When a jumbo jet dies , it's usually sold for scrap or sent to bake in the desert until the end of time. But Swedish entrepreneur Oscar Dios has a better idea for the 30-year-old junker he bought -- turn it into a hostel.
Dios is stuffing 85 beds into a gutted Boeing 747 he's dubbed Jumbo Hostel and parked right outside Stockholm's Arlanda Airport. It's got 25 rooms, with some of the nicest on the plane's upper floor. But if you're looking for a romantic evening with someone special (or someone you picked up a few hours ago), you'll want the deluxe cockpit suite. It's bigger, it's got its own bathroom and it offers a stunning view of the runway.
While most of the rooms have shared bathrooms and showers, they've all got heat and air conditioning, WiFi and -- in a nod to the airplane geeks surely making reservations -- flatscreen televisions that double as departure/arrival monitors.
On the downside, the rooms at the Jumbo Hostel are anything but -- most are 20 feet square feet with nine-foot ceilings. Considering there are three beds to a room, that's quite a squeeze, particularly if you're bunking with strangers. But really, if you're looking for a place where you can stretch out and kick back, an airplane shouldn't be your first choice.
Turning an old plane into a place to spend the night is cool. But turning it into a place where we can afford to spend the night is even cooler. It would have been easy for Dios to trick out his plane with ten luxury suites, tow it into downtown Stockholm and sell it as an overpriced boutique hotel for the beautiful people. But instead, he chose to leave it at the airport, and keep it accessible to the masses.
Nothing in Sweden is cheap, and the Jumbo Hostel -- which is slated to open by the end of the year -- isn't talking room rates at this point. But we have a feeling that this is the kind of place even a wandering backpacker might be able to afford.
05-09-2008
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