The history of Nermo Hotel: The fire took everything – the rest is history

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The history of Nermo Hotel: The fire took everything – the rest is history

I've spent a disproportionate amount of time renovating all these old buildings

- Johannes Nermo says, laughing

Since he took over Nermo, he has renovated every single room, converted the barn into a hotel and conference centre, and transformed old storehouses into suites.

Not because anything was broken. But because there is always something that can be improved. The drive to build and improve is probably no coincidence. It has its roots in the worst day in Nermo's history.

The catastrophe that changed everything

On the Tuesday of Easter week 1932, things were busy at Nermo. Some guests were already in place, but most were expected the next day. A hundred beds had been pre-booked. The hosts Agnethe and Johannes had prepared everything. But at five o'clock in the afternoon, a fire broke out.

The flames spread at a speed no one could have imagined. The neighbour saw the fire from the other side of the river, dropped what he had in his hands and ran across the water. When he arrived, the heat in the yard was so intense that it was hardly possible to stand there. The farm workers had gotten the animals out, and they were wandering around in the snow. Bed linen was strewn about. They had thrown everything they could grab out the windows.

Before the evening was over, nothing was left. The main building from the 1800s. The farm buildings. Everything was gone, and only ashes remained.

"It was simply a disaster," John Nermo, the son of the then-host couple, recalled years later. "The worst possible thing that could happen, at the worst possible time."

The current hotel owner’s great-grandfather outside the old hotel building before the fire in 1932.

Photo: Nermo Hotell

One year to rebuild

The guests who had booked Easter holidays were sent to neighbouring farms. But Gudrun and Johannes Nermo had already decided: they would rebuild, quickly.

In the spring of 1933, just one year after the fire, the new hotel was ready. Architect Lande from Lillehammer had designed the building. Local Sverre Bræin was the builder. The result was way ahead of its time: 36 rooms with central heating and hot and cold water in every single room. Several had en suites and their own veranda. Such luxury barely existed in rural Norway at the time.

It is this building that is still the heart of Nermo Hotel. The same walls. The same timber. But inside, everything has changed, time and time again

NOK 100 million later

Before the Lillehammer Olympics, the old wooden building needed extensive upgrading to meet modern fire safety requirements. The sprinkler system would cost four to five million alone, so the experts recommended demolishing and building a new building.

But for the family, this was never a real option. The building from 1932 was the soul of Nermo, so it could not be replaced.

Sparebanken Østlandet had faith in the family. The bank rented the hotel during the Olympics to accommodate business associates, and paid in advance. It advised the family to carry out their plans. A sprinkler system on every floor. New paint on all the walls, and a modern standard throughout.

In total, the family invested more than NOK 100 million in Nermo after the Hafjell development. The largest investment in the hotel's history.

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We are never completely satisfied

Johannes admits that it is at least as rewarding to develop Nermo as to just run it. He thrives on finding new projects, and seeing opportunities where others see limitations. According to neighbour Einar Moe, it's in his blood. Several generations of the Nermo family have been entrepreneur types.

And that is perhaps why the hotel has survived both a fire, war and crises. Not by standing still, but by constantly developing.

The old wooden building from 1932 is still there today. With new rooms, new paint and new standards. The barn has been refurbished with modern hotel rooms and a magnificent conference centre. And two old storehouses have been refurbished according to all the rules of the art, and transformed into Norway's most beautiful suites.