Fully occupied? Hong Kong's protest hotel

Story highlights Entrepreneur opened up the small hotel using memorabilia from Hong Kong's Occupy Central protests For as little as $10 per night, guests can pay to sleep in an original occupy tent 11-week-long pro-democracy protests captured the imagination of people around the world

Tucked away in an apartment building on a quiet side street of Hong Kong's busy Causeway Bay district, this small hotel is a shrine to the Umbrella Revolution.

Freelance translator Stephen Thompson rented the apartment in early December, in the same week that police began clearing out the city's pro-democracy protest sites.

"I literally got the keys and then the next day I went down to Admiralty (the main protest site) and the police were coming and I just grabbed as much as I could," says Thompson.

Posters, artwork and memorabilia from all three main protest sites now plaster every inch of the 600 square foot abode.

Rows of construction helmets are mounted neatly on the wall, gas masks hang like ornaments around a door frame, newspaper clippings wallpaper the kitchen and a yellow umbrella serves a partial curtain, shielding the living room from the sun.

"I had the idea at first of an exhibition," Thompson says, "and then when they (police) gave me the tents I thought, well, I'll put the tents in here too."

And the idea for Occupy Central Hotel was born.

For as little as HK$78 ($10) per night, guests can pay via a listing on Airbnb to sleep in an original occupy tent. The two-bedroom apartment accommodates a total of eight, Thompson says, but five is the most he's rented at once. Each tent is adorned with a name relating to the movement, such as "Freedom House" and "Foreign Force HQ."

Nicholas Watmough, 26, followed the Hong Kong protests from his hometown of Manchester, England, and recently extended his visit at the hotel.

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Fully occupied? Hong Kong's protest hotel