An eco-hotel in the forest in the Halland region in southwestern Sweden is now empty, with 158 barrels of excrement and dead animals; the owners of the business, a pair of well-known Danish restaurateurs, have fled with their debts to Guatemala, where they are once again inviting guests, Scandinavian media report.
In a series of articles, the Swedish newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” and the Danish “Politiken” have been following the fate of the luxury hotel “Stedsans in the wood”, founded by a pair of chefs Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbaek. In the forest by Lake Hallasjoen, 16 glazed wooden cottages with a kitchen and an outdoor toilet were built. The idea was to create a luxurious place to relax, without using electricity, with its own well, vegetables grown and fish caught. Human waste was to be composted and then returned to the cycle of nature.
The idea was admired by international media. “Minimalist cottages, salads decorated with flowers and a floating sauna,” wrote a reviewer for the New York Times. The hotel quickly became popular on social media, and even before it opened, 731 people paid for their stay or made a donation. The cost of one night was as much as 1,000 kroner (about PLN 3,900).
The hotel owners were still taking bookings in December, but at the end of January they announced on their website that “Stedsans in the wood” was closing. “It happened overnight, we are in shock,” they wrote.
According to media analysis, business has not been as it was expected for a long time. The Danes' company did not pay taxes and fell into debt, although it received a subsidy from the Swedish state for climate activities. Local authorities warned in 2018 that the hotel's sewage management was a threat to the environment. “The animals were just for show, when the owners left, they left them,” former employees told the newspaper “Dagens Nyheter”. They found dead geese on the spot, managed to save guinea pigs and a cat. Some people worked and lived in caravans as volunteers.
In March, the Stedsans in the Wood hotel was formally declared bankrupt, with debts of over 6 million kronor (approx. 550,000 euros) and almost 200 reservations still pending. The Politiken newspaper noted that Hansen and Haelbeck have made no secret of the fact on social media that they have left for Guatemala, where they have invested in a new hotel with a similar profile, the San Pedro.
“Bureaucracy and high taxes make it almost impossible to forge new paths (in Sweden),” they wrote on Instagram.
The newspaper “Politiken” recalled that the pair of Danish chefs had been known in Copenhagen since 2010 for running the restaurant “Stedsans” with organic dishes made of vegetables and wild herbs. The restaurant was closed in 2015 after it turned out that it did not have a license for alcohol and was also having financial problems. The Danes then moved to Sweden.
From Stockholm Daniel Zyśk (PAP)
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