Story of Success: Hotel for Handicaps

15.08.2006

The house was intended to give disabled children a home for the future where they live and work together. Today it is a small barrier free three star hotel where most of the employees are handicapped.

Claudia Petersen has Down-Syndrom. She arranges the breakfast buffet and that she likes very much. Each and every morning she ebulliently asks the hotel guests: "Do you want another cup of coffee?” Clemens Parschen has a slight learning disability. He cleans the rooms and that is what he enjoys. Above all he is interested in different people. Therefore he walks around carrying a lexicon with him and asks the residents where they come from or whatever crosses his mind.

The guests are not bothered. On the contrary. Most of them are pleasantly surprised about the friendly behaviour and the familiar atmosphere in the hotel. However, it took a long time for some parents of disabled children to reach this point since they had the unconventional idea for this project about 20 years ago. Their handicapped children were friends and went to school together. After school probably most of them would have never seen each other again. To avoid that, the parents came up with the concept of a little hotel with seven rooms and an own laundry, where the children can live and work together.

In 1987 the parents founded an association to achieve their aim more easily. Eight years later the integrative hotel was opened. For two years the children had been visiting a college for hotel management, which arranged a class only for them. They learned practical things like how to welcome guests and to take care of them, how to clean the rooms or to run an errand. Then the business got started. But financial problems occurred soon after. They joined a bigger organisation called jugend hilft jugend (jhj) (youth helps youth), which now manages the project. Through this, the hotel got a professional management and the number of rooms was doubled.

Today, Clemens, Jens, Dirk and Kerstin, who are weakly mentally disabled, stay together with Britta and Annalena in a flat, which is situated above the hotel rooms. Disabled Claudia and her husband Sönke live in an own accommodation near the house. Britta and Annalena are strongly handicapped. They cannot work in the hotel. Nevertheless, all flat mates have a lot of entertainment. Educators, pedagogues and parents take care of them: After work they make trips to the zoo or the river Elbe. Or they pass by the Café Max B located next to the hotel. A working place for handicapped, previously addicted and depressive people.

Of course, it has not been easy in the beginning to get people with different disabilities to work together without personal problems but the integrative concept of the project has also worked for them. "If we see Integration as one of the main focuses, you can start it with your own people just as well”, says Kai Wiese, chairman of the board at jhj.

The persons in charge do not see their hotel as being a place solely for handicapped guests. Even though these clients appreciate to stay overnight there since everything is constructed barrier free and they do not feel stared at by others. Most of the guests are actually not disabled. "We do not want a special hotel sector for one group; we want a mix of different people”, explains Wiese. And the concept works. Not only because the hotel can even offer apprenticeship training positions or because another hotel in Hamburg's prestigious HafenCity will be built soon. It is just because the guests feel totally comfortable. A glance at the visitor's book suffices: "A great hotel - a great concept! That's the way it should be, all people together. Keep it up and all the best!”

REHACARE.de

Information for tourists

Contact:

Stadthaushotel Hamburg
Holstenstraße 118, 22767 Hamburg
Phone: +49 40 38 99 20-0
Fax: +49 40 38 99 20-20
E-Mail: zufrieden@stadthaushotel.com
Homepage: www.stadthaushotel.com

Rooms and equipment and parking facilities:

Seven rooms are adapted for wheelchairs. They and six other modern rooms are each equipped with shower, toilet, telephone, TV, and radio alarm. All rooms are suited for sufferers of allergies. The four single rooms together with four of the double bedrooms are equipped with internet access. Entrance door, hall doors and windows can be opened electronically.

Prices:

Single room per day: 72 € (incl. bed & breakfast plus carpark)
Double room per day: 97 € (incl. bed & breakfast plus carpark)
Conference room per day: 77 €