World's skinniest hotel: Inspiration behind Indonesia's PituRooms measuring just 9 feet across

A recently opened hotel in Indonesia is vying to be called the "world's skinniest" —however, the project's author claims that the goal is to draw attention to his hometown of a tiny town internationally rather than merely aiming to break a world record.

Growing up, Ary Indra lived in Salatiga, Central Java. Following his architectural study and professional development in Jakarta and Singapore, he felt compelled to return to his hometown of Salatiga and use his abilities there.

There, he discovered an unusable plot of land that no one wanted to develop because of its peculiar dimensions. Currently, it houses PituRooms, a seven-room hotel with a width of only 2.8 metres (9 feet), named after the Javanese word for "seven."

Each of the seven rooms in the five-story structure is large enough to accommodate a double bed and has a modest bathroom with a shower and toilet. Because of the regional interior design and artwork, every room has a unique vibe.

“I want people to experience Salatiga in a new way,” Indra told CNN. “I own, designed and operate PituRooms with my own team. It has become my new platform to generate a new type of tourism which involves local communities.”

Located 300 miles southeast of Jakarta, Salatiga is mostly unknown to international visitors who choose to spend their vacations in Yogyakarta, Surabaya, or the neighbouring island of Bali.

As an illustration, Indra informs CNN that since PituRooms started in December 2022, "only five percent" of its visitors have not been Indonesians.

However, Indra notes that Salatiga is well-known in Indonesia as a tolerant city with excellent cuisine, first-rate infrastructure, and a high standard of living. The Dutch used to use it as a favourite weekend retreat during the colonial era.

The majority of Indonesians, according to Indra, view Salatiga as a pleasant location to retire; nevertheless, he hopes that PituRooms is the first of many initiatives that will show foreigners that Salatiga is about much more than simply leisurely living.

“Aside from the technical difficulties, the biggest challenge was the typical mindset surrounding the hospitality industry that is used to superlative words: biggest, tallest, most luxurious. Here we are skinniest,” Indra told Dezeen, an architecture blog.

We made a lot of effort to transform this restriction into our best selling point—that visitors may experience the possibilities of living and choreographing their movement in "just enough" space—since this is a constructed study of micro-space.

From their hotel rooms at PituRooms, visitors can overlook Mount Merbabu, which is the base of the city.

Apart from the accommodations, PituRooms offers a rooftop eatery that is accessible to the local community, and it also intends to organise events and art exhibitions.