Art Hotel Luise

Rooms

As the rooms vary so much, it's difficult to generalise, other than to stress that it's the 35 art rooms which make this place special, and to try and get one which overlooks the inner court or Luisenstrasse. Hats off to the artists – most of them young, local and upcoming – who each spent months turning fairly nondescript cubes into weird and wonderful worlds-of-their-own, all in return for free lodging and a (small) percentage of the revenue. We stayed 3 nights, moving room after each one, and taking the opportunity to tour vacant rooms every morning. A free gallery tour, if you will.

Among our favourites were zebra-striped #101 by Elvira Bach (one of the better known artists) with its 4-metre ceilings and a trio of salacious nudes in various states of undress; suite #105 for its space (the only one with a separate sitting room); #211 with its windowside chaise-longue and caricatured portraits of Berlin life; French-bedded #202 with its vibrant collage of Samarkand-inspired patterns; and #107 with its oversized furniture designed to make you feel like Alice in Wonderland after "drinking me". But it's all a matter of taste. So take a look at the lists below (you may need to disable your pop-up blocker), see what grabs you, and ask if it's free using the message box on our enquiry form.

By contrast, the 9 newer rooms in the wing at the rear lack panache, though they're well equipped and contemporarily styled, with top-notch shower rooms and excellent triple glazing between you and the S-bahn railway just outside. In fact, trainspotters couldn’t be happier than in room #413, with its in-your-face observation seat and its other-worldly locomotive portraits echoing Hauptmann's novel about "Stationmaster Thiel" (oddly the artist bears the same name). The rest of us might prefer the calm grey-whites of #421, with its Oriental minimalism, motorised blinds and bathtub.

Full list of rooms:

Double rooms with shower (22)
Single rooms with shower (7)
Suites with bathtub (2)
Single rooms with shared bathroom (8)
Double rooms with shared bathroom (8)

If you're on a real budget, ask about the artists' dormitories up in the attic. All the rooms are non-smoking.