Low Budget Hotel / Schimmel Hotel, Germany

Low Budget Hotel is a fantastically decayed abandoned hotel in Germany. Imagine the worst low budget hotel you have ever visited. Picture it in your mind. This is worse by several orders of magnitude, I can guarantee it. This location has another name: Schimmel Hotel, or Mold Hotel. This is for a very good reason.

We visited this location during our 2018 Easter GDR Tour. This is a German “lost place”, one of those that seems to be perpetually open. This location reminded me of smaller version of Hotel Atlantis, which I visited on my first Euro road trip in 2016.

Inside the aptly named Schimmel Hotel (Mold Hotel)

The Low Budget Hotel consists of two buildings. The first is comparatively neat and tidy. In here there are some simple rooms with nice double beds. An acceptable photo motif, and appetiser.

However, the second building is where the code name begins to make more sense. The main area of interest for a photographer of decay, is the restaurant. The dated decor is offset by wonderful vivid green moss growing on the carpet. Four mustard yellow chairs stand at a single round table, with an almost pristine white tablecloth. Additionally one of the legs of the chair has rotted away and it stands at a jaunty angle. On top of the table is a vase of faux flowers. The scene is highly staged after years of photographer intervention, of course.

History of Low Budget Hotel

This Low Budget is located in east Germany, and was built in the 1960s. This town is famous for the medicinal properties of the groundwaters. However, these are not simply mineral-rich springs. This area has volcanic fumaroles (or mofette) which cause these carbon dioxide-rich waters across the region. Therefore many hotels.

There are many hotels in the town, and it has been this way for decades. For a while, life was good for the Dutch owners of Low Budget Hotel. However, in the year 2000 business became a lot harder. Two new hotel complexes were built in the town. These modern and more luxurious hotels began to draw customers away from the older 1960s hotels. One by one, many of the older hotels began to go bankrupt. Low Budget Hotel managed to survive for nearly 10 years, before finally closing down.