Michelberger HotelEditor's Pick

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We can’t decide which catchy phrase best captures Hotel Michelberger’s edgy and original vibe. "Kitschy-cool," "flea market-chic," and "gritty-glam" are the top contenders for describing this 2009 addition to the city’s design hotel scene.

Located in a towering, white brick building off hectic Warschauerstrasse in Friedrichshain, the hotel offers an eclectic collection of lounges, cafés, concert venues, and 119 rooms. Owner Tom Michelberger and his artist, designer, and builder friends designed the place from top to bottom. Instead of organizing themselves around a specific theme, they simply made things up as they went along. As a result, the Michelberger’s theme is… no theme. As a tribute to Berlin, a city constantly in flux, it has a raw, unfinished look because of (and not despite) its high-concept, high-design pedigree.

Rooms (singles, doubles, triples, and quads) think outside of the box—big time. The spare furniture is fashioned from unfinished wood, ropes, and net. Wall-mounted flat screen televisions are framed with raw wooden slats; closets are comprised of three “net” shelves. Beds in loft-style triples are reached via a ladder. Some doubles have showers with a big glass window overlooking the entire room. (Steam provides a bit of privacy, we hope.) These inventive spaces struck us as fun and unusual, if a little awkward. (We wouldn't sleep in the loft bed, especially after one too many drinks.)

Michelberger’s check-in area is a hoot. A round, retro desk overseen by a friendly, young staff floats in the middle of an open space shared with a self-service café and a whimsical lounge decorated with hundreds of used books. (Even the lampshades are made of books.) Like the rest of the hotel, including the hallways and stairwells, the lobby is only half-restored, with rough concrete walls. Our favorite detail in the lobby, however, is the row of cuckoo clocks set to different time zones.

Intent on making the hotel an important part of Berlin's party scene, Michelberger uses the space as a venue for local events. In summer, the courtyard fills with live music; in winter, club sounds emerge from rooms buried within the massive building. Attempting to offer both hotel rooms, designed for sleep, and loud, up-all-night affairs under one roof sounds to us like quite a balancing act. But the owners are so enthusiastic about their against-the-rules-hotel that we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

» Susan Buzzelli

Note: This hotel was visited by a EuroCheapo editor and is recommended based on cleanliness, location, price and overall quality. EuroCheapo did not charge this hotel to be listed.