Everyone knows that to get a true picture of a city, you need to have a good natter with the locals. In ever-changing Berlin, it should be mandatory – with bars, shops, clubs and galleries popping up, moving on and reinventing themselves practically on a daily basis; a few days in Berlin can be bewildering for the uninitiated. Enter Plus One Berlin, a new hospitality model courtesy of former Design Hotels PR Manager Clare Freeman, that looks to answer this need.
First up, there’s super-cool accommodation, in super-cool Kreuzkölln – one of the city’s hottest up-and-coming districts. Designed by two local architects – Paola Bagna (Spamroom) and JP Coss (CossA) – the accommodation in question sleeps from one to three people, and is a stylish blend of vintage, modern, salvaged and new – it’s utterly befitting its location, quirky, rough around the edges, but irrepressibly creative. Secondly – and this is where it gets interesting – is your ‘Plus One’…
Upon booking your room, you’ll be given access to an area of the website where you can browse the profiles of 28 well-connected locals, all with varying interests, lifestyles and professions. Choose the local who fits best with what you want to get out of the city, and you can choose to meet them for a drink – where you can get advice and tips on hidden and curious nightspots, shops or art spaces – or experience Berlin as their Plus One, for three to five hours.
As you know, we love ideas that toy with convention – and surely this is one of the most creative answers to stuffy hotel concierges that exist. Leave your guidebook at home, this is the future.
