Comfort Hotel Art Siru, Sint-Joost-ten-Node

...itself.

The Comfort Hotel Art Siru (or the Siru as I'll refer to it from now on) is a strange beast. A few years ago, around 130 contemporary Belgian artists were commissioned to decorate each of the 101 rooms, to create the world's first 'Art Hotel'. Every room is decorated with unique and original paintings or sculptures, and it really is a lovely idea.

The bizarre thing is that you'd expect this kind of innovation ...
...budget business traveller. It's a Comfort Inn with better decoration. There's no bar and the only facilities are a conference room and a breakfast area. Oh, and a vending machine on the fourth floor. Basically, the whole art thing seems to be a bit of a gimmick for a hotel that would otherwise be a bit lost, sandwiched as it is between the Hilton and the Sherraton.

I kept wondering if I was just missing the point, as I roamed the corridors ... more

For some reason, I booked a week's holiday to Brussels. On my own. It should be stated straight away that I didn't have a great holiday, but I'll try not to let that influence my views of the hotel itself.

The Comfort Hotel Art Siru (or the Siru as I'll refer to it from now on) is a strange beast. A few years ago, around 130 contemporary Belgian artists were commissioned to decorate each of the 101 rooms, to create the world's first 'Art Hotel'. Every room is decorated with unique and original paintings or sculptures, and it really is a lovely idea.

The bizarre thing is that you'd expect this kind of innovation in some kind of high-end resort hotel. The sort of place that has huge suites where actors are interviewed about their latest film against the background of a new and daring work of art.

The Siru, on the other hand, is otherwise a completely unremarkable hotel aimed squarely at the budget business traveller. It's a Comfort Inn with better decoration. There's no bar and the only facilities are a conference room and a breakfast area. Oh, and a vending machine on the fourth floor. Basically, the whole art thing seems to be a bit of a gimmick for a hotel that would otherwise be a bit lost, sandwiched as it is between the Hilton and the Sherraton.

I kept wondering if I was just missing the point, as I roamed the corridors in search of a chocolate waffle. Clearly a lot of work had gone into this enterprise, and the wall next to reception was covered in quotes from journalists in raptures over the idea. But they obviously hadn't stayed in my room.

My room. Ah. As soon as I get access to my holiday snaps, I shall of course upload the picture of the 'artwork' that graced my wall. Basically it was a little brown man sitting on a shelf. And it was interesting enough, I suppose, and there was a plaque about the artist as well, but after the first five minutes you realise that you're there for a week and you're probably not going to look at it again.

So that's enough about the art. The rest of the room was nice enough - a TV which had about 20 channels if you include all the pay per view movies and porn, a sparkling en-suite bathroom with powerful shower, comfy twin beds (there was only one pillow on each bed but I was on my own so used the pillow from the empty bed), a desk and chair. Basic but clean and comfortable, pretty much what I wanted. No food, no room service, no laundry service, no pool, no gym.

I was a bit annoyed at the lack of a mini-bar though. There was one, it was just empty. Without a bar in the hotel, this lack of drinking facilities was a bit inconvenient for the 'quick one before bed' (get your minds out of the gutter). Particularly in view of the location.

The location. Now, I'm not going to turn this into a rant about Brussels, that's another story. The Siru is situated on Place Rogier, at one end of (apparently) the longest pedestrianised shopping street in Belgium. There's a huge shopping arcade with FNAC and a supermarket and all sorts of high street shops just five minutes walk away. So that's fine but... I'm not one of nature's shoppers. The nearest bar is also about five minutes walk away, called Sunrisa. I really liked that place, but it's just as well, as it was the only option in the area that didn't close at about 9:00 in the evening.

They DID have a lot of sex shops, strip clubs and brothels in the area though, and once again I found myself staying in the red light district. There weren't many prostitutes in the streets, but the huge number of 'Exotic' DVD shops was a bit tacky considering I was in Brussels to go to galleries, battlefields and parks.

Breakfast was... OK. They had a lot of yoghurts and baguettes and croissants and things, as well as bacon and scrambled eggs. It just wasn't very nice. It was included in the price of the room and I still felt a bit cheated every time I left. If I'd just stuck to orange juice and a yoghurt, as I did towards the end of the trip, I'd have been a bit happier about things.

I thought I'd booked into a ground-breaking hotel where the unique decoration of my room would be an ice-breaker and talking point in a luxurious hotel bar. What I actually got was a cheap room in a budget business hotel with a scary sculpture. For a cheap weekend backpacking around Europe it's handy for the trains and pretty comfortable. For anyone wanting a nice holiday in 'historic' Brussels though, forget it and get a place nearer Grand Place.

I have no idea how much my room cost as it was an inclusive package with the flight, but I'd imagine it was in the region of £30 a night. 

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