Book and Be Homeless in Sweden’s Faktum Hotels
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to live as a homeless person, even just for a week or a few days? Well, Faktum Hotels in Gothenburg, Sweden is exploring that very idea.
You can book for a place to sleep through Faktum Hotels, but what they’ll offer you isn’t available in a room or even in a building. Instead, the “rooms” are sleeping bags that have been placed in key locations around the city where the homeless were seen staying. The locations may not even have real shelter.
There are ten different places where rooms are prepared for Faktum Hotels, and the accommodations range from cosmopolitan shopping districts and parks to busy underpasses and old industrial districts. You may even sleep under the stars, in a small grove of trees on the side of the road.
Although sleeping under the stars might be delightful if you’re camping in the woods, the situation may feel a little different when lying near busy roads. Why would someone book in a hotel like this when there are probably plenty of great hotels with three or more stars in the area? This homeless experience might sound interesting to read about, but without the reason behind the strange idea, most people are left wondering what real motivation there might be in this weird offer.
To give light to this strangeness, Faktum is a group of professionals trying to raise awareness and raise money to help the homeless get back on their feet by giving jobs. According to the group, there are an estimated 3,400 homeless people living in their city and they want to get others in the area talk about the situation.
Guests can book rooms in the hotel for the lucrative price of only €10 a night. However, patrons don’t have to spend their stay in the “rooms” or even sleep there. In fact, there is an option on the website to book a room in honor of a friend. Since the profits go towards the newspaper and its initiatives to help the homeless of Gothenburg, Faktum doesn’t mind. The concept of leaving an empty bed where a homeless person might have slept is actually a powerful visual representation of the ultimate goal that Faktum seeks.
