A seminar house is not a kind of building. It is a house you rent whole – with a room where twenty people can sit, a kitchen that feeds them all, and enough distance to the nearest road that nobody wants to leave after dinner.
The Black Forest has more of them than the search engines show: old farms that somebody has done up because they were looking for a place to work in peace themselves. They rarely appear in booking portals, because they cannot be sold by the room.
What I collect here are the houses where the building itself is already half the reason – not conference hotels with a projector in the meeting room.
Frequent questions
What makes a seminar house different from a conference hotel?
You rent the whole house, not rooms and a meeting space. There are no other guests, no breakfast times, no reception – instead a kitchen you use yourself and the freedom to shape the day around the way the group works.
How many people are the houses meant for?
Those in the guide take between about ten and thirty people. Below that a large holiday house is enough, above it you are into a hotel – the number is given with each entry.
When should you book?
Early. These houses have a handful of dates a year, and the good weeks in spring and autumn are often gone a year ahead. For the winter months the chances are better.
