straight from the heart; how modern does this look to you?

From the outside it looks very much like a car rental facility, if you ask me.

So you want to go shopping, don’t you?
Tourist guides often praise the Kurfürstendamm as being the place for “Some of the best shopping in Europe…” Honestly, it always failed to impress me, as a few stores of the Gucci/Louis Vuitton/Cartier kind will never be reason enough to call an area interesting. Consequently, for me this means that the location of the Ku’Damm 101 will never have the same magnetic pull as it seems to have on the authors of these tourist guides.
Also, the Ku’ Damm 101, is not located in the middle of everything, but in a converted office block in Wilmersdorf; a district at the very west end of the boulevard.

Prepare yourself for something that’s trying to be modern.
Behind the transformation of the non-descript office building into a place that tries to be both design-y and modern-ish is the Swiss concept/design firm Kessler + Kessler. One reliable site tells that “…there’s a subtly institutional feeling throughout, a playful wink toward the office design of decades past.” There sure is an institutional feeling. Sadly the concept/design people forgot that there’s a life to a hotel long after the design sketches; someone eventually will pay for staying there. Antiseptic, is the word I’d like to use. Rooms feel like somebody started to furnish them and then changed his mind and stopped when the work was only half done. With that in mind, the fact that those concept folks embraced Le Corbusier’s colour theories* when designing the hotel… well, to me it only sounds like corporate ca-ca.

Will modern-ish furniture make a hotel feel modern?
The rooms feature furniture by Lemongras Design (yes, only one ’s’), a Munich-based company. Their most obvious contribution to the rooms is the TV trolley. There’s no minibar and no room-service is available. If you want to, you can rent a stocked mini-refrigerator. The modern-ish ideas become clearly visible in the laboratory-like breakfast room on the 7th floor. It should be mentioned that some obligatory Arne Jacobsen chairs can be found in the lobby.

Is there anything good with this hotel?
The helpful and friendly staff makes a difference. The warmth they added to my stay is worth one extra star. It is also well worth mentioning that this hotel is not a very expensive one – so if you’re travelling on a budget and want a place that’s clean although not cosy, you might consider the Ku’Damm 101. But with just a little bit of extra thought added to the interior design, my guess is that guests would much feel much more like at home. Damn! I feel sorry for them. It wouldn’t even have been costly.

Ku’ Damm 101 Hotel
Kurfürstendamm 101
D-10711 Berlin
Germany

+49-30-52 00 55-0

Click here to book the Ku’Damm 101 through TabletHotels.com

*The Swiss company Salubra, a producer of wallpaper, hired Le Corbusier and made it possible for him to develop his Purist colour theory. This was based on the effects of colour on the human being and proposed that human reactions to colour were constant. Apparently, there were no theories published on what effects a sloppy and unfinished design work will have on hotel guests…

Tags: , , antiseptic, Berlin, cheap, cold, Corbousier, design, functional, Germany, green, Kessler + Kessler, Ku'Damm 101, Kurfürstendamm, Lemongras, mid-price, minimalist, modern, sterile, whimsy, Wilmersdorf

Claesson Koivisto Rune designed the interior at Hotel Skeppsholmen.
This is room #170. The theme for colours and materials: “Fog”. Well, OK.

The bathroom in #170. Quite large. Quite nice. It’s also quite unpractical.
Truth: As soon as you’ll get a tiny bit of water on the floor it looks messy.

What if we didn’t use a regular sink? What if we’d let the water pour over
a large polished stone? Wouldn’t that give people something to talk about?

This is exactly what it looks like: A huge wooden lamp in a corridor space.

Room enlightment: The Cosy lamp by Harri Koskinen, (designed for Muuto, 2006).

Conference anyone? One of the nicest rooms in the hotel.

As the entire exterior is listed, any large neon signs would be impossible.
So you will have to remember what it looks like. Or trust your cabbie.

In theory they have everything going for them…
First, the location is crazy. It’s a green oasis in the very center of Stockholm, and it’s not the size of a tennis court. This is a green island with lawns and trees and shrubbery and, you know… vegetarian stuff. Second, the hotel occupies a historic building. More precisely some former Marine barracks built in 1699. We locals call it “The Long Row”. Third, they commissioned the most celebrated and award-winning architect trio known to the editorial staff of Wallpaper, Claesson Koivisto Rune, to create the 81 rooms and public spaces. So in theory, this was a successful project before it even started.

In practical terms, they kick it off brilliantly.
On arrival, I’m greeted with so much warmth that I immediately book an additional night. The young, charming lady, let’s call her Åsa, takes care of everything. Sadly I theh have to turn down an offer to upgrade to an X-Large room if I want to stay two nights without having to change the room. That’s OK. I pick a Large room. The room is large alright and the trademark style of Claesson Koivisto Rune is all over it. Too cold and too (struggling to find the correct word) boring for my liking. The bathroom looks OK. The sleeping area feels oddly unfinished. But that’s just me. I’m sure that this is the kind of Scandinavian minimalism that will make any foreign, design-conscious journalist salivate.

It’s then things start to go wrong. In very practical terms.
First I’m asked if I’ve spoken to Marcus. I have not. After a while he materializes into a young man with wavy hair. ”There’s a problem.” It will not be possible to stay two nights in the large room. Aha. We are slightly overbooked this weekend, is the explanation I later get from Mr. Marcus’ colleague. I ask the front desk to confirm this with Åsa, and I explain the ‘downgrade’ situation from X-Large to Large. While in the reception I end up overhearing a conversation between another front desk member and a guest: ”So maybe you could tell me what you have booked… as there is a little confusion within our system.” In my mind I’m painting a picture of Laurel & Hardy crashing a Ford model T into a fire hydrant and then blaming each other for the mistake. Marcus later shows up solely to explain that Åsa didn’t at all recognize my claim. I am now tranferred to room #256. No excuses.

Being a guest and at the same time feeling like an annoyment to the staff.
Apart from Åsa’s warm welcome, I’d like to find a reason to like this hotel. Well, there is one. Those who work the restaurant area are all a very positive and friendly bunch. Without them, the hotel would be a much chillier place, (the curse of Claesson Koivisto Rune again). They are worth one extra star. Ka-ching! A while after having checked out of the hotel, I suddenly remember… When checking in, Åsa asked me to sign a paper with the room rate details. Did Marcus ever check that? What happened to that document? I never saw it again. Neither did I get the chance to speak to Åsa and hear her version. Annoying.

Hotel Skeppsholmen
Gröna Gången 1
111 86 Stockholm

+46-8-407 23 00

Epilogue:
I really like the idea of a hotel in the otherwise rather empty area of Skeppsholmen, (a few enthusiasts living on old tugboats and the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art are not enough to keep the area busy), but the management certainly need to straighten up some routines. To Joachim Olausson, CEO of Hotel Skeppsholmen:, I’m sure that you google your own name every once in a while. Two stars. Not pretty! And you may rest assured that this review is not about the downgrade, nor is it about getting my money’s worth. It’s solely about the attitude of your staff. It would have required very little of them to handle the issue differently – and it would then have been much more pleasant for you, (and everybody else), to read this review.

Tags: , 17th century, bad attitude, Central, Claesson Koivisto Rune, design, fog, Gröna Gången, green, historical, Hotel Skeppsholmen, island, Koskinen, Långa Raden, minimalism, Nordic, oasis, peaceful, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, strict, Sweden