This amazing hotel is run by differently abled people and everybody loves it

The German “Stadthaus Hotel” in Hamburg is a very special hotel, run by people with “disabilities”

The Stadthaus hotel

The Stadthaus Hotel in Hamburg was Europe’s first integration hotel – and it has received great reviews since the very start!

Parents start a hotel

In 1987, parents of eight differently-abled classmates decided they wanted to provide their kids with a solid work- and living situation after they had finished school. They decided to start a project to turn this into reality and that project became the Stadthaus Hotel.

Eight years later the hotel was ready to open. It started with seven large rooms with eleven beds in total. They chose a small-scale hotel to avoid possible financial losses. The money for the hotel came from both the parents themselves, donations and subsidies.

The Stadthaus hotel has an extensice breakfast buffet that never runs empty. Source: BrightVibes

Employees of the highest quality

The future employees had two years of professional training. Their class was modified for them and ever since, the training school has taught a class with differently abled people!

At first the hotel did really great but unfortunately they had some problems after a few years. Their fixed costs were too high and expanding proved to be the solutuion. Six extra rooms were added along with a bar, making the hotel very suitable for larger groups of people. The hotel hasn’t just been doing fine ever since, it has been thriving, with an average room occupancy of 80%! Not only is the hotel very popular, it has also become a three-star hotel.

Part of the employees live above the hotel in a commune. This is according to the founding parents’ original wish to provide both a solid living- and worksituation.

Source: BrightVibes

From project to three-star hotel

The hotel is largely run by differently abled people, but at the same time the hotel is very suitable for differently-abled guests as most rooms and all common rooms are wheelchair friendly.

What started out as a project by parents, grew out to be a succesfull hotel that shows just one of many ways that differently abled people can be of immense value to society. There’s always more possible than you think and this incredibly succesful hotel is a perfect example of that.