History of the
seaside hotel

3

2021

In the fall of 2021, the Halborg-Bendtsen family will take over Melsted Badehotel with a vision of creating a locally rooted and traditional seaside hotel based on the site's natural surroundings, history and local environment in and around Gudhjem.

Against this background, local hospitality is introduced with a new hotel manager from Bornholm, Ajaja Kofoed-Nørgaard, and the physical framework at Melsted Badehotel is further developed in the classic seaside hotel style with respect for the hotel's basic DNA and zeitgeist. One of today's best interior designers, Josephine Malling, is designing the renewed design line of the seaside hotel, which balances beautifully between the classic seaside hotel and the Nordic minimalism characteristic of the seaside hotel's year of origin in the 1930s.

2018

Michael Almeborg, a businessman from Bornholm, is buying the Melsted seaside hotel and carrying out a series of renovation projects to give the exterior a facelift. These include new terraces, new roofs on three of the buildings, and new windows and doors in the restaurant in the main building.

The married couple Steen Berthelsen and Camilla Faaborg-Andersen lease the bathing hotel and continue to run it according to the concept of "quiet luxury" from the previous years in a cozy and informal atmosphere. Steen Berthelsen succeeds with his more than 40 years of experience in the restaurant industry to lift the culinary experiences in the restaurant to new heights.

2000

The Hjorth Madsen family buys Melsted seaside hotel and Lise Hjort Madsen puts oceans of energy and effort into the place for the next 18 years. She had a dream of creating a small, beautiful hotel and got the idea for her new life's work when she lived in the south of England and fell in love with the fine little seaside hotels on the English south coast. She set about renovating and modernizing the interior of the hotel in the best New England style with beautiful classic textiles, delicate little French lamps, luxury beds and romantic antiques.

She laid the foundations for the idyllic and peaceful Melsted Badehotel we know today with her burning desire to protect the peace and tranquillity you experience here at the water's edge. She called the hotel "The little hotel with a voice full of care.

Melsted Badehotel also gets a huge culinary boost and Lise Hjort Madsen helps to strengthen the food culture on Bornholm. She really puts Melsted Badehotel on the gastronomic map through a collaboration with Erwin Lauterbach and two of his Saison chefs, Frederik Bille Brahe and Peter Nøhr Christensen. Erwin Lauterbach is considered by many to be something of a wizard in the kitchen, and the chef who started the wave of gastronomic development that today has resulted in restaurants such as NOMA and world-famous Danish chefs.

1995

Gudhjem restaurateur Erik Noe takes over Melsted Badehotel and initiates the hotel's first major exterior renovation with the characteristic white buildings, blue windows and open green areas, laying the foundations for the seaside hotel we know today. The seaside hotel flourishes and becomes very popular among both locals and tourists on the island.

After his sudden death in 2000, the seaside hotel changed owners.

1932 - 1995

Klara Christensen was one of the pioneers of tourism on Bornholm. Early on, she jumped on the newest trend of the upper middle class: summer vacations. Simply by renting out the rooms in her house to summer guests. She ran it all herself and in 1935 Klara built a brand new and sparkling building next to the old house. Pension Ellebæk was the name of the place and the funk-inspired building is today Melsted Badehotel. Even back then it was chalk white.

In 1949, the hotel was sold and lived a rather unnoticed existence with various owners, including Harry Hammer, who hosted the place for a dozen years - and incidentally for a time chairman of Gudhjem og Omegns Turistforening, Aksel Hansen until 1983 and Lillian and Benny Henriksen until 1995.