Eleven years ago, Danish homeware company Vipp opened its very first guesthouse in Sweden. Called Vipp Shelter, the house is a 55 m2 prefabricated steel pod that, today, can be rented starting from EUR 1,500 for two nights. Since then, Vipp has gone on to build and open 10 other guesthouses around the world and they have all been widely celebrated for their designs.

Now, if you look on their website, you'll see that they describe their guesthouses in the following way: "Not a hotel. Not a showroom. Not like any place you've ever stayed." This is mostly true, but they are also like showrooms for the company. And I've always found this to be a clever strategy, because what better way to experience a brand then to live with it for a few days in some beautiful locale.

Their latest guesthouse is called Vipp Tunnel (pictured above) and it's located in the Tasmanian bush. In case you're interested, it opened this week for bookings.

Photos via Vipp

According to Condé Nast, the coolest hotel trend for 2018 is the “un-hotel.” Here’s what they mean by that: “Instead of many rooms under one roof, these new un-hotels have different rooms in various locations, united only in character and concept.”

I wrote about one of these un-hotels, the Vipp Shelter, back in the spring. I was interested both in how the company was using their hotel as a kind of shop and how they had adopted this decentralized approach to hospitality.

Different rooms in different locations has got to create some diseconomies. But the appeal is clear. We are all craving new experiences.

To me, it feels like a hybrid between an Airbnb and a boutique hotel. You get to “travel like a local”, but you’re still staying with a brand and there’s likely some sort of unifying concept across the portfolio.

Check out the SWEETS hotel in Amsterdam.

Image: SWEETS hotel

Vipp is a 3rd generation family-owned Danish company that makes everything from kitchens and lighting to prefab homes. But it all started with a pedal-controlled waste bin that Holger Nielsen – a metalworker – crafted for his wife Marie’s salon in 1939.

I love their design philosophy. It is centered around “fewer but better products” and around lasting function over ephemeral trends.

But equally interesting is what they are doing with their Vipp Hotels. Instead of large hotels, they offer individual rooms in unique locations, such as this 55 square meter design object in the Swedish wilderness (pictured above).

The rooms they have crafted are, not surprisingly, stunning. And that’s because they are deliberately designed as a tool to showcase their kitchens, bathrooms, bins, and other products. 

Here is a quote from their CEO taken from a recent Surface article:

“Traditional retail seems to be losing its power, but what is not losing power is our desire to see or do something interesting. I see our hotels as the experience economy coming alive,” says Kasper Egelund, CEO of Denmark-based Vipp.

Clever.

Image: Vipp