A pixel, the smallest dot that makes up the whole, usually refers to a computer image. But the Pixel Hotel in Linz, Austria has brought the concept to hospitality, with individual guest rooms spread throughout the city. The accommodations themselves make use of interesting, but previously uninhabited, premises. One room is in a former cabinet-maker’s workshop with a 1960s vintage camping trailer as a living room. Another is inside an art gallery, dominated by a floating island that houses the bed. There is even a room housed in a 1955 boat anchored in Linzer harbour. Guests are given transport passes and café vouchers for breakfast. The creators believe this enables guests to be a part of the local culture and to really explore what the neighbourhoods have to offer.
This “flexible hotel” concept won the Grand Prize in the 2009 Radical Innovation in Hospitality Award. “It’s really creative and it has low capital costs,” says John Hardy, who co-founded the competition in 2007. “What’s more radical than no hotel?”
Other accommodations offer a similar concept. One By The Five in Paris is a single, exquisite suite in the Latin Quarter. Borgo San Lorenzo in northern Italy allows guests to immerse themselves in a traditional Italian experience at a number of small suites, located around the village.