U&Me is a web-based hotel, where you book, check in, and order services over the internet. The hotel has no restaurant, so guests eat their breakfast at the artisanal sour-dough bakery across the square, and no gym - guests can use a nearby gym in the city. Neither does it have a traditional lobby. Instead, it’s part of Umeå’s new cultural arena Väven. Thus the hotel can, with only a slight stretch, be said to have some unique services: the world’s largest hotel library (Umeå City Library), a theatre, an art-house cinema, a museum, a conference centre and a deli, to mention just a few.
The rooms at U&Me are not ordinary hotel rooms. Ranging from “S” (affordable, cosy and functional single rooms) to “XL” (expansive, inspiring suites), the rooms all have stunning views, and are filled with details that inspire creativity: instead of the usual hotel stationery, technical drawing paper and blank music paper come as standard in all rooms. Many have typewriters that are already loaded with paper.
The interiors are fresh and modern, with plenty of natural material like wood, wool and stone, and a wide range of colours and textures. Because of the unique character of the building, which affords fantastic views, all beds are placed so that the sleeper faces the window, the river, the city and the land beyond.
But the rooms are, literally, only the beginning of a stay at U&Me. The real innovation begins when you start customising your experience with “add-ons” that range from a spa visit to a guided fishing tour on the river. Bake your own sourdough breakfast bread, go on a berry picking expedition, visit the world-famous guitar museum, or why not get a few tenors from the Norrland Opera to wake you up with a stirring aria?
If you want a change of scene, you can opt to stay in a tent for a night - you’ll get a bike, a map, a tent, a sleeping bag and a camping stove. You can choose nature experiences, like a sauna on a barge in the middle of the river, or get to know a local by sharing a meal of palt, a regional speciality, in the home of a hairy Ume native. You can even request to be read a goodnight story by a local profile, in the soothing accents of the North.
U&Me represents a new hotel culture, where the hotel is the gateway to a destination, a place, and a history. The experience extends beyond the walls of the hotel, and every guest is invited to spend their time exactly as they want, fulfilling their own unique dreams.
