I borrowed a copy of Unusual Hotels of the World by Steve Dobson from the library and it features 100 hotels across 40 different countries. Unfortunately Australia wasn't one of the countries included which was a real shame as I'd expected to find a number of curious and unusual offerings in my home country.
Instead Dobson gives us an abundance of art hotels, treehouse accommodation, caravans and way too many igloo hotels when I was hoping for a little more eccentricity.
As for highlights, I loved the look of the spa hotel Rogner Bad Blumau designed by Austrian artist Hundertwasser and the floating aquarium in Sweden had me looking up the Hotel Utter Inn for more photographs. A hotel in the Netherlands even lets you sleep overnight in an industrial crane and rotate it over the dock.
You'll also find accommodation in retired train carriages, airstream caravans and decommissioned planes which is nothing new. I wish the author had limited the inclusion to just one windmill, one airstream caravan, one art hotel, one treehouse, one igloo, one hanging pod/tent and one lighthouse instead of giving us multiple offerings of the same types of accommodation in different countries.
This would have made room for more of the 'out there' hotels and perhaps provided scope to include additional countries. I know Australia has some unique offerings that would have worked perfectly within the author's theme but sadly these were overlooked.
Visiting the author's website in an attempt to track down his Instagram account for my Bookmark Monday post, I unintentionally learned more about him. Steve Dobson is a marketer in the hospitality and tourism market and built ‘The Unusual Company Ltd’ and 'GoUnusual', a publishing and online media group which promotes properties around the world. Without digging any further - because my care factor is quite low to be honest and I have other books to read - I think I understand why this collection isn't anywhere near as well rounded as it could have been.
Definitely a missed opportunity but Unusual Hotels of the World by Steve Dobson was an enjoyable armchair travelling experience during a holiday period when I wasn't travelling anywhere.
