The Efteling Hotel has had a lot of licks of paint. The iconic ‘Wonder Hotel’, which can be seen immediately when you come from the highway and drive to Efteling, was needed to renovation. “It was somewhat boring and dated. I don’t want to say that nothing had been done about it since 1992, but you really saw that it was necessary,” says hotel manager Peter van der Heiden.
The hotel remained closed for three months and a lot has changed. “Now you really don’t recognize it back”, the hotel manager continues. In recent years they have taken several steps to freshen things up: “In 2021 all rooms were tackled. And two years ago we did a lot on the outside. Then we had blue come back in the interior and the well -known orange towers were also replaced by gold towers.”
Now the very last step has been completed: the corridor where all guests arrive. “The hotel has undergone a large metamorphosis,” says Peter while the first guests walk in quietly. Almost all separate spaces and intermediate walls on the ground floor have been demolished. And no more counter is needed in the hallway because the guests can now check in completely themselves via screens.
Fairy tales and theme figures are also incorporated in the lobby: Holle Bolle Gijs can also be found and figures from the brand new attraction ‘Danse Macabre’ can also be seen during arrival. If you walk on, you will enter the so -called engine room. There the castle of air is ‘driven’, and hangs all kinds of meters on the wall.
The metamorphosis was anything but free. “It has cost more than ten million euros. But the guests don’t notice anything financially. The guests no longer spend money on an overnight stay.” A night in the smallest four -person room including two days of access to the park and breakfast costs you six hundred euros. Anyway, the Efteling visitors are happy that the hotel is open again because the hotel is almost full in April.
All themes and fairy tales have tried to process the makers in the hotel. Designer Bas van Rijsbergen says that the design must create the illusion that the hotel is floating on a cloud. “During their sleep in dreamland, guests have to dream further about what they experienced in the park that day. I have dreamed about it very often,” says the designer with visible bags under his eyes.
