Ecohotel in Sweden left over the carrion and 158 barrels with excrement. The owners fled to Guatemala

After an ecological hotel in the forest in the Halland region in southwestern Sweden, there are 158 barrels with droppings and fallen animals; Interesting owners, a couple of famous Danish restaurateurs, fled with debts to Guatemala, where they invite guests again – the Scandinavian media inform.

In a series of articles, the Swedish newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” and the Danish “Politiken” in recent days follow the fate of the luxury hotel “Stedsans in the Wood”, founded by a few chefs Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbaek. 16 glazed wooden houses with kitchen and toilet were built in the forest on Lake Hallasjoen. The idea was to create a luxurious place of rest, without using electricity, with your own well, grown vegetables and caught fish. Human droppings were to be composted and then return to the circulation of nature.

The international media was delighted with the idea. “Minimalist houses, salads decorated with flowers and a floating sauna” – wrote the new York Times reviewer about this place. The hotel quickly became popular in social media, and before its opening 731 people paid for their stay or paid a donation. The cost of one night even reached the amount of 1 thousand. crowns (approx. PLN 3.9 thousand).

Hotel owners in December were still accepting reservations to announce on the website that “Stedsans in the Wood” was closed. “It happened overnight, we are shocked,” it was written.

The media analysis shows that the business has not looked like for a long time, as announced. The Danes company did not pay taxes and fell into debts, although it received a subsidy from the Swedish state for climate activity. Local authorities as early as 2018 alerted that the hotel sewage management threatens the environment. “The animals were only for a show when the owners left, they left them,” they told the newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” former employees. On the spot they found dead geese, managed to save guinea pigs and a cat. Some people worked and lived in camping trailers as volunteers.

In March, the hotel “Stedsans in the Wood” was formally put into bankruptcy, The debts amount to over 6 million crowns (approx. EUR 550,000), and almost 200 reservations are still waiting for implementation. The “Politiken” newspaper noticed that Hansen and Haelbeck in social media do not hide that they went to Guatemala, where they invested in a new San Pedro hotel with a similar profile.

“Bureaucracy and high taxes make setting new paths (in Sweden) almost impossible,” they wrote on Instagram.

The “Politiken” newspaper reminded that a pair of Danish chefs have been known in Copenhagen since 2010 from running the “STEDSANS” restaurant with ecological vegetables and wild herbs. The place was closed in 2015 after it turned out that he did not have an alcohol license, and also has financial problems. Then the Danes moved to Sweden.

From Stockholm Daniel Zyśk (PAP)

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