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Our history
The story of Billingehus
The idea of Billingehus came to life as part of a bigger dream – that of an outdoor paradise on the mountain Billingen. Entrepreneur Arne Sandberg and his wife Maja had a vision of creating a meeting place for recreation where exercise and relaxation went hand in hand. A meeting place for Skövde residents as well as visitors with the aim of taking care of the whole person. A place to relieve stress and a place “for soul and heart“.
From textile company to gasoline company
Engineer Arne Sandberg began his working life at Saab before starting the textile company Stålnylon, specializing in overalls and socks. It was a non-payment to the sock company that led Arne to what would become his life’s work – gasoline. Instead of payment, Sandberg was offered the chance to start the Swedish branch of a small Norwegian gasoline company.
That’s how Arne founded Uno-X in Sweden in 1960 and began competing with the Swedish gasoline monopoly. Arne was accused by the established gasoline companies of having bad gasoline, but motorists loved him and with clever marketing his two gas stations quickly grew to 300.
An outdoor paradise emerges
In 1967, when Arne turned 50, he sold the gasoline company to Burmah Castrol for 30 million.
“We’re doing something fun instead of buying shares,” Arne said, his wife Maja told me – and the fun thing was the project at Billingen.
Both Arne and Maja came from the Västgöta area, and the project was their gift back to their hometown. Maja in particular was incredibly interested in sports and involved in the outdoor initiatives that were made on the mountain.
By the time of the inauguration in 1970, a conference center, hotel, swimming pool, tennis courts, football pitch, ski slope with lift, and several tracks for running and cross-country skiing had been built.
For heart and soul
Because the whole person was to be cared for, St. Luke’s Church was also built, a place for the soul.
A unique gift
Skövde municipality had granted the land for the construction and when everything was ready, the Sandbergs allowed Skövde municipality to buy the Billingen leisure area for one krona, a symbolic sum. Billingehus Billingebadet and the Blå Hallen meeting center were sold to the state-owned hotel group SARA.
In 1992, the SARA company and Reso merged, but when they went bankrupt just a year later, the resort was sold to First Hotels.
In 2017, First Hotels sold Billingebadet and Blå Hallen to Skövde municipality, but continued to operate Billingehus until 2022.
New Billingehus
Since 2022, the hotel has been owned and operated by Lotus Hotel Group. An extensive renovation was started and the hotel reopened in the summer of 2023. Two years later, the new Billingehus was completed with two spa areas and a new congress hall for up to 750 people.
