Wake up, open your eyes, and above you there is only the sky. No ceiling, no chandelier, not even a small crack to be fixed while the sheep, only stars are counted. Welcome to the Null Stern Hotel, where you will pay about 350 euros to sleep outdoors.
In the charming Swiss, at 2,000 meters above sea level, someone decided that the walls are overrated, and so this hotel experiment was born that challenges any logic of traditional comfort: a double bed placed in the middle of the Alps. Stop, the end of the services. Or almost.
The art of sleeping without roof
The name is prophetic: in German, Null Stern means “Hotel without stars”. A brilliant word game that overturns the very concept of hotel classification. While everyone is struggling to conquer Michelin stars and five -star rating, these visionaries have decided to reset everything: away the stars from classification, space to real ones, which will be observable directly from the pillow.
The idea was born in 2008 from the mind of the artists Frank and Patrik Riklin together with the hotelier Daniel Charbonnier. An artistic installation that makes tourist experience, or perhaps the opposite, who knows. The important thing is that it works.
The bed is located in different alpine locations. At Bayart, in the Rhone Valley, you will find yourself face to face with the Ardevaz massif, while in Farinet you will stay near the smallest vineyard in the world (owned by the Dalai Lama, for the record). And then there is Saillon, where you will literally sleep in the middle of the vineyards.
A butler in the clouds
Now, before you think: “But who makes me pay to sleep outdoors when I can do it for free in my garden?”, Wait a moment. At the Null Stern Hotel you will have the butler, a true butler in the flesh and blood that lives in a hut nearby and will deal with you as if you were members of the English aristocracy.
He will bring you breakfast in bed, as well as serving lunch and dinner. What if it rains? Do not panic: the butler will take care of your transfer to a covered structure lying nearby. Even if, let’s face it, booking a night outdoors when they give rain is a bit like going to the beach when there is tsunami alert.
The strangest TV in the world
The gem? Human television. Every evening the butler will place himself inside a wooden frame and tell you about the news of the day, the weather forecast and some jokes. This is live entertainment!
“But what do they watch tonight on TV?” It will become an existential question when you will be the TV that you will watch a tizio in tuxedo that makes the news live only for you. A surreal experience that is worth the ticket price alone.
When art meets provocation
The Null Stern is not just alpine romanticism. There is also an urban version that makes you think: a suite placed next to a petrol station, with the same concept, therefore no bed, no walls. Price: 325 Swiss francs, about 350 euros.
In this case message becomes political. While you are sleeping surrounded by the exhaust fumes and the noise of traffic, with the mountains that seem a distant mirage, the question arises spontaneously: is this the future we want? If we continue to consume the planet as we are doing, perhaps we will only remain places like this where to “go on vacation”.
Customers can leave messages under the mattress for those who come later. A sort of existential guest book. “Dear next masochist who will sleep here, I hope you have brought the caps for the ears.” Or deeper reflections on the meaning of life and the price of petrol.
The essential is invisible to the eyes
What the Null Stern Hotel teaches us is that luxury does not reside in the things around you, but in the experience you live. In the silence of the mountains broken by only by the tannium of the stars (ok, the stars do not tinkle, but leave me the poetic license). In the breath of clean air at 2,000 meters, in the awareness of being a tiny dot under an infinite sky.
It is a return to the essential that costs dearly, for a completely modern paradox: you pay for nothing. But that nothing is worth more than so many “everything”.
For those with courage (and a good sleeping bag)
The Null Stern is not for everyone, it must be said. It takes a certain dose of madness to spend more than 300 euros to sleep outdoors, even if, perhaps, it is precisely this small madness that is often lacking. In a world where everything is standardized, predictable, insured against all risk, there is something liberating in getting completely into the hands of nature.
Of course, in the case of Russia you would risk waking up the marmots, and if you were sleepwalking, well, better by let it go. But for all the others, for those who seek an experience that goes beyond the usual weekend in the mountains, the Null Stern offers something truly unique.
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