As We See It

A spaceship with room service? A UFO Hotel in Baker could become reality with your help

Image
Will the UFO Hotel become a reality in Baker, California? Only time—and funds raised on Kickstarter—will tell.

“It’s not insane. It’s visionary,” Luis Ramallo said to a reporter from LA’s NBC4 last Tuesday. They were standing in Baker, California, where Ramallo just broke ground on the site where he dreams of building a spaceship. Not like the Elon Musk of the Mojave, like the Steve Wynn of the I-15 gas stop where Ramallo’s Alien Fresh Jerky is one of the biggest attractions.

According to a Kickstarter page for his UFO Hotel: “Even though Luis has already purchased the land, obtained site approval and spent years planning every detail, it’s not that easy to get a loan for a project of this type. It takes something more to prove there is an audience for this type of unique attraction and experience.”

So the UFO Hotel team is asking for $175,000 in “initial funds” that would cover permitting and creation of detailed plans and construction drawings for a boutique Mothership with 31 themed rooms (curl up in the nuclear reactor’s comforting glow!) and themed everything else, like hallways with windows looking onto space and a restaurant serving “foods from around the world (and even the universe!).”

Ramallo’s vision doesn’t stop there. How about an entire alien complex in the tiny roadside town between Vegas and LA, with a mall and a massive outdoor concert venue and many other commercial endeavors that would be draped in sci-fi. It’s easy to chuckle at overblown comparisons to the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower and to question how Ramallo’s team plans on delivering the perk for backers who give $10,000 or more—bragging rights as the first humans to stay in the UFO—by September of this year (the Kickstarter campaign ends July 17). But personally, I love the idea. Turndown service could use a little Abducted Cow jerky.

Share
Top of Story