Anarchopedia:Featured article

Hotel Bauen is a worker-run four-star hotel in Buenos Aires, the capital and largest city of Argentina. It is a 20-story hotel established in 1978 by the Iurcovich family on loan from the then military dictatorship government and was well-known as a meeting venue for right-wing politicians. But the Iurcovich family did not pay back the loan and the hotel was sold to a Chilean company named Solari SA in 1997 which also did not pay the money. By 2001, the owners abandoned the hotel which left approximately 250 people unemployed. Finally the workers themselves reopened the hotel in 2003. They also fulfilled the legal safety requirements which was ignored by the capitalist owners. After the workers took control of the hotel, profits have also risen. Former lowest ranking staff, including cleaning people, dishwashers and receptionists, run the hotel democratically without any workplace hierarchy.