A Shanty is a small hut made out of old corrugated iron sheets or other waterproof material. It is a place of dwelling for the poor, often lacking in basic amenities like electricity or running water. To be living in one, you’d have to be going through an extremely rough patch in life.

Except of course, when your shanty is located in Shanty Town, and you’re just playing ‘poor’. Yes, as bizarre as it sounds, there are people in this world who think playing poor is a fun sport. And resorts like Shanty Town exist to help them achieve the experience.

Shanty Town is a part of Emoya Estate, a South African five-star luxury game reserve and spa. It comes equipped with corrugated metal huts that can accommodate up to 52 guests. Over here, the rich get to live like the poor. But no, not entirely like the poor. The environment is safe and the shanties are equipped with conveniences like running water, electricity and Wi-Fi. The interiors aren’t too bad either – the beds look clean and comfortable, there are refrigerators, televisions, tables, chairs and cabinets. Oh, and did I mention under-floor heating? Yes, they have that too.

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UPDATE: As it turns out, this story is completely FAKE. After it was picked up by Yahoo News, this story got a lot of attention, but according to popular rumor-busting website, Snopes.com, it was just made up by someone who wanted to have a little fun. Well, I’m sure they had quite a laugh to see the Interwebs go crazy over their made-up Sheep Hotel. We fell for it, good job. We’ll just leave the original article below as proof of our “disgrace”:

Sheep are to the Japanese, what dogs are to the rest of the world – awesome pets. Owning sheep in Japan is considered quite fashionable and the latest luxury for the wealthy. Sheep are cute, cuddly, gentle and loving creatures, so who wouldn’t want to keep them, right? Pictures of the rich and famous dressed in designer clothing and holding their sheep by a leash are really quite amusing. And the wealthy Japanese apparently take quite good care of their sheep, even when they’re out of town. Hotel Sheep is a place where the Japanese leave their woolly pets behind whenever they are on vacation.

Hotel Sheep Guest House was inaugurated last month, the first and only place in the world meant exclusively for sheep. No other animal is allowed inside. Not even rams, because hotel authorities feel that ‘rams can be too harsh to accommodate’. And you would be surprised to know that at Hotel Sheep, the sheep aren’t housed in regular barns, but in luxury rooms. Thirty such rooms are available and each of these is equipped with several amenities, including fine beds and television sets, in case they get lonely. Other services include a full-time trained maid service, and complete clean up. Japanese sheep sure are lucky.

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Ever wondered what it would be like to live inside a volcano? Now you can have your chance at a hotel that’s shaped like one – Magic Mountain. There’s even stuff spewing off the top (water, not molten lava) and cascading down the walls and windows. But it doesn’t look much like a volcano, not to me at least. I think it’s got this old-world charm to it, like a tower from Medieval times. Especially with the antique doors and windows, and a shaky wooden drawbridge to let people into their rooms.

The Magic Mountain Hotel is located in Huilo Huilo, a private Natural Reserve in the Los Rios region of Chile. The antique appearance ends with the exterior however, as the interiors are done up in luxury. There are only 9 rooms, named after bird species found in the area. Each of them overlooks the thick forest and wildlife outside, including toucans, iguanas, pumas and lizards. Guests even get a glimpse of a real-life volcano from the hotel – the enormous Arenal Volcano. Outside the rooms the special services provided to guests are definitely worth a mention. Hot tubs made out of huge tree trunks, overlooking the forest are a major tourist attraction at Magic Mountain, as is the world’s longest zip line running through the grounds.

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Couples on romantic weekend getaways tend to make a spur-of-the-moment decision to get married. And it is for this reason that several hotels, especially in places like Vegas, provide wedding chapel services. If getting married could be that easy, then why the long-drawn out process for a divorce? Well apparently, not anymore. It is now possible to get divorced over a weekend getaway too, thanks to the Divorce Hotel.

The concept of Divorce Hotel was developed by entrepreneur Jim Halfens, in the Netherlands. In a country where the average divorce settlement could be very heavy on the pocket and take months to complete, Halfens spotted a great business opportunity that could make things easier for parting couples. So all they need to do is check in at the Divorce Hotel over a weekend and all the necessary legal documentation to end their marriage is arranged for them. The service includes a mediator and a series of lawyers who help the couple split assets, arrange visitation rights and agree on alimony payments, all at a fixed fee.

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At 2.5 meters wide and with just 53 square meters of floor space, the Eh Häusel (Wedding House) in Amberg, Germany is the world’s smallest hotel, and a five-star one at that.

From the outside, the Eh Häusel looks like it’s been pushed into the narrow space between two neighboring buildings, but it’s the interior that’s supposed to impress its guests. The hotel is set up on 6 staggered floors and has all the features you’re used to finding in a luxury hotel, including a very comfortable bed, fireplace, fine furniture, flat screen TV and spa bathroom. Guests from as far as China or Mexico pay 240 euros to spend a night at the world’s smallest hotel, and believe it or not the Eh Häusel is fully booked many months in advance. Of course that’s partly due to the fact that’s it’s so small it can only be occupied by one couple at a time.

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Just days after the Varyag, China’s first aircraft carrier was taken out for sea trials, a second carrier, the Kiev is stirring up interest as the first aircraft carrier hotel in China.

The Kiev, a retired former Soviet aircraft carrier was sold to a Chinese company back in 1996, and was used as part of a military theme park in the Tianjin Province, since 2004. But since the acquisition of a working carrier, the Varyag, people have begun looking at these mighty ships as symbols of their country’s military might, so the owners of the Binhai Aircraft Park decided to cash in on their interest. They spent over $15,5 million restoring the old attraction and converting it into a luxury hotel.

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I’ve read and written about a some pretty unusual hotels, in the past, but this is the first chicken hotel I’ve ever heard of.

The Chicken Hotel created by 31-year-old David Roberts, from Boskenwyn, Helston, is almost just like any other hotel out there, with one big difference – instead of people, it offers accommodations for chicken. I know it sounds like a joke, but this  place is for real, and apparently  it’s also very successful.

“With more people looking to escape the rat race and move out in the country with a little bit of land, keeping chickens is becoming more and more popular. But what do you do if you go away on holiday? Who looks after the chicken?” asks Mr. Roberts, who opened his unusual establishment to encourage people to raise their own chicken. A former cabinet-maker, David Roberts built the chicken coops himself and now rents them for 2 pounds each, plus 75 pence per chicken.

Each coop in the Chicken Hotel holds up to eight chicken and the current offer includes buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner of local produce, served in open-air. Guests are allowed to roam around the hotel grounds all day, before being gathered to roost at night. According to Mr. Roberts, the hotel was fully booked over Christmas time, and he hopes half term and Easter will be just as successful.

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Featuring automotive-themed rooms and beds made from famous cars, the V8 Hotel, in Stuttgart, is the ultimate retreat for any car fan.

Located in the center of Stuttgart’s Meillenwerk – one of Germany’s hot-spot for car dealers – the V8 Hotel is a regular tourist magnet. Practically everyone who comes to Meillenwerk wants to spend the night at this classy auto-themed hotel. At $490 per night, the rooms at the V8 are not the cheapest, but that doesn’t stop guests from booking them. Even Stuttgart locals come here to spend at least one night in the uniquely styled rooms of the hotel.

Built inside the old Boblingen Airport, the V8 Hotel has 34 rooms, each with its own unique interior, including one three level suite, set up in the old airport tower. The four star establishment uses antique accessories and original car parts as decorations for its rooms, and the car beds are made from classic cars like old Cadillacs, Mercedes or Moris Minor.

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I know it sounds incredible, but the world’s first one million star hotel is not what you’d expect. If you love the outdoors, it’s actually better.

Five star hotels are awesome, seven star hotels are incredible, so just imagine what a million star hotel would be like. I bet you’re not picturing a corn field, are you? Well, that’s exactly what the world’s first million star hotel looks like – a building-like shape carved into a corn field, near the German village of Bad Kissingen.

42-year-old Monica Fritz thought it would be a great idea to offer tourists the chance of living in a million star hotel that actually offers a view of all the stars in its title. She carved out the hotel, installed hay beds, and dug holes in the ground as kitchens and toilets. Not exactly the luxury most people would expect from such a pompous sounding establishment, but the owner says the night view of the stars and the fresh air are compensation enough.

The so-called rooms of the one million star hotel cost between 3 and 7 euros and, believe it or not, have been booked in advance. Monica Fritz says that despite the short summer season (the corn will be harvested soon), her hotel already has 400 reservations for the following weeks.

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With the Luxury Cat Hotel now open in Hertfordshire, you can rest assured your cat will have a nicer holiday than you, the next time you go on vacation.

Abi and Matt Purser, the owners of this five-star pet hotel, have always believed cats deserve the same attention and care as their owners, and that’s how the idea for their business was born. Now, while their human owners are getting pampered on some exotic island, their cat enjoys the same star treatment at the Luxury Cat Hotel.

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The newly opened Inntel Hotel, in the Dutch town of Zaandam is now the main eye-catcher of the town center, due to its bizarre design, resembling a number of stacked houses.

Inntel Hotel is the brainchild of Dutch designer, Wilfried van Winden. Many of us see hotels as temporary homes, so he tried to emphasize this idea by designing it to look like a bunch of traditional Zaan houses, stacked over each other. The result of his vision is both unique and familar, and definitely stunning.

One can identify almost 70 houses in the design of Inntel Hotel, most of them green and one blue, right at the top.

via Dezeen

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Love hotels are part of Japan’s tradition, and the Queen Elizabeth is regarded as the most popular of them all. It’s not because of the great service, but more because of its wacky design.

Shaped like the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, this weird-looking hotel is located in Kanagawa, not far from Tokyo. Apparently the rooms also have a naval theme, so guests feel more like they’re doing it on a real ship.

One of the funniest things about the recently reconditioned Queen Elizabeth Love Hotel is that it features statues of Jake and Rose, from James Cameron’s Titanic, doing the flying pose, on the ship’s bow. I fail to see the connection, but I guess a boat’s a boat, and…well whatever attracts more customers, right?

Photo source: TokyoTimes

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The Rotel, a combination between a bus and a hotel, has been conducting worldwide tours for the last 50 years.

Yes, the Rotel is kind of like an RV, only it will take you to the end of the world, if the price is right. Rotel Tours was founded by a German entrepreneur (ironically named George Hotel), in 1959, and has since then conducted tours all around the world. From the mountains of Tibet to the scorching Sahara Desert, or the famous Taj Mahal, there’s literally no place the Rotel can’t take German tourists.

Featuring three-foot-wide and three-foot-high bunks, accessible through a zippered curtain, Rotel isn’t exactly the most comfortable hotel in the world, but it’s the only one that will take you around the world. The only serious problem is, while the Rotel features a bathroom, there are no showers. But the tour operator says its mobile hotels do make occasional stops, specifically for bathing purposes.

Source : Rotel.de via Jalopnik

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Featuring a truly unique design,  Hang Nga’s Tree House Hotel is, without a doubt, one of the most bizarre buildings in the world.

Located in Da Lang, Vietnam, Hang Nga’s Tree House Hotel, better known as Crazy House, features giant tree trunks and branches that try to trick you into believing this is an actual tree house. In reality, it’s built from conventional construction materials. But there’s nothing conventional about the architectural principles used by Hang Nga, the woman behind Vietnam’s Crazy House.

Daughter of a former president of Vietnam, Hang Nga was confronted with almost no restrictions at all, when she decided to build her wacky hotel. The Vietnamese government simply looked the other way and allowed her to let loose her imagination, without considering rules and regulations. And you can witness the end result in the photos below.

The interior of Hang Nga’s hotel is just as unusual as the outside. It’s filled with unexpected twists and turns, narrow hallways, bizarre rooms and dotted with strangely shaped windows. This is probably why Crazy House is more successful as a tourist attraction, than a hotel. Hang Nga, who lives in her “masterpiece”, tries to convince people to stay at least a night, but most prefer to take some photos and look for a more conventional hotel.

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Using thousands of permanent solar panels to harvest energy, the Solar Valley Micro-E Hotel is the largest solar-power hotel on Earth.

Built by Himin Group, China’s leading solar products manufacturer, the Solar Valley Micro-E Hotel opened its gates Dezhou City, eastern China. It covers 75,000 square-meters and features thousands of solar panels and solar heat pipe collectors that harvest and store enough energy to sustain 70% of the hotel’s needs.

The solar energy is used for a variety of functions, including air-conditioning and water heating.

via ImagineChina

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