The trouble with the hotel star rating system is: what happens when your hotel gets to 5? OK, some places have started marketing themselves as 6 (or even 7) star places, but that’s just getting a bit silly.

Hotel manager Florian Weitzer has decided to do away with his stars altogether. He’s embarked on a “from 5 stars to independence” philosophy at The Wiesler in Graz, Austria, as a way to inject fresh ideas outside of the strictures of the rating system. Off the beaten track, for sure.

You certainly wouldn’t see the patina of the Wiesler’s rooms at a standard Sheraton, but neither would you enjoy some of the more unusual features and facilities on offer (guitars, binoculars, record players and Polaroid cameras are hardly typical business-hotel amenities). Spacious rooms with individual charm, a new take on the traditional hotel restaurant with vinyl lounge sounds to aid digestion, and perhaps the hirsute gentleman may wish to avail himself of the traditional hand-shave before dinner?

Photography © Hotel Wiesler Graz