The Mama Shelter - setting a new trend in hotels

The Mama Shelter used to be a multi-story car-park. Its ceilings and floors are covered with graffiti. It stands beside a disused railway line in what is reputed to be one of the toughest, and least fashionable, areas of Paris.

Having only opened its doors to the public two weeks ago it is already threatening to become the most talked about, and the most trendy, hotel in the French capital.

The graffiti designs on the ceilings, floors, even inside the lifts, are part of the décor – bizarre but welcoming, funky and functional – created by the internationally-acclaimed French designer, Philippe Starck. The hotel attempts to combine the informality of a student hostel with the best qualities of a top-class hotel, without the stratospheric prices.

The hotel was created by Serge Trigano, 61, son of Gilbert Trigano, the founder of Club Med. Trigano believes that he and his team have invented a new kind of hotel for a new kind of urban tourism in the early 21st century.

"I believe that the old tourist model, once represented by Club Med, is declining. People no longer want to wait for hours in airports to fly to exotic locations which are no longer especially exotic. The new tourism of the 21st century will be urban tourism, the discovery, or the re-discovery of great cities, like Paris or Amsterdam or London."

"The Mama Shelter is in the ideal place, not for the first-time visitor, but for those who want to discover a different Paris, a livelier Paris," M. Trigano said. "It is definitely not just a hotel for the young. It is a hotel for the young in mind."

The rooms vary in price from €79 (almost as cheap as you can find in Paris) to €200. The beds have linen of quality that you might find in the Ritz. Each room has a free-access, combined television and wi-fi computer screen.

Will it be a success? Well with minimal publicity so far, the hotel is still fully booked until close to the end of October.