The Worst Hotel in the World: The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel Amsterdam [Hardcover]

Well-presented and entertaining, "The Worst Hotel in the World" is an encapsulation of some of the advertising campaigns that ad agency KesselsKramer has developed for the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, an Amsterdam hostel devoted to setting low standards and then consistently failing to achieve them.

The Hans Brinker's claim to stomach-turning fame is simple really, offer as little as humanly possible to your "guests" and be completely honest and upfront about the lack of amenities. What you get in this book is a good sample of some of the more amusing and creative marketing campaigns that the Brinker has developed over the years.

A few of the ones that I really liked:

The "before and after" campaign that highlighted the detrimental effects of staying at the Brinker.

The "eco-friendly" campaign that positioned the hotel as being environmentally conscious because they went out of their way to offer the least in terms of facilities maintenance, like light bulbs.

The infamous flags in the dog poo. `Nuff said.

At first it all seems a bit counter-intuitive, but it does capture one's attention. It's also apparently very profitable to be this brutally honest in your advertising, as the hotel is consistently at or near capacity and has the profit figures to back it up.

I'll also admit that I found it kind of repetitive after a while. You can only get so much mileage out of bragging that you're the best at being the worst. It's obvious that this kind of campaign is aimed at a specific target audience, the bohemian youth-traveler looking to experience the seedier side of Amsterdam's notorious delights. It's cool and funny, but also a bit contrived, especially when you learn that the Brinker isn't as budget-priced as it lets on. Manager Rob Penris even admits at one point that there are 4-star hotels in Amsterdam that have more competitive pricing tiers than does the Brinker. That said, you'd have to be looking for sleazy adventure to want to put yourself through a stay at this rat-infested dive.

Still, it's an interesting book, nicely bound and printed and lavishly illustrated and photographed. The Brinker may be riding a one-joke pony, but they are certainly getting their money's worth out of KesselsKramer. It's a good representation of what they can do on a creative level, and it certainly works to get the word out to a lot of prospective clients.

Nice work. Recommended as a curiosity or even as a souvenir if you've had the bad luck to have had a stay at the Brinker.

The clever and on occasion infamous advertising for the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in Amsterdam can be seen floating around the Internet on humor websites - not undeservingly either. From attaching flags to dog poop to telling off clean freaks, there seems to be endless ways to be unambigious and perspicous about just how abysmal a hotel it is.

The book offers a complete view of the hotel within a hygienic distance. As the book says, "anybody can be bad at something, but it takes true effort to be the worst", it seems that the Hans Brinker hotel and the KesselsKramer agency have truly went the extra mile at making sure the abundance of dustballs and lack of amenities is world renown.

I ordered this together with Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands, and what a perfect pair it makes; the premise of Zag being "when everybody else zigs, zag", and KesselsKramer did just that; in a world of advertising where every hotel spends millions on making sure how comfy and luxurious they are, Brinker is the only one tooting their horn on being the absolute worst there is. And it works.

I would recommend this book for anybody, really. It works as a case study of a marketing strategy with an edge, a humorous insight of the worst hotel in the world for anyone interested, and as a horror story based on actual events, for sure.