In 2011, URBANAUTS LLC realized its first innovative hotel product in Vienna’s Belvedere neighborhood. The first hotel room (“Street Loft “) – named “The Tailoress “– was successfully operated for one year before URBANAUTS started regular operations.

By repurposing vacant commercial spaces in particularly distinctive neighborhoods (“Grätzl”) of the City of Vienna (Austria) and thoughtfully redesigning them into fragmented, decentralized Street Lofts that reflect the history of the locations, URBANAUTS addressed two market needs. Firstly, the need to revitalize vacant ground-level stores in so-called B-Locations, and secondly, the current needs of travelers, locals, and the local economy. In doing so, URBANAUTS has laid the groundwork for a successful hotel product that has turned many heads since Day One.

By involving local businesses in catering to guests, by correcting the streetscape – that suffers significantly from vacant stores – and by accommodating guests near authentic city life, the grätzlhotel meets both the desire of many travelers for personalized, individual city tourism and the needs of cities like Vienna for sustainable tourism.

In 2015, the ideal partner was found in Grätzl Betriebs LLC to jointly develop this concept further and open up new grätzlhotel locations at Karmelitermarkt and Meidlinger Markt in Vienna. In 2017, the hotel operator group expanded again and successfully launched a new apartment product: The etagerie linz in Linz, Austria, which opened in October 2018. The grätzlhotel also added new units at existing locations in 2018 and 2019.

In 2019, URBANAUTS Hospitality Group realized its first hideauts product with the Hotelwerkstatt company: Le Vignacce in Tuscany, Italy.

URBANAUTS and Hotelwerkstatt refurbished apartments in a so-called “Agriturismo” surrounded by a historic olive farm in a thoughtful way, in cooperation with the owner. Through the subsequent professionalization of the management and marketing, the magical Agriturismo Le Vignacce is now operated and marketed professionally to an international target group under the hideauts brand following current best practice standards.

Currently, Le Vignacce is run successfully by our partners from the Hotelwerkstatt.

Today, in addition to constant expansion, the URBANAUTS Hospitality Group develops innovative hotel concepts with various partners. It also provides expertise in cooperations while constantly looking for new ways to rethink hotels and vacations.

Typical forms of accommodation already exist in significant numbers everywhere. At the same time, the number of travelers is continuously increasing, as is the number of people who have had enough of the tourist bubble and the same hotel stay – over and over again. Against this background, individualized stays away from the typical tourist paths are gaining importance and hold great economic potential.

URBANAUTS sees itself as a hospitality service provider that enables travelers to experience authentic life. URBANAUTS offers a hotel product that has little to do with typical international hotel structures. URBANAUTS is committed to “off-the-beaten-track”-travel and is aimed primarily at people who want to experience authentic local life up close.

The guests of URBANAUTS stay in former storefronts and apartments that are seamlessly integrated into the cityscape or the surrounding area, and are designed with respect for their former identity and history.

URBANAUTS no longer thinks of “hotel “as an independent building complex. Instead, based on the theory of the horizontal hotel, URBANAUTS’ accommodations span an entire neighborhood and exist as part of a given built and social environment.

URBANAUTS unique, spacious, and thoughtfully designed accommodations are strategically placed to provide our guests with everything they might otherwise find in a hotel and much more. By networking with businesses in the neighborhood of each location (“Fellows”), travelers are well taken care of from the moment of arrival and are immediately integrated into urban life. Because of that, URBANAUTS accommodations are the ideal starting point for adventure and an oasis of tranquility at the same time.

Our accommodations allow our guests to become ‘temporary residents’ and to customize their stay according to their individual desires.

URBANAUTS’ Street Lofts and apartments facilitate a guest experience that makes immersion in the life of the neighborhood easy and allows travelers to experience a city life that has not been adapted or distorted for the tourist experience.

At the same time, we celebrate the tourist gaze on the city every day; – that extraordinary gaze, which longs to discover new things and marvels at many things that locals often don’t even notice anymore.

URBANAUTS has made it its mission to make the “off-the-beaten-track”-city an attractive destination for urban adventures and to prove that there are many places apart from the tourist hubs that are worth a visit.

THERESIA KOHLMAYR | URBANAUTS HOSPITALITY GROUP

Theresia Kohlmayr is the managing director of the URBANAUTS Hospitality Group. While still a student of architecture, she founded the firm Büro KLK – Office for Systemic Design together with Jonathan Lutter and Christian Knapp in 2010 and URBANAUTS LLC in 2012, which launched the first Street Loft – “The Tailoress “– in the Belvedere neighborhood in 2011.

“I have always had a passion for hotels and the host role and also have a lot of enthusiasm for good design and good living. URBANAUTS’ products are where it all comes together. The grätzlhotel especially is one of the great loves of my life.”

INES AUERBACHER

Ines Auerbacher is the manager of URBANAUTS Hospitality Group and is responsible for Finance & Development. She has over 20 years of professional experience in the international city and vacation hotel industry and many years of experience in leading positions in the upscale corporate hotel and event industry, among other roles, also as Head of Operations/COO. Furthermore, she has more than ten years of experience as a consultant in the sector.

“I love many hotels, but the grätzlhotel and the way URBANAUTS reimagine hotels, hospitality, and travel is something extraordinary.”

STEPHAN GERHARD | SOLUTIONS HOLDING LLC

Stephan Gerhard is the founder of the international consulting company TREUGAST Solutions Group. He has over 30 years of experience in the tourism industry and expertise that is indispensable for URBANAUTS Hospitality Group.

“I am proud to be involved with a hospitality company that thinks out-of-the-box and lives innovation in the hotel industry every day.”

CLEMENS KOPETZKY | GRÄTZL BETRIEBS LLC

Clemens Kopetzky has been a managing partner of the communication agency art:phalanx Kunst- und Kommunikationsagentur LLC since 2011 and shareholder at URBANAUTS Hospitality Group since 2015.

“It’s something great to be a shareholder of such an exceptional hotel that lives with its environment and not from it.”

MARKUS KAPLAN | GRÄTZL BETRIEBS LLC

Markus Kaplan is an architect and has been a partner at BWM Architects in Vienna since 2014 and a shareholder at URBANAUTS Hospitality Group since 2015. He is an expert for the conception and implementation of architectural projects and has contributed a lot to the unique design of many grätzlhotel Street Lofts.

“It’s lovely to create spaces for travelers that take into account the history of the spaces and are so seamlessly connected to their environment.”

CHRISTIAN KNAPP | URBANAUTS LLC

Christian Knapp is a founding member of URBANAUTS LLC and a founding member and managing director of the firm Büro KLK – Office for Systemic Design. He developed the original grätzlhotel concept, along with Theresia Kohlmayr and Jonathan Lutter, and helped design many of the grätzlhotel Street Lofts.

“I’m very proud to have co-created Street Lofts that beautify the city, pay tribute to the history of the spaces, and give people joy.”

JONATHAN LUTTER | URBANAUTS LLC

Jonathan Lutter is an architect and founding member of URBANAUTS LLC. In his family, they hand down the love for architecture from generation to generation. His focus is on the so-called Conceptual Approach and Urban Development.

“That we created something that revives forgotten spaces and brightens up the city fills me with joy every day.”