Check out of social media, get a free overnight stay at this Swedish hotel

The price you pay for a stay at Gothenburg's Hotel Bellora depends on how long you can stay off social media

Gothenburg's Hotel Bellora is charging guests based on their social media usage. Courtesy Hotel & Ristorante Bellora / Göteborg & Co

Travel used to be a time for switching off. Turning off your phone, getting away from emails and reconnecting with the real world. Today, with some travellers booking their next holiday based on how much Instagram fodder it will provide, that downtime is a thing of the past. This is why Sweden's Hotel Bellora in Gothenburg is trying to bring it back.

Located on Avenyn Street, the most famous thoroughfare in the city, the boutique hotel is running a promotion that rewards guests in its Check Out suite for staying off social media.

The concept is designed to encourage families and couples to spend time with each other, rather than scrolling through Instagram.

Social media use in the room is tracked by a Skärmfri smart lamp which monitors how much time guests spend on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube. Encouraging no more than 30 minutes of screen time, the white-tinged lamp turns red when the recommend allocation is reached.

If visitors don’t use social media at all during the stay, they won’t pay anything for the booking, which includes breakfast. However, if they reach the maximum level of recommended recreational screen time, they will pay the full rate of SEK 2,400 (Dh974) for the room.

Travellers interested in sleeping in the Check Out suite need to register their interest with the hotel before February 6.