Kellers Badehotel: A familiar feeling away from home

Kellers Badehotel offers a gourmet restaurant and makes a virtue out of letting its guests feel at home.

Sometimes, you want to escape the hectic daily grind and get away for the weekend – to disconnect and relax, without having to worry about a thing – in a place away from home, yet with all the comforts of home. Kellers Badehotel, located in Fanø on the west coast of Denmark, is such a place: a hotel with nine rooms, where you’re greeted with a warm welcome from the very moment you arrive.

“The upside of being a relatively small hotel is that we don’t need that many hands to run the hotel. Our employees know the guests who come here on a regular basis and their exact needs. So, if you had oat milk for breakfast, you’ll automatically get oat milk the following day. Or, if you’re having a glass of wine in the restaurant, we can bill it to your room without you having to do anything. They may sound like small details, but if you add them all up, they really make a difference for our guests,” says owner, Lars Bonde Sejerup.

He and his partner Sanne Juul Jensen have run the place since the summer of 2014 and they have given the hotel, which dates back to 1876, a homely makeover. “We have a lot of regulars here, and we can see they appreciate the close relationships. Just as we know them, they also know our staff, so it sometimes feels like we are a small family,” says Bonde Sejerup.

“Often, our guests come for a weekend to disconnect, so every hour is extremely valuable for them. At Kellers Badehotel, they know they don’t have to worry about anything, that the room is ready when they arrive and that they’ll get the experience they are looking for.”

A gourmet experience with a local taste

For most hotels, the accommodation is the main focus, while the restaurant is secondary. At Kellers Badehotel, it’s the other way around. Bonde Sejerup and Juul Jensen both come from a background in the restaurant industry, having worked at several of Denmark’s well-known spots.

So, when they took on the task of running Kellers Badehotel, their primary ambition was to create a unique dining experience in Fanø. “We are not a hotel with a restaurant, but a restaurant with a hotel. The restaurant is the catalyst for everything we do and it’s where we spend most of our energy. We offer a different experience from what you’d usually find around here. We have a focus on local ingredients and buy from local suppliers to ensure it’s as authentic as possible. It could be lamb or freshly caught shellfish from The Wadden Sea, depending on the season,” explains Bonde Sejerup

A couple of times a year, Kellers Badehotel hosts wine tastings, inviting European producers to the restaurant to present their wine, while the kitchen provides matched dishes. While the menu always consists of three starters, three main courses, two desserts and something sweet to go with after-dinner coffee, dishes are updated regularly.

“The structure will always be the same, but the experience will be different every time, since we change the ingredients according to the season and not according to the calendar. If white asparagus is in season, we don’t wait a week or two; we’ll put it on the menu tomorrow. It’s the same with rhubarb. Our meat comes from local suppliers, so that also dictates what kind of meat we are serving and when. But one thing is for sure. It will always have the taste of Fanø,” says Bonde Sejerup.

Have your next conference at Kellers Badehotel

Kellers Badehotel offers company conference and meeting facilities onpremises. The room can host 20 people and is equipped with AV equipment. A conference can be combined with a stay and the staff are happy to help with the organisation of various trips such as local bunker safaris or guided nature tours.

Web: www.kellersbadehotel.dk
Facebook: kellersbadehotel
Instagram: @kellersbadehotel