1001Places - Another 10 Even Crazier Hotels

1. Dog Bark Park Inn (Idaho, US): a beagle's hotel

Dog Bark Park Inn is a bed & breakfast guest house inside the World's Biggest Beagle. Guests enter the body of the beagle from a private 2nd story deck. Some of the dog's decorative furnishings are carvings by Dennis & Frances. Inside and up another level to the head of the dog is a loft room with additional sleeping space plus a cozy alcove in the muzzle.

2. The Inntel Hotel (the Netherlands): a hotel of houses stacked on top of each other

Delft studio WAM Architecten have completed a hotel that looks like a pile of houses in Zaandam, the Netherlands. Called Inntel hotel, the building features overlapping green wooden façades typical of traditional houses in the region. The 11-storey building is forty metres tall and includes 160 rooms.

The new Inntel hotel in Zaandam is without a shadow of a doubt already the main eye-stopper in the revamped town centre and a building that has set many tongues wagging in the Netherlands.

3. Hamster Hotel (France): a hotel that looks like a rodent cage

No, it's not just a clever name. It's a unique concept according to its creators. A hotel in the French city of Nantes is offering the chance for people to become a hamster. For 99 euros (£88) a night, visitors to the hotel in Nantes can feast on hamster grain, get a workout by running in a giant wheel and sleep in hay stacks in the suite called the "Hamster Villa". It is the latest venture from owners Frederic Tabary and Yann Falquerho, who run a company which rents out unusual venues to adventure-seekers. Both architects, the men designed the room in an 18th century building to resemble the inside of a hamster's cage.

4. V8 Hotel (Germany): a car-themed hotel

If you're the sort of guy who slept on a car-shaped bed when you were a little kid and loved it, perhaps this is the hotel for you: the V8 Hotel, a car-themed hotel in Stuttgard, Germany. The hotel promises to give you the night – and the ride – of your life. The V8 Hotel boasts rooms guaranteed to rev the engine of any car lover – because the beds and rooms are made from their favorite vehicles. Based in the centre of Stuttgart's Meilenwerk – a German international hub for car dealers – guests can sleep in everything from a Morris Minor to a Mercedes. 

5. Corona Save the Beach Hotel (Italy): the first hotel made completely out of garbage

The first hotel made completely out of garbage opened in 2010 in Rome, Italy. Trash was collected from beaches throughout Europe to build the Corona Save the Beach Hotel. Created by German artist HA Schult, the structure consists of five rooms and a reception desk. It's constructed from the clutter (12 tons!) collected along Europe's polluted beaches, in a motion to raise awareness of throw-away culture and mounting pollution. The hotel is located near the 2nd Century Castel Sant'Angelo on the banks of the Tiber. Helena Christensen, the Danish supermodel, green campaigner and unofficial poster-woman for the hotel, has deemed it a piece of art.

6. Tianzi Hotel (China): the world's biggest image building hotel

Located in Hebei province, China, the Tianzi Hotel was built sometime in the 2000-2001 period. It is a ten-story high representation of Fu Lu Shou (good fortune, prosperity and longevity) that apparently holds the Guinness World Record for the “biggest image building” whatever that means.

7. Nhow Berlin (Germany): Europe's first music hotel

Billed as Europe's first hotel, Nhow Berlin, boasts a state-of-the-art recording studio and guitars on the room service menu. The interior's surreal setting, designed by Karim Rashid, is combined with the seemingly physics-defying architecture. This setting serves as the perfect catalyst for late-night jam sessions and impromptu DJ sets. Rashid brings a whimsy that turns the hotel into what can be best described as an amusement park for lovers of glossy, hyper design. This aesthetic is reflected down to the color of the rooms, neon furniture throughout the common areas, and wallpaper and carpet patterns that clash in a stimulating way.

8. 9h Hotel (Japan): the first luxury capsule hotel

In 1979, Japan built its first capsule hotel — an inn with rooms consisting of little more than a bed, and certainly not enough room to stand up. Now developers in Kyoto are contrasting that minimalist approach with luxury furnishings at the 9h Hotel, which opened in December 2009. It's called 9h because users are expected to shower, sleep for seven hours, and then rest in a nine-hour period — although you can rent your room for up to seventeen hours at a time. Each pod comes with customizable lighting to help lull you to sleep and then gently wake you up.

9. Pavillon des Lettres Hotel (France): the first literary hotel

There are several literary themed hotels around the world, but now the romantic City of Lights has their very own. The new Pavillon des Lettres hotel boasts 26 rooms named after a different writer, with quotations from their work stenciled on the walls. Fittingly, the rooms are cozy, discreetly sexy, and each one is equipped with the new kit of the modern scribe: an iPad. Designer Didier Benderli's interprets the theme with the use of plush fabrics in rich colors and impeccable lighting. For your reading pleasure, the neighborhood is quiet after hours. Though it's right in the heart of the city, not far from La Madeleine and the Place de la Concorde – but happily removed from any definable scene.

10. The Salt Hotel (Bolivia): a hotel made of salt

A hotel in Bolivia always has salt on its dining table – actually, its dining table is salt! Here's the strange Salt Hotel of the Uyuni Flats. The hotel was built in 1993 by a salt artisan who saw a mint in the number of tourists looking for places to stay while visiting the flats. The lodge has 15 bedrooms, a dining room, a living room and a bar. The building's roof and bar are built of salt and even the floor is covered with salt granules. The walls are made of salt blocks stuck together with a cement-like substance made of salt and water. During rainy seasons, the walls are strengthened with new blocks, while the owners ask the guests to avoid licking the walls to prevent deterioration.