I run Ukrainian hotel just 20 miles from Russian border - guests love it

Hotels with concrete walls instead of windows aren't usually in high demand, but in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the Wine and Rose Hotel has discovered that being based underground is a boon for business.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Vladimir Putin's relentless aerial assaults on the country mean that when night falls, there are regular air raid sirens urging people to take cover.

As a result, many hotels have installed bomb shelters in their basements or car parks, which for guests in high-rise hotels, means they face a late-night walk down the stairs. Shrapnel from bomb blasts can be deadly and many of the modern hotels have glass facades.

Visitors to Eastern Ukraine learned this dramatically back in 2023 when the five-star Kharkiv Palace Hotel was hit by a Russian rocket and twelve people, including two children, were hospitilised.

The Wine and Rose Hotel's advantage is that it is already underground. Guests do not need to take cover because they are sleeping in a ready-made shelter.

Before becoming a hotel, the sprawling underground tunnels were a strip club, and there were occasions when confused former customers would walk in and ask where their favourite dancers were.

However, since Russia began its assault on the city in 2022, the only requests from passers-by are whether they can hide from the bombs.

"When people first come here for the first time, their reaction is normally still that it's a little unusual," said hotel manager Krllova Alexandra, 24.

"Since the war began, people are glad that they are immediately in the shelter and do not have to constantly go down when they hear the sirens," she added.

"Our customers come from all over, we are very popular, we also have lots of foreign journalists who choose to stay."

Within hours of Russia launching its offensive, Alexandra was thrust into a position of trust.

"When the war started, I was on my shift. The management told me you can either close the hotel, go wherever you want and we will meet you somewhere later or stay and take responsibility for the hotel.

"I come from a small village and decided with my family to stay here.

"On the very first day of the war I had a lot of people coming to the hotel who simply did not know where to go. Kharkiv is a university town and has lots of foreign students and teachers who were stuck.

"We let everyone stay that needed to. There were a lot of people in the hotel, they lived in the corridors and the reception.

"In the first days of the war, on the first floor of the building, a rocket hit and people were already afraid to go upstairs.

"But everyone worked together. We had volunteers who brought food and supported the people down here, including a pregnant woman."

The hotel took no money during this time despite incurring significant costs. The management hopes one day to receive some form of compensation, but it has at least benefited from a boost in bookings from travellers who feel more comfortable sleeping underground.