Wine-casks turned into hotel rooms

The Netherlands' Hotel de Vrouwe van Stavoren features rooms built inside giant, 14,500 liter wine-casks:

The rooms offer two single beds as well as an attached sitting room and bathroom. These rooms have been pretty popular with tourists in the sleepy village of Stavoren. If you get tired of the in-room television and radio, you can rent a bicycle and travel along one of the many popular bike paths to see the old growth forests and beach. There is even a famous statue of “Lady van Stavoren” to keep an eye on the harbour as well as an eccentric local story to go along with it.

The wine casks are a great reuse as hotel rooms because of their ability to seal tightly. Visitors have stayed in the hotels four special recycled rooms from all over the world. Prices for the rooms range from approximately $150 USD a night to about $40 USD a night depending on the length of your stay and the season you go in. How can you afford not to?

Sleep it Off Inside a Wine Cask (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

[#1 posted by Antinous / Moderator , March 22, 2009 7:50 PM]

It starts with stuffing yourself into a wine cask and it ends here.

[#2 posted by nanuq , March 22, 2009 7:55 PM]

Would you have Bilbo and Frodo as neighbours?

[#3 posted by js7a , March 22, 2009 8:01 PM]

I don't know about you, but when I'm looking for on-the-road accommodations, an airtight seal isn't always at the top of my list.

[#4 posted by Redmond Cooper , March 22, 2009 8:13 PM]

Just remeber... when the cask is a rockin, don't come a knockin.

[#5 posted by eltonbong , March 22, 2009 8:29 PM]

lol @ Nanuq- The day the Shire went condo....

[#6 posted by ROSSINDETROIT , March 22, 2009 8:30 PM]

Wait... Dutch wine? I thought I 'd tried it all.

[#7 posted by Bekah , March 22, 2009 8:40 PM]

the truck carrying the casks appeared to be from a close neighbour so maybe not Dutch wine :)

[#8 posted by Takuan , March 22, 2009 9:08 PM]

I'm sorry, am I given to understand these casks are indeed empty? I'm afraid I just do not see the point.

[#9 posted by TroofSeeker , March 22, 2009 9:15 PM]

Tried it with sepic tanks. No good.

[#10 posted by pinehead , March 22, 2009 10:14 PM]

That is absolutely gorgeous. I would love to sleep a night or two in one of those casks. Oh, I wonder what the walls smell like; old and sweet? Maybe dry and almost powdery, but with a woody undertone. And they look so pleasant inside and out, too.

[#11 posted by The Lizardman , March 22, 2009 10:36 PM]

I like it.

[#12 posted by presto , March 22, 2009 11:12 PM]

I have seen my future. I must one day have a home made of these.

[#13 posted by Drhaggis , March 22, 2009 11:19 PM]

Bah! I could build those with some cinder blocks and some planks from a barn. And what about the wine outgassing?

[#14 posted by Simon Cameron , March 23, 2009 12:01 AM]

I have stayed at this hotel. It is a pretty cool experience in a pretty cool town.

[#15 posted by mooremadrid , March 23, 2009 12:02 AM]

@6 - EMPTY Dutch wine barrels - you're just sleeping in what they had left over from a heavy session last week.

...seriously though, 150 dollars a night to sleep in a barrel in a sleepy town? - I get the quirkiness thing, but shouldn't part of the charm also come from the low price of sleeping in something way smaller than a half-size shipping container, or maybe this is just my grouchy early morning mood meeting my claustrophobia and tripping over my stupid-crisis attitudes.

[#16 posted by Captain Maybe , March 23, 2009 12:03 AM]

"The wine casks are a great reuse as hotel rooms because of their ability to seal tightly."

This struck me as very slightly ominous. Just sayin'.

[#17 posted by seanboing , March 23, 2009 12:14 AM]

lol @takuan. Reminds me of a certain classic movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssM4KBRX_Qw

[#18 posted by murata , March 23, 2009 12:26 AM]

How do you select a room Red or White ?

[#19 posted by Irene Delse , March 23, 2009 1:07 AM]

What, nobody made a reference to Diogenes yet?

[#20 posted by Takuan , March 23, 2009 1:20 AM]

that would be dishonest

[#21 posted by frogmarch , March 23, 2009 1:34 AM]

The appeal of these is actually quite simple to explain: I like big butts, and I can not lie.

(OK, strictly speaking, I think these are tuns, but you see my point. You other brothers can't deny.)

[#22 posted by Big Ed Dunkel , March 23, 2009 1:36 AM]

Complete with hot & cold running Chardonnay.

[#23 posted by arkizzle , March 23, 2009 2:57 AM]

"that would be dishonest"

Or cynical :p

[#24 posted by unclewilco , March 23, 2009 3:35 AM]

now turning Beer Barrels into Garden Sheds would be good ideas as well..

[#25 posted by bardfinn , March 23, 2009 6:48 AM]

Frogmarch has won. Internet is over. Everyone go home.

[#26 posted by igpajo , March 23, 2009 9:01 AM]

I'd love to have one of those to turn into a playhouse for the kids in the backyard.

[#27 posted by Moriarty , March 23, 2009 9:26 AM]

@#16: I agree. A hotel consisting of "sealed tightly" barrels sounds a bit like a setting for an Edgar Allen Poe story. Or maybe a Grimm's Fairy Tale.

[#28 posted by Takuan , March 23, 2009 9:39 AM]

for the love of god, Moriarty! (pass the corkscrew)

[#29 posted by merreborn , March 23, 2009 10:16 AM]

"The wine casks are a great reuse as hotel rooms because of their ability to seal tightly."

That's actually not desirable in a living space. Proper circulation of air is critical, or you end up with nasty mold and humidity problems.

[#30 posted by Tswarts , March 23, 2009 2:10 PM]

Just enjoyed a fine meal at Old West Steak house in Steamboat Springs. They have tables set in old wine casks stacked one atop another, but they no longer serve meals in them. Seems some child fell out of one and after the parents sued, the new owner decided it wasn't worth the risk. Guests may still climb in for a visit, however; not sure if they have to sign a release.

[#31 posted by sfro , March 23, 2009 2:58 PM]

Another reason to go to the Netherlands....