Hope you had a great weekend. I’m traveling this week so apologies in advance if I have to run an extra re-run! — Dan

The Hotel Room With a Unique View

The Spanish island of Ibiza sits in the Mediterranean Sea, about 150 km (90 miles) off the eastern coast of the mainland. (Here’s a map.) It’s a great vacation spot, as you’d imagine, and like any other Mediterranean island one, it can be pricey. But if you want to get there on a budget, there’s a neat option for you: a free hotel room at an upscale hotel right on the water.

But yes, there’s a catch or three. First, you can only book it for one night. Second, there’s a ton of demand, so it’s not very easy to book. And third, you won’t get a lot of privacy — by design.

Here’s a picture of the room, as seen from the lobby, where it’s situated:

Yep: it has glass walls. And everyone passing by can see, well, everything. And that’s the point. The room — called the “Zero Suite” — can be found at the Paradiso Ibiza Art Hotel. The venue's parent company summarizes the venue as, “Art and aesthetics in the pure Miami Ocean Drive style come to life in our most Instagrammable hotel” — if you stay there, the proprietors want you to sleep and eat well, but also take a lot of pictures of literally everything. And that includes the hotel guests sleeping for free in the glass box in the lobby. Privacy is, literally, the opposite of the point; as the hotel noted on its Instagram account, if you stay in the Zero Suite “the absolute star of the show is you.” (The letters on the headboard make that similarly clear.)

And yes, if you decide to stay there, it really is free. As Yahoo! Life explains, “The Zero Suite has a bed, table, chairs, and, yes, a private bathroom. [The bathroom walls aren’t made of glass, don’t worry.] Guests can stay in the room one night for free on the condition they sign a release that allows them to be photographed and recorded during the stay.” And unfortunately, you probably won’t get much sleep. As the New York Post notes, “the lights never turn off, even at night,” so other guests can gawk even in the wee hours of the morning. And, per the Post, the room’s soundproofing isn’t great; “loud noises, music and other sounds [can] be heard inside of the room and vice versa.” And there are no rules against other guests knocking on the walls or otherwise disturbing you as you try to get some shuteye.

But that all said, the room is a popular destination for travelers and locals alike — and you probably can’t book the Zero Suite even if you were okay with being on display for a night. As of this writing, the request form for the room (here, if you’re interested!) warns interested parties that “it's peak season in Ibiza, and we've got only a few free days left. But hey, there might be some last-minute cancellations, so fingers crossed!”

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More About Fun Hotel Rooms

Today’s Bonus fact: Each of us should probably get eight hours of sleep a night but, alas, life gets in the way. MACq 01, a hotel in Australia, wanted to do something about that. So in July 2024, they announced a special offer where they’d refund your money if you actually slept. Specifically, the hotel offered a “Slumber Suite” for a discounted price of AU$300, which came with a “$100 credit for any additional hour of continuous sleep over six hours (monitored and tracked by a Sleep Analyser), up to a maximum of $300,” according to Time Out Australia. Customers had to book at least two nights with the hotel and only the first night was eligible for the discount, and it’s unclear how many took MACq 01 up on the offer. Unfortunately, if you’re interested, the offer ended on September 30th, but here’s an archived copy of the page from their website in case you want to inquire further.

From the Archives: The $1 Hotel Where Privacy Isn't Included: Cameras, not glass doors, make this one both cheap and creepy.

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And thanks! — Dan