Seminars and company events
Hotel Heide Kröpke in Essel offers nine meeting rooms, celebrations for up to 120 guests and 60 bedrooms on seven hectares of its own land in the southern Lüneburg Heath. Seminars, training courses, incentives and team days can all run on site, with forest, meadows and a private lake around the hotel.
The nine meeting rooms are certified by the VDR, the German business travel association, and all have daylight. They can be furnished and seated freely, come with professional technology, and staff trained for events look after the program. A covered terrace serves for group work outdoors, and the hotel also has an outdoor seminar space. Coffee breaks, with sweet or savory snacks, juices, fresh fruit and finger food, can be taken on the terrace or in the garden. The hotel sells meeting packages and incentive offers, and its banquet team helps plan the agenda and the evening.
For team building, the grounds host outdoor events with or without a guide, GPS rallies and barbecue evenings. A weatherproof wooden lodge by the lake, with an open fire, suits an informal evening after a working day. A Rotary Club has held its weekly meetings here since 2005.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings, anniversaries, confirmations, communions and company or family parties take place for up to 120 guests. The event rooms are spread over several floors, so a smaller group can celebrate in parallel with another event. The head chefs plan the menu and the team handles the details of the day.
Rooms and capacities
The banquet room divides into three and holds the largest parties. The Lönszimmer and the Kröpkestübchen suit smaller groups, and the restaurant rooms, among them the Kaminhalle, add space for dinners. The hotel does not publish individual room capacities, so the figure of 120 guests applies to the largest celebration.
Accommodation
The hotel has 60 spacious rooms, almost all with a balcony, plus junior suites, a suite with its own private spa and holiday houses. The Kröpke-Spa has a large pool, a sauna and massages, which meeting groups can use between sessions.
Catering
The kitchen cooks fresh, seasonal food with produce from the heath: buckwheat, Heidschnucke lamb, honey, cheese, berries and game from nearby hunts. Dinner is served daily from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., breakfast from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and the bar stays open until 10:30 p.m.
History and setting
The Schlüter family settled on the farm in 1923 and opened the hotel on April 1, 1931, with five rooms and a café. The name Heide-Kröpke dates from 1953. The house grew in stages: a dining room that is now the Kaminhalle in the 1950s, a pool, sauna, bowling alley and two seminar rooms at the end of the 1970s, a connecting wing in 1991 and a new spa in 2010. The Dr. Lohbeck family took over in November 2017.
Getting there
The address is Esseler Damm 1, 29690 Essel, near Schwarmstedt, in a landscape protection area. In summer a free bus links Schwarmstedt station with the hotel. Parking is free, subject to availability.
