When Theresia Kohlmayr strolls through Vienna, she seldom has eyes for neoclassical facades, decorative church portals, lavishly decorated shop windows or one of the many information boards, according to which Ludwig van Beethoven was once registered at this address 200 years ago.
The 35-year-old looks more at those objects that others ignore: curtained entrance doors, yellowed window panes, faded billboards whose flaky paint no longer advertises bespoke tailoring, tobacconists or one of the ubiquitous lampshade manufacturers in Vienna.
Kohlmayr’s interest in the vacancy is a professional one: the architect runs a hotel business, the rooms of which are scattered across the city. And because what is called Veedel in Cologne and the Kiez in Berlin is called Grätzl in Vienna, the name is obvious: Grätzl-Hotel. Except that it’s not a big building full of monotonous rooms, with a reception, lobby, bar and breakfast buffet, but extends over and includes its neighborhood. In Kohlmayr’s words: “The vertical arrangement of a hotel distributed horizontally in the Grätzl.” With the city as the foyer.
“You don’t live in such a stately manner in a chain hotel”
The sentence shows that the idea was not happily found in a Viennese wine tavern, but hatched in the seminar rooms of the architecture university. “Our philosophy revolves around the use of urban spaces, the re-use of empty urban commercial spaces as guest accommodation and the networking of our guests with the city.” It is no coincidence that the operating company as the host for inner-city navigation calls itself Urbanauts GmbH.
That sounds more complex than it is: vacant shops are being renovated, equipped with bathrooms, beds, soundproof interior windows and sturdy entrance doors. Kohlmayr tries to keep the original character of the accommodation. The former tailor’s studio looks like it has been polished to a high gloss, in the former artists’ quarters red bricks peep out rough and angular from under the white plaster. Some rooms have a ceiling height of 4.5 meters. “You don’t live in such a stately manner in a chain hotel,” says Kohlmayr.
Once an empty shop: ground-level Grätzl hotel room in Vienna
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Image: Mafalda Rakos
There is no catering, at most a kitchenette in the larger rooms measuring up to 35 square meters. There are guidelines for breakfast places and beer taverns in the neighborhood, bars and clubs. All this is in a welcome email that the guest booking online receives two days before arrival, including the address and number for the key safe at the entrance.
There are hundreds of shops in Austria’s capital that are no longer used. According to a count by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce (WKW), there were around 350 this summer. The chamber puts the sales lost as a result of this vacancy at 300 million euros a year.
In truth, it will probably be larger. Because if you include those unused bars that are not listed on the WKW website, there should be twice as many. Not including those that are already used only as garbage rooms or material storage. This shows the large reservoir. At least you should think so.
But the owners in the prime locations they are looking for are often not interested in renting, says Kohlmayr. “They make the money by renting out apartments and investing in the conversion of the top floor.” Some also held back the business premises in order to be able to turn them into garages later. But it is also the unusual business concept that many owners find it difficult to get used to. “I have to explain to them exactly that guests really like to sleep on the street.”
