Munich - The view is breathtaking and the Alpine retreat's leading resident was none other than Adolf Hitler, yet tourists are ignoring a new, luxury hotel built on a Bavarian mountain, a newspaper reported Monday. The Intercontinental Hotel on the Obersalzberg mountainside near Berchtesgaden had an occupancy rate of only 53 per cent and lost 4 million euros (5.3 million dollars) last year, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported. The rooms cost 200 to 400 euros a night.
Amid controversy about whether to commercially exploit the former Nazi site, the hotel opened in 2005, replacing a guesthouse for Nazi faithful who used to visit the dictator at his nearby holiday home. A modern museum just down the road depicts the Nazis' war crimes.
The hotel's lack of success adds to the problems of a state-owned bank which bought so-called "toxic" US loans and needed a 10-billion- euro state bail-out last year to avoid failure. Bayern LB, which owns the hotel operating company, said Monday the venture was not for sale.
Hitler bought his Obersalzberg property, the Berghof, in 1933 and the whole scenic hillside developed into a cordoned-off resort for rich Nazis. It was bombed in a British air force raid on April 25, 1945 and the Berghof and other buildings were later demolished.
