Unique. (Comfort Art Hotel Siru)

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Product:	Comfort Art Hotel Siru
Date:	16/02/02 (218 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Original artistic concept., Location.

Disadvantages: Shabby., Awful art., Uncomfortable.

Well, what an unpleasant little hotel. I had often wondered about staying there, because as well as being conveniently located in the cente of town on Place Rogier (ideal for the metro, and 5 minutes from Gare du Nord), it uniquely sells itself as an “Art Hotel”. But I won’t be going back.

The idea of this “Art Hotel” is that every corridor and every room is “designed” by a modern artist. I think this is a charming idea, well above the whitewashed walls and cheap posters of most budget hotels. And I wondered how a small inexpensive hotel (74.37 euros per night in early 2002) could afford artworks in all its corridors and rooms. Well, now I have stayed there for a night I know the answer: it can only afford it because the artwork is so tacky and uninspired that it almost fails to be art. And the hotel is poorly-maintained too.

The hotel is small, seemingly squashed into a small space between a lamppost, a corner, and a gutter. But that’s fine, and the wonderful display of neon lights draped over its frontage sort-of makes up for it. The reception area is glossy and modern, and that’s finer. But of course the result of it being so small is that the corridors are poky and the rooms are close together, giving precious little free wall space for posters once the obligatory concrete pillars are fitted in. So this leaves space in the corridor only for what looks suspiciously like cheap posters. Sigh. Close examination reveals them to be original paintings, but they seemed to me to be without merit, and they certainly didn’t entertain me artistically. Each corridor is decorated (for want of a better word) with a suite of matching pieces by one artist, so they are hardly varied. The only good thing is that the lighting is so dim that the paintings are not obtrusive.

Ah well, I have never yet chosen a hotel for its corridors, you may exclaim. So what about its rooms? Well,
my room – the only room I saw – was frankly unpleasant. Like the corridors, it was small and poky. And like the corridors, it was decorated individually by an artist, but the art – two framed posters – was so difficult and unattractive that I preferred to spend my time in the hotel trying to sleep rather than admiring the artwork.

I would have slept better if the bed had been comfortable.

I really like pillows that aren’t too hard, more than one paper-thin blanket, and a lower bed sheet which is big enough for the bed. Hotel Siru please note, for you did not provide any of these. Luckily the central heating worked well, as did the television with a myriad of channels.

The room was really grotty. Poorly maintained, basically. Lights not working, loose tiles in the bathroom, a shower and taps that barely worked… and of course the wonderful curtainless shower cubicle which floods the bathroom floor… oh dear…

Breakfast was included, and to be fair, it was a reasonable range of continental breakfast goodies. Fresh croissants, cheeses, fruit, cereals and so on. A shame that my hurried breakfast was interrupted by an officious waiter who actually took my plate away while I was eating from it to put it on a tray (you must have a tray, m’sieur, the tables aren’t meant to be used without one).

I was delighted to check out after my night there. I would have been even more delighted if the checkout had been calm, quick and efficient. It wasn’t.

Oh, and 50p for each failed outgoing call (failed because the button on the telephone is incorrectly labelled) is a bit steep. Not as steep as the £25 charge for a ten minute phone call back to England.

Next time I am in Brussels I’ll stay in a straightforward hotel which doesn’t have any misplaced artistic pretentions. Anywhere that isn’t the Hotel Siru, in fact.

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