The Gray Lady Tells You How to Waste Your Hard-Earned Money

Where: Tj�rhovsgatan 11, Stockholm, Sweden, 11621

July 14, 2008 at 11:35 AM | 0 Comments

Would you pay $200 or more to stay at a 228-year hotel that once was a brewery, then headquarters for Stockholm's guards (a.k.a., "sausages," earning the building the enviable moniker of "a sausage pot"); next as a jail of sorts, housing thieves and beggars; and later as a temporary hospital during the city's cholera epidemic in 1834, before finally becoming a hotel with no room service and very few individual bathrooms in 1976? The New York Times thinks you should.

Dubbed as "an affordable way to stay in the hipster heart of Stockholm," Columbus Hotel is a 70-room property with rooms that are "spare, yet elegant," the paper says, replete with hardwood floors and antique fixtures that date back to 1780, when the building was first constructed.

It's just two blocks from Medborgarplatsen, Stockholm's hipster hangout, and offers a hearty breakfast included in the price and free Wi-Fi in the lobby. All in all, "the historic décor...make it easy to overlook the inconvenience of sharing a comfort station," says the Times.

We know, as the Times also points out, that Stockholm is an expensive city, but to us, $200 seems a bit much to stay at a hotel where you may have to share a bathroom (the paper noted that rooms with loos looked slightly cramped, with just a curtain separating the shower area) and no restaurant or room service.

At that point, all you're paying for is an ambient hotel room. And if the area's night life is as hip as the Times says it is, how much time will you actually be spending there?

We think there's a better deal to be had nearby. Got a suggestion? Let us know.

[Photo: The New York Times]

Tags: Stockholm Hotels / Jail Hotels / Budget Hotels

by jennm

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