By Alexia Brinkschulte – Image
Bananas, coffee or toys were transported thousands of miles across the sea in these containers. Now they are to offer hotel guests a comfortable stay. Everywhere.
Entrepreneur Nico Sauerland (36) and his two business partners from Wassenberg (Heinsberg district) came up with the idea of hotels made from old cargo ship containers. Their start-up “Tin Inn” is one of the first companies to create overnight accommodation from freight containers – quickly, cheaply and sustainably.
Sauerland: “We can build a hotel more than 40 percent cheaper than is usual with conventional construction methods,” he says. The construction of the hotel takes three months, consists of 15 containers on three floors and has space for 20 rooms.
And how does that work?
“The basis of the idea is our patented process for insulating the containers,” says the entrepreneur. At the plant, containers discarded from the shipping industry are converted into housing modules. On the roof of the finished hotel, one of the containers houses the technology. “The room amenities are what you would find in other modern, high-end hotels,” Sauerland said.
Photo: Patric Fouad
However, there will be no breakfast, and check-in is also purely digital. Sustainability is important to the entrepreneurs in their concept – not only in terms of construction and energy supply: “Unlike other hotels, we ask our guests to let us know on the room sign whether they want to be cleaned or have their towels changed. After all, even at home, you don’t wipe through every day…” Between each guest, however, cleaning is a matter of course.
The trio came up with the idea for the container hotels because in the past they had repeatedly had problems finding overnight accommodation in rural regions.
“In the smaller so-called C and D cities, more and more hotels and guesthouses are demonstrably closing – and the big chains are not represented here. Nevertheless, the demand is there,” says the graduate in business administration. After the opening of the first container hotel of “Tin Inn” in Erkelenz, seven more houses are to be built this year – among others in Hückelhoven, Bergkamen and Meckenheim.
