Owing to a rather 'ironical' ad campaign, an Amsterdam hotel, which claimed to be 'the worst hotel in the world', has become a huge hit with travellers in the city.The campaign, by advertising agency KesselsKramer, paints the Hans Brinker budget hotel
in Amsterdam as dirty, uncomfortable and lacking basic necessities such as beds.
Although the advertisers promoted the hotel in dog poo, the 650-bed hotel is attracting customers in large numbers and runs at around 80 per cent occupancy even in the low season.
The hotel's success is fully attributed the advertising campaign, which "takes honesty to the extreme" and are "revered and reviled in equal measure", said the company's website.
The ads promote the hotel as "similar to hell, but without proper heating".
Dave Bell, Creative Director and Partner at KesselsKramer, said that the hotel has found a unique selling-point.
"Everybody is always trying to be the best, but there are merits in being the worst. May be more people should strive to be the worst at something, when you're the worst you have a lot more room to be creative and do your own thing," News.com.au quoted Bell as saying.
In a YouTube video, the hotel promotes itself as "accidentally eco-friendly"- having a lack of services such as cleaning and elevators that are out of order means it uses less energy.
"The Hans Brinker budget hotel has been helping the planet, unintentionally, since 1970," said one advertisement.
"Here is a hotel where the light bulbs don't work. A hotel whose showers have less hot water than is standard. Where elevators stay out of order for days. And whose vacuum cleaners' buttons are rarely switched on," the hotel said in the YouTube video.
"To lessen our impact on the environment staff do as little as possible for guests. An eco-elevator ensures that the only energy spent going to the room is your own," said a poster.
"Leave the towel on the rack. We won't wash it. Leave the towel on the floor. We still won't wash it," said another poster.
World's Worst Hotel - Hans Brinker Budget Hotel Eco Tour Video - A video tour that shows the unintentionally green credentials of this hotel which claims that being budget is good for the planet.