The famous Circus Hotel at Rosenthaler Platz is scheduled for closing at the end of October. The institution, which started in 1997 post-reunification as a backpacker hostel in a dilapidated building on Reinhardtstrasse and has since expanded to Rosenthaler Platz, where the Circus Hotel and the Circus Hostel are now situated on opposite sides of the street. After being recognised by Lonely Planet, it has become a landmark Berlin hotel that currently employs around 200 people. But now the owners are looking for a new
address, where they intend to operate the hotel and hostel under one roof. Alongside a huge backlog of necessary renovations (which neither the building owner nor hotel owner Andreas Becker is willing to conduct), Becker cites a recent increase in operating costs as the main reason for closing. While water, energy and heating have all recently become more expensive, his biggest problem is with the “massive” increase in minimum wage lately (+51% over the last ten years). Although this increase was necessitated by the rise
of consumer good prices, it was still nowhere near as sharp as the rise in rents over the past years (+69% since 2016). The necessity to pay online booking platforms 18% of the hotel’s revenue, as well as 7.5% tax to the city, also contributed to the costs that made him decide to shut the business down. Berlin’s tourist crisis is also partially to blame for the Circus Hotel’s closure. The city still hasn’t reached pre-pandemic levels of tourist arrivals, largely due to the fact
that airlines are withdrawing from BER due to high operating costs. Besides, unlike Frankfurt and Munich, the airport offers only a handful of direct long-haul connections, despite strong demand. But that’s only part of the problem, according to Becker. Berlin itself is equally, if not more, to blame, with its “large areas in the city centre that reek of marijuana”, as he told Berliner Zeitung, the first outlet to report on the planned hotel closure. The visibility of homeless people and Berliners’ drug use is,
according to Becker, particularly a problem for families with children and people from countries with stricter drug laws (some of whom come to Berlin precisely to enjoy what they cannot back home – but the city’s “libertarian nightlife” draws only a niche market that is not compatible with mass tourism, he argues). The target group that matters to Becker the most is Asian tourists, whom he stereotypes as valuing cleanliness and exclusive shopping opportunities (such as those in Munich), and who are opposed to drug
use.
Circus Hotel, Rosenthaler Platz, Berlin tourism, Andreas Becker, minimum wage increase, rents, online booking platforms, homeless people, drug use, BER airport