The opposite day I used to be strolling round Oslo once I handed a flowery constructing with a crimson carpet, black awning and a reputation in huge capital letters: Resort Bristol. I used to be mystified. Bristol? In Oslo?
Properly, it seems that the Resort California is in Paris, that the Manhattan Resort is in Jakarta and that the Resort Vienna exists just about in all places besides in Vienna.
I assumed it might all come right down to advertising and marketing. However the extra I explored, the extra I noticed three tales unfolding: location, aspiration, and old-world custom.
Comply with alongside for a enjoyable information evaluation into the world of motels that borrow metropolis names from some place else. The outcomes? Far more shocking than I anticipated.
What are the highest lodge names?
After I used to be again from my Oslo journey, I simply couldn’t let it go. So I did what I do greatest: develop a light obsession and open far too many tabs. On a kind of tabs, I got here throughout the Hotel Data API from liteAPI, who have been very form to let me use their information for this evaluation.
Right here’s how I went about it:
I ran a world seek for lodge names that referenced main cities, however weren’t really in them. For every metropolis identify (say, Roma), I looped by way of each nation code and pulled motels with that identify anyplace on the planet.
The code beneath illustrates how one can extract information for an inventory of cities. It makes use of a operate referred to as launch_requests to deal with the API queries, which I received’t share right here—particulars on querying the API and acquiring keys can be found within the official documentation.
# Loop by way of every metropolis identify in your record (e.g., Paris, Vienna, Rome)
citylist=["Paris","Vienna","Rome"]
for metropolis in citylist:
print('Beginning extraction for', metropolis)
outcomes=[]
# Loop by way of every nation code (e.g., US, FR, DE) out of your DataFrame,
# Please supply your personal record of countrycodes for this!
for alpha in countrycodes['alpha-2']:
print(alpha)
# Assemble the API request URL with the present nation and metropolis identify
# + Filters.
url = (
"https://api.liteapi.journey/v3.0/information/motels"
"?countryCode="+alpha+
"&hotelName="+metropolis+
"&restrict=5000"
"&hotelTypeIds=201percent2C203percent2C204percent2C205percent2C206percent2C208percent2C219percent2C231"
)
# Launch the request and append the consequence to the record
outcomes.append(launch_requests(url))
# Mix all responses for the present metropolis right into a single DataFrame
df_all = pd.concat(outcomes, ignore_index=True)
# Save the outcomes as a CSV named after the town
df_all.to_csv(str(metropolis) + '_24_04.csv')
I filtered for precise matches to maintain issues clear, so “Resort romantic” didn’t sneak in as a false Roma. I additionally additional tagged the outcomes with “incity” the place the lodge relies in the identical metropolis because the identify (e.g Resort Roma in Rome), “inaddress” when the lodge is on a avenue named after a metropolis (e.g Resort Roma on Roma Road) and “outdoors” for every thing else.
As for the town names, except for the apparent Bristol, I picked them based mostly on vibe reasonably than geography.
I began the record with old-world attraction: London, Rome and Paris. Solar by the poolside? That’s Miami, California, Barcelona and Havana. I threw in Venice, Prague and Vienna for some class. Marrakesh, Casablanca and Cairo? Unique and mysterious. And completed with cosmopolitan: Manhattan, Berlin and Shanghai.
For instance, take the gorgeous foyer of The Parisian Macao, a Paris-themed lodge in, you guessed it, Macao, China.
And now, the massive reveal… Under is the definitive record of probably the most borrowed metropolis names utilized in lodge names everywhere in the world. Consider it because the Olympics of metropolis names that look good on a lodge room key.
However earlier than we get to the total desk, right here’s a map of the highest 7 finishers and, in fact, the explanation behind this text, the mysterious Bristol. Every dot is an actual lodge, so be happy to zoom in, filter and watch the factors seem throughout borders.
My largest shock? The massive focus of Metropolis Identify motels in Europe in comparison with the small scatter in North America. What are motels referred to as after in NA? Perhaps content material for an additional article?
Now, again to the numbers, right here’s how one can learn the desk (Should you’re curious, I used the library PlotTable).
- Resort Identify: The Metropolis talked about within the lodge’s identify.
- Variety of Nations: What number of nations have motels with this identify.
- Variety of Inns: Complete motels worldwide with this identify.
- In metropolis: What number of are literally situated in the actual metropolis.
- In Tackle: What number of are on a avenue or space with the identical identify.
- Exterior: The remainder and the attention-grabbing bit – motels borrowing the identify however situated nowhere close to the precise place.
And the winner is…
Paris, the town of sunshine and love, comes out on prime with over 1100 motels everywhere in the world. Sufficient to ebook a brand new one every weekend for 20 years?
Not far behind is Vienna, fairly a shock, particularly in China, the place the identify is an enormous hit.
At quantity three is Rome, the place it appears like there’s Resort Roma in nearly each city in Italy.
And I do surprise, is that this actually because of the luxurious and attraction that these cities evoke? — or that some names simply sound “costly”? Let’s deep dive within the subsequent part.
Why do motels borrow metropolis names?
Typically — and as a frugal traveller I can vouch for this — it’s not about being within the metropolis, it’s about being shut sufficient. Take Mestre, the mainland neighbour of Venice. Many motels there model themselves with “Venice” within the identify to seem in journey searches. For instance, the “Hilton Backyard Inn Venice Mestre San Giuliano” is way extra more likely to present up when somebody googles “locations to remain in Venice”. Try the next map, which illustrates all motels close to Venice that embrace ‘Venice’ of their identify.
Identical factor occurs with Paris. Many motels are situated outdoors the official metropolis limits, however shut sufficient so you continue to really feel such as you’re on vacation in Paris. Perhaps even shut sufficient to odor that 5 Euro espresso in entrance of the Eiffel Tower.
Different instances, the identify has little to do with geography and every thing to do with the music performed within the foyer.
I’m speaking in regards to the Vienna Inns Group, based in 1993 in Shenzhen, China. The founder selected the identify “Vienna” to promote class, consolation and classical music—a European fantasy.
To today, lots of their motels undertake a European-inspired branding fashion with neoclassical columns, chandeliers and classical piano music performed within the foyer. Onerous to withstand, proper?
In actual fact, once I take a look at the information, China alone accounts for nearly 1000 motels that embrace Vienna of their identify, excess of any nation, together with Austria itself.
Different enjoyable examples of branding are the Manhattan Resort in Jakarta:
The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, which you couldn’t pay me sufficient to go to:
And simply take a look at the Miami Warmth Seashore Resort in Bataan, Philippines.
Not each lodge is called to promote a location or a fantasy. Some are named out of pure custom.
Let’s return to the identify that began this complete journey: Bristol.
The very first thing that I did was to map out each Resort Bristol – simply scroll as much as see the interactive map your self. The consequence? Not a single Resort Bristol within the UK outdoors of the Metropolis of Bristol.
The motels are reasonably scattered throughout Europe and even so far as South America. So I questioned: how far are these motels from the precise metropolis of Bristol?
Right here’s how I measured it:
- I calculated the space from every lodge’s coordinates to the coordinates of Bristol.
# Compute the space (in km) between every lodge and the town heart of Bristol.
# The 'bristol' DataFrame comprises one lodge per row, with 'latitude' and 'longitude' columns.
origin=(51.4545,-2.5879)
bristol['distance_km']=bristol.apply(lambda row:distance(
origin,
(row['latitude'],row['longitude'])
).km, axis=1)
2. I then plotted the distribution of these distances alongside Paris and Vienna, utilizing Seaborn’s FacetGrid as a RidgePlot. The code (too lengthy for this text) relies on Thiago Carvalho’s information in Plain English.
The outcomes communicate for themselves:
- Paris motels are, on common, simply 22km from the precise metropolis, largely location-driven, as we explored within the first part.
- Vienna motels common 8,416km away — a transparent case of enjoyable branding.
- Bristol motels? They sit at a median of 1,649km from Bristol — means too far for location to be the explanation.
So, what’s the actual story right here? For that, I flip to Roger Williams, a journalist and creator of “Excessive Instances on the Bristol Resort”, a ebook that explores the fascinating origins of Bristol Inns across the globe.
Williams talks about an 18th-century English nobleman, Lord Bristol. He was referred to as a real connoisseur of artwork and journey, and his visits typically elevated a spot’s standing: motels the place he stayed would even turn into informally referred to as “Lord Bristol’s Resort.” This, it seems, was how the very first Inns Bristol opened throughout Europe. Later, different motels adopted the identify, both to sound refined and splendid, or, because the proprietor of Le Bristol in Paris stated again in 1925, merely to maintain up an previous custom that went all the best way again to the 18th century.
It’s greater than only a identify
This journey began with a easy query in regards to the Resort Bristol in Oslo, a reputation that felt unusually misplaced. It began with one lodge, however quickly I used to be mapping names the world over. What started as simply metropolis names changed into a narrative about geography, branding, and even a little bit of previous European custom. Right here’s a abstract of what we discovered:
- Paris is the town with probably the most lodge names to its identify. Most of them aren’t even in Paris —the common “Paris Resort” is 22km away from the precise metropolis.
- Vienna got here subsequent. Nevertheless it’s not only a metropolis—it’s additionally a Chinese language lodge model with near 1,000 places, all promoting a refined, classical, European fantasy.
- Rome is third, and it seems motels all throughout Italy love naming themselves after the capital. Location or aspiration? Perhaps each.
What all of this reveals is that lodge names are hardly ever random. They’re promoting a location, a fantasy, or—typically—a practice.
And sure, the cat’s out of the bag: there are over 200 Inns Bristol worldwide, and the explanation goes all the best way again to an 18th-century English aristocrat whose lodge preferences changed into a naming custom.
So subsequent time you end up staying at a London in Uruguay, a Rome in Lisbon or a Barcelona in Mexico—you’ll know there’s most likely extra to that identify than meets the attention. And now, you know the way to start out uncovering it.
All photos and code on this article are by the creator
