A key without ceremonies

By Flavia Tomaello, https://flaviatomaello.blog/, Instagram @flavia.tomaello

No one is going to carry the suitcases up to the room at Coco Hotel, nor will they keep an eye on the guest who has just arrived all the time. Check-in lasts just a couple of minutes, a warm greeting at the reception, the key on the counter, and then each guest is left to their own curiosity to explore the building. This absence of ceremony is not an oversight, but a deliberate decision by a hotel that, from the first minute, makes it clear that it does not seek to imitate the codes of traditional luxury, but rather to offer something else: comfort, good design and an unbeatable location in the heart of Vesterbro, one of the liveliest neighborhoods in Copenhagen.

That relaxed tone has a quite specific explanation. Coco is the first hotel venture from Copenhagen Food Collective, the gastronomic group known in the city as Cofoco, which before opening this door already managed eighteen restaurants of very different styles spread throughout Copenhagen. The restaurant’s hospitality, closer and less formal than that of a classic luxury hotel, ended up setting the pulse of the entire project, starting with the cafe itself that faces the street, which functions both as a reception and as a neighborhood bar, with tables occupied indifferently by guests and by people from the neighborhood who came in only to have a drink.

The building chosen for the project has its own history. It is a classic construction on Vesterbrogade that until recently functioned as The Crown Hotel, completely renovated to become a space that combines a certain Parisian elegance with the Scandinavian sensibility most common in Copenhagen. Huge, carved wooden doors, cherubs sculpted in the moldings and antique mirrors distributed along the stairs coexist with an interior patio covered with plants that functions as the true social center of the hotel, a place where it is convenient to waste time even if it is not planned.

The price of choosing design and location over classic comfort

This commitment to character over protocol also implies some disclaimers that should be kept in mind before booking. The eighty-nine rooms are compact, with intense colors, fair furniture and curated works of art, including prints from the Louisiana Museum, but most do not have air conditioning, a detail to consider for anyone traveling in the middle of summer. The rooms facing the patio can receive some noise at night, although it usually calms down around ten, and the only one with its own air conditioning is the family suite on the top floor, designed for those who prefer to pay a little more for space and silence. There are also no refrigerators in the rooms, and anyone traveling with a baby can request a travel crib, generally at an additional cost, in a space that is quite tight for three people.

These same characteristics explain why Coco is not usually recommended as the first option for families with very young children, although it is a solid alternative for couples, groups of friends or any traveler willing to give up square meters and some services in exchange for design, location and a much more affordable rate than other boutique hotels in the city. The rest of the experience is completed at Coco Café & Bar, with coffee and pastries in the morning, a lunch menu with Scandinavian classics such as shrimp smørrebrød between eleven and three in the afternoon, and light options during the rest of the day, olives, anchovies, designed to accompany a glass from a menu that includes more than five hundred wine labels. It’s best to arrive early, especially on weekends, because the place fills up quickly.

That energy has a lot to do with location. Vesterbro was, until just a couple of decades ago, the red light district of Copenhagen, a neighborhood that the city preferred to keep away from the tourist circuit. Today it concentrates natural wine bars, signature restaurants and the Meatpacking District, the former slaughterhouse area converted into a gallery and nightlife hub, frequented by the creative public that today defines a good part of the city’s identity. To this urban transformation, Coco adds a concrete environmental commitment, with Green Key certification, plastic-free operation and energy from a solar park that Cofoco installed in 2017, capable of supplying the hotel, its eighteen restaurants, and dumping surplus into the Danish national electrical grid.

In terms of accessibility, there is a large and adapted room on the ground floor, although without a grab bar next to the toilet, and a small elevator as an alternative to stairs for those who need it. The rest of the rooms, not adapted, have a small step at the entrance to the bathroom.

These types of details, none of which are too serious separately, complete the portrait of a hotel that does not seek to be everything to everyone. Coco works best when it is understood as another extension of the gastronomic project that gave rise to it, a place where the design and the wine matter as much as the mattress, and where the chosen neighborhood is as much a part of the proposal as any amenity within the building. Whoever arrives looking for the ceremony of a traditional luxury hotel may feel a little disconcerted at the reception, but whoever seeks to be close to everything, sleep well without spending too much and go directly to the Vesterbrogade sidewalk to find the most lively Copenhagen, will quickly understand why Coco became, in such a short time, one of the most recommended addresses in the neighborhood.

They are, in short, the small compromises of a hotel that decided to bet on something else rather than seamless comfort, that of feeling, as soon as you have crossed the door, as if you were at the home of a friend who also knows very well about wines and good food.

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