Hotel Märthof Basel

Hotel Märthof is a design hotel at Marktgasse 19 in Basel's old town, part of the Bâle Hotels Group. For weddings it offers two function rooms, "Charleston" and "Gatsby", which open directly onto its Restaurant Bohemia and are decorated with murals of Roaring Twenties scenes by the Basel artist Patrizia Stalder. The hotel has 68 rooms and junior suites upstairs, so guests can sleep where they celebrate. It suits a city wedding reception, dinner or apéro for a couple who like a room with character, in the middle of the old town and reachable by tram from both of Basel's main stations.

The two function rooms

The banquet page is headed "Location für Ihre Hochzeit in Basel" (a location for your wedding in Basel), and the English version says the two rooms "can be booked separately as a wedding location in Basel, or for team events and other occasions, and can be specially adapted to meet your requirements." It describes them as "Lovingly furnished right down to the last detail" and radiating "a luxurious, cosmopolitan charm". The page links that charm to "the illustrious bohemian society of the 18th century", while the pictures on the walls show typical scenes from the Roaring Twenties and are the work of Patrizia Stalder. The room names, Charleston and Gatsby, follow the same jazz-age theme, and the restaurant they belong to carries the Bohemia name.

The overview page adds that the rooms are ideal for "Geburtstagsessen, Konfirmationsfeiern oder Ihr Hochzeitsapéro" (birthday dinners, confirmation parties or your wedding apéro), and promises a stylish atmosphere with a bohemian touch. So the hotel pitches them both as a place for the wedding celebration itself and for the apéro after a ceremony held somewhere else.

The site offers an event brochure and a 3D tour of the rooms, which is useful for a couple planning from abroad who cannot visit first.

Food and drink

Because the rooms adjoin Restaurant Bohemia, catering comes from the restaurant. The page says the team will spoil you and your guests "with food and drink from the wide range we have on offer", and gives two examples of the range: vegetarian food, and "a substantial cut of meat from our Argentinian wood fired grill". The site does not publish wedding menus, prices per person or drinks packages, and it does not say whether outside caterers or cakes are allowed; those are questions for the event team.

Another space: the rooftop meeting room

The hotel also has a meeting room, "Jakob Meyer zum Hasen", on the 6th floor with direct access to a roof terrace. The site presents it for seminars and meetings and mentions ending a meeting with an apéro looking out over Basel's rooftops. It is not advertised for weddings, but a couple planning a small apéro could ask whether the terrace can be booked.

Rooms for guests

The accommodation page lists 68 rooms and junior suites in five categories: Superior, Signature and Deluxe rooms, a Junior Suite and a Marktplatz Junior Suite. Every room has a free minibar, a Nespresso machine with a coffee and tea set, WiFi, phone, TV, desk, rainfall shower and separate toilet. The site promises exclusive design, comfort and luxury. For a destination wedding, having guest rooms in the same building as the reception removes the late-night transport question. The site does not publish rates on these pages or mention room blocks for wedding groups; booking runs through the hotel's "Buchung" link. The hotel signs its pages with the line "Savoir-Vivre im Herzen von Basel" (savoir-vivre in the heart of Basel), and its menu also includes a "Märthof Experience" section, an events page and a voucher shop, which could serve for a thank-you gift to parents or witnesses.

Getting there

The hotel is in Basel's car-free inner city, and the site recommends arriving by public transport. From Basel SBB station, tram 8 (towards Kleinhüningen / Weil am Rhein) or tram 11 (towards St. Louis-Grenze) runs to the Marktplatz stop; from the Badischer Bahnhof, tram 6 (towards Allschwil Dorf) goes to the same stop. For drivers, paid parking is available in the Storchen car park, which the site says is a 2-minute walk, or at the Hotel Pullman Basel Europe, 5 minutes away by public transport. The site does not describe access from the airport or drop-off for a wedding car in the pedestrian zone, which is worth asking about if the couple plan a grand arrival.

Language and contact

The website is in German, English and French, and the banquet page exists in English. Inquiries for events go to the Bohemia team at bohemia-basel@balehotels.ch or +41 61 466 15 15, and there is an online inquiry form. The hotel's general address is hotel-maerthof@balehotels.ch. The site does not say in which languages the event team works, but an English website and inquiry form make first contact simple.

What the site does not settle

The most important gap is capacity: the site gives no seated or standing numbers for Charleston or Gatsby, either separately or together. It publishes no room hire price, no minimum spend, no menu prices and no end time for parties. It does not mention a ceremony space, music or dancing, decoration rules or exclusive use of the restaurant. It also does not say whether the rooms can be combined into one space. All of these belong in the first inquiry, along with a request for the event brochure.

Who it suits

Hotel Märthof suits a couple who want a city wedding dinner or apéro in Basel's old town with a distinctive 1920s look, food from an in-house restaurant and guest rooms in the same building, and whose guests will arrive by train and tram. It also suits a couple marrying nearby who want only the apéro in a room with character.

It suits less well a large wedding (the site gives no capacity and describes two rooms within a restaurant), a couple who want a garden or a countryside setting, or anyone who wants to style a room from scratch, since the murals set the tone.