The Lotte-Story

Year of construction ca. 1820, cellar ca. 1750

1964: Liselotte buys the house at Burgweg 3 together with her husband Wolfgang.

The family lived in a part of the house. The other rooms were rented out to students.

She enjoyed partying well into old age – her grandson Marco said that at his 30th birthday party, she was one of the guests who stayed until the early hours of the morning. She was 82 years old at the time.

Lotte’s 1st floor hallway.

Inner courtyard before renovation.

When Lotte died in 2010 at the age of 86, her three daughters had to sell the house. It was in some disrepair because it had been 45 years since the last renovation.

Carmen bought the house, which was only possible with the financial help of her parents, who took out an equity loan on their own home, and the help of friends and her partner. She had virtually no capital of her own.

With no experience but a lot of motivation a complete renovation started, with Carmen herself helping out every day, mainly by hauling rubble and later wallpapering, painting, and cleaning.

View towards the 2nd floor kitchen during the renovation.

View towards the 2nd floor kitchen after the renovation.

Inner courtyard / balcony after the renovation.

View of Heidelberg Castle.

After about 6 months, on July 1, 2011, the first and second floors were ready for Lotte Hostel to open. We had run out of money, so the rest of the renovation had to be put on hold and everything was still quite improvised at the beginning.
The ground floor renovation was completed in 2012 so that it was finally possible to use all 8 of our guest rooms.

In 2014, we received the coveted “Hoscar” (best hostel in Germany) from Hostelworld, an online platform for booking hostels, for the first time. We have received a total of 5 Hoscars, of which we are very proud.