1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Hotel Charges Guests by the Pound

DW staff (jam)March 16, 2006

If you want a cheap holiday in northern Germany, better go on a diet. A hotel in Eastern Friesland is charging guests not by the room, but by what the bathroom scale says.

This couple is going to be hurting when they get the bill at check-outImage: picture-alliance/dpa

Need a little extra motivation to turn down that piece of chocolate cake? Well, slimming down could get you a cheaper room rate at a hotel in the northern German town of Norden.

At the three-star Ostfriesland hotel in the town, thin in definitely in. Owner Jürfen Heckroth is running a special campaign where guests are charged 50 euro cents a kilo, or about 30 cents a pound, for a one-night stay, breakfast included.

"Slim guests live longer and can therefore come more often," said Heckroth. "That is why we reward them.

So a thin man weighing in at 60 kilos (132 pounds) would pay just 30 euros ($36), but a heftier individual topping the scales at 100 kilos (220 pounds) would have to cough up 50 euros ($60) for the night.

Given all the fresh air and hearty food up in northern Germany, it might turn out that visitors put on a pound or two during their stay. Besides, who wants to diet on while on vacation?

No problem, says Heckroth, who pulls out the scales during check-in, not check-out.
Skip next section Explore more
Skip next section DW's Top Story

DW's Top Story

Skip next section More stories from DW