Hotelship

A hotel ship is a passenger ship that temporarily or permanently, the function of a hotel takes over, the night is at a fixed location in the foreground. While a hotel ship, however, usually during the day goes to the next attraction in a Botel hotel function is more important and it should be moored at the pier.

Hotel Schiff

As Hotel River cruise ships are mainly used. To this end, the passenger cabins are not offered for a cruise, but as a hotel room at a fixed location. Thus it can be offered on site at short notice and without structural expenditure greater accommodation capacity. Especially with the expected capacity shortages during fairs or big events offer hotel ships a flexible complement to the existing hotel supply of land. In Germany hotel ships are offered for example at trade fairs in Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Nuremberg and Hanover. Investors are usually located in a central location in the inner cities. While a large trade fair, such as Drupa or Medica in Dusseldorf, be used up to 40 ships to house the fair visitors.

Unlike a so-called Botel, in which a boat is anchored in one place and will be permanently used as a hotel, hotel ships are only temporarily in one place. For ship owners and shipping companies this kind of use of river cruise ships is especially interesting, because they can not change as ocean cruise ships with the seasons to warmer cruising grounds. Thus, a better utilization can be achieved outside the cruise season.

Most hotel ships are designed for cruising and thus for a longer stay on board. They are offered in different categories and have 50-100 cabins. Had earlier hotel ships rather a simpler equipment, they offer today usually a 4 - to 5 - star standard. For this standard nowadays include cabins with shower, toilet, air conditioning, telephone and television. The guest also libraries or gyms with spa and sauna Moreover stand on board bars, restaurants and lounges and in upscale categories partly available.

One of the main trading areas for river cruises in Europe are the rivers Rhine, Main, Danube and Elbe. Here, since many cities are located right on the water, this area is interesting for hotel ships the area of ​​use. Investors are usually located in a central location in the inner cities, for example, directly on the bank of Old Town in Cologne, on Castle Square in Dusseldorf or at Holbeinsteg and Nizzawerft in Frankfurt am Main. About the network of inland waterways a flexible and demand-based scheduling of the hotel ships without a long transfer is possible.

Botel

The Botel is a boat hotel, the term is a portmanteau of the boat and hotel. In general, however, it denotes, in contrast to the hotel ship a floating hotel with a permanent mooring. Especially in water-rich areas are frequently encountered this form of guest accommodation. Unlike on a hotel, cruise ship or river the bedrooms are accordingly not be called " cabins ", but as in hotels as a " room". Botels are either built for this purpose ships, like the Amstel Botel, or converted old passenger ships. Often botels have a seasonal or year-round used by the shipping company fixed berth at the pier.

They provide a similar comfort as a hotel. Compared to hotels on land but botels are often restricted to a limited range of services, so only nights with breakfast for example, are possible. The rooms are partly air-conditioned and have TV, telephone and internet. The power supply is done through fixed land lines.

Popular areas for botels include Amsterdam, Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Stockholm (ship Mälardrottningen ).

Use of other ships as a hotel ship

At Hotel vessels are mainly to a temporary interim use of river cruise ships. Rare museum ships, former ferries, training ships or ships so-called event be converted into a hotel ships and used in large port cities.

Examples of Hamburg are located in the Port of Hamburg former over sea freighter Cap San Diego, who still runs the largest museum ship under its own power and the former harbor ferry Grosser Michel, are carried out with the ship as a hotel regularly rides. Common to both is the low compared to cruise ships cabin number.

In Bremen the Hotel Perle is on the Slaughter and operated in the Lesum estuary in Vegesack district of the former training ship Germany.

In 1947 the barque Seute Deern as a hotel and restaurant ship to Hamburg. Due to economic difficulties, she was sold to Holland and served for ten years as Pieter A. Koerts in her home town of Delfzijl as a floating hostel. In 1964, the port city of Emden was Deern new home port under the previous name Seute. After the short-term use as Gaststättege they arrived in 1966 to its present berth in the old port of Bremerhaven and is used in the museum harbor as a restaurant.

In Rostock, the former Georg Büchner was operated as a hotel and a training ship, in the 1990s, first as a boarding school and after the turn of the millennium to 2012 by the Friends tradition ship as a youth hostel and hotel ship.

Beginnings and development

In Germany the beginnings of the hotel ships date back to the 1970s. While the international exhibitions it was often difficult to find quality accommodation in a good location because of bottlenecks in the hotel market. This resulted in Frankfurt the idea to anchor during the International Textile Fair, a river cruise ship on the river Main and the city to be increased in the middle of the bed capacity. To date, provides the port authority of the city of Frankfurt am Main at the Nice -Werft ( ports in Frankfurt am Main ) berths for ships at hotel.

River cruises are in the last ten years has become a growing market in the tourism business in Europe. After the completion of the Rhine -Main- Danube Canal, the fall of the Iron Curtain and the EU enlargement, the opportunity for the inland waterway sector and also the Marine tourism have increased tremendously. The travel comfort made ​​river cruises to more popular, so they are now competing with the multi-day bus tours through Europe. The number of ships is therefore grown steadily in recent years. Thus, the availability of cruise ships for use as a hotel ship rose.

Another reason for the increasing use of river cruise ships, is the large demand peaks during hotel stays in fair cities. The large price increases of the local hotels during exhibition events have resulted in exhibitions in recent years to losses up to the migration of entire shows. Many visitors have stayed away or just come for a day trip, favored by excellent transport links via budget airlines or ICE train connection. Hotel ships same from these temporary peaks and contribute so despite criticism by local hotels, the attractiveness and competitiveness of fair locations.

Hotel Schiff market

Hotel vessels act as an important corrective in the hotel market. The market is too inflexible to respond to a selective high demand, such as during trade fairs. Additional hotel capacity through the construction of further hotels are not feasible in the short term and not always desirable because they result in low demand periods outside the exhibition season to overcapacity. The use of river cruise ships reflects this situation and enables a demand- balancing of supply and demand.

The marketing of river cruise ships is usually by charter agencies for recourse to capacity with shipping companies such as Viking River Cruises from Switzerland, or boatmen, ie independent ship owners. The two market leaders in Germany are Crossgates and the Regis Hotel Schiff GmbH. Your job is to charter the ships and provide the booked in cities as well as ensure that the agreed standards remain constant. The charterer having links with the trade fair companies and tourist organizations of the achievable cities to hotel ships provide to ask. The hotel ships are regarded as a possibility, more fair visitors in the city rather than in the surrounding areas to accommodate. The guests consist of both individual as well as from corporate clients who usually book their hotel accommodation ship through specialized tour operators, but also directly from the tourist offices on site.

In 2007, the hotel ships in Germany made ​​during the six -month season, a total of 100,000 beds on the market and a turnover of around 10 million euros. Thus, they represent only a small proportion of the total hotel capacity in Germany. Berlin alone, for example, has a daily capacity of 97 441 beds (as of December 2008).