Under One Tent – The Circus Group

Up to now, The Circus Hostel, Hotel and Apartment have been owned and operated by The Circus GbR and its five shareholders – Andreas Becker, Andreas Digel, Christian Göppert, Andrew Hadfield and Tilman Hierath. Alongside the changes to the operational structure of The Circus GbR, with four of the five shareholders maintaining ownership but taking a step back from the day-to-day business of the company, the founding of The Circus Group is designed to allow for new projects to emerge that involve some or all of the existing shareholders, while maintaining The Circus identity and philosophy across all the projects that share the name.

With the founding of The Circus Group comes the first two new projects. Those of you with an eagle eye on our social media feeds will have seen the recent announcement of The Circus Retreat in the 600-year old Castello Santa Maria, in Civitella d’Agliano, 90 kilometres north of Rome. Like Goethe and Rilke before us, we’ve long been drawn to the soft light and beautiful landscapes of Italy, and now we have a castle of our own as a place of relaxation and tranquillity among the olive groves.

The Circus Retreat will have 28 spacious and well-appointed guest rooms, duplex suites and villas on a 200,000m² property within sight of the breathtaking Bagnoregio, inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki, the master artist of Studio Ghibli fame. At The Circus Retreat our restaurant will use the best ingredients Lazio and Umbria have to offer, and there will be wellness facilities, a gym and private spa, pool and meeting facilities. And if you’d like to celebrate your special day with us, there is even a mediaeval chapel where you can marry the one you love.

We’re really excited about our Italian adventure, and keep an eye out on the blog for more news, pictures and plans about The Circus Retreat in the coming weeks.

Closer to home, The Circus Living will be our fourth house in Berlin. Located close to Ostbahnhof, The Circus Living will provide 207 service and fully equipped apartments in the centre of Berlin, along with coworking spaces, cafe and rooftop bar. In our recent announcement we shared more about the project, and we will be adding more details here on the blog in the coming weeks.

As well as four shareholders from The Circus GbR, this new project will bring on board as owners, with their knowledge and expertise, two members of the senior leadership team of the company, Katrin Schönig and Louis Bonneterre. One of our aims with the founding of The Circus Group was to give opportunities to members of our team to progress through the company to become partners with us in projects of their own.

We are certain that this is not only a good opportunity for those who work with us, but for The Circus as a whole, bringing new ideas and inspiration to the ownership level of the company. At the same time, although specific projects might involve new shareholders, we remain committed to closing off the potential involvement of purely profit-driven investors. The shareholders have always remained close to the workings of the company, making decisions that follow our shared philosophy first.

Of course, it is incredibly important to us that all the projects that fall inside The Circus tent – and we are hopeful and excited to announce more in the future – share our core philosophy. After all, with the opening of The Circus Retreat and The Circus Living at the end of 2023 and into 2024, we will be offering an incredibly wide range of accommodation options in Berlin that include dorm beds in a hostel, boutique design hotel rooms, luxury apartments, upscale living spaces and a castle in the Italian countryside.

Our guests will come from across the globe, will be at different stages of their life, and will come with different budgets and expectations. But we feel that our core philosophy is strong enough that all our guests, wherever they stay with us, will recognise the key elements of The Circus DNA that make us who we are.

You can read more about our philosophy here, but our mission and vision as The Circus Group remains clear. We see travel as a means of social connection and communication. We want to maintain a connection to our surroundings and a commitment to our neighbourhood. We place importance on sustainability and autonomy in all that we do. And we want to welcome our guests in the way we’d like to be welcomed ourselves.

Since we opened the doors to our first hostel, welcoming backpackers to Berlin in 1997, we’ve been constantly evolving and The Circus Group with The Circus Living and The Circus Retreat to come is simply the next chapter of the story. We look forward to sharing more with you in the weeks and months to come.