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New York (AP) - The self-built rental sauna of a German has become a hit in the USA.
Henning Grentz built the wooden house on a mobile trailer for around a year and a half until it was finished in 2018.
The 46-year-old from Bargteheide in Schleswig-Holstein, who loved going to the sauna as a child, thought up the blueprint for the small sauna with changing room, radio and wood-burning stove in the Finnish style from the Internet.
"I put a lot of heart and soul into it and it was a really good time in my life."
Grentz wanted to use the sauna himself and rent it out, which was rather slow in the beginning.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in the USA, however, many saunas in the country have been closed - and the rental sauna of the Schleswig-Holsteiner, who lives north of the metropolis of New York in the Shawangunk Mountains, is almost always fully booked.
With wood for at least 15 hours of burning time, he brings his sauna on the trailer past anywhere within a radius of around two hours from where he lives.
One to two nights cost 650 dollars (about 540 euros), each additional night 125 dollars, and Grentz gives discounts for longer rentals.
Now he seldom gets around to sweating in his own sauna.
"I'll have to build a second sauna soon."
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210218-99-488434 / 2
Grentz website
NYT report
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North American Sauna Society
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