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 large capital letters: Lodge Bristol. I used to be mystified. Bristol? In Oslo?
Properly, it seems that the Lodge California is in Paris, that the Manhattan Lodge is in Jakarta and that the Lodge Vienna exists just about in every single place besides in Vienna.
I assumed it could 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 inns that borrow metropolis names from some other place. The outcomes? Far more stunning 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 gentle obsession and open far too many tabs. On a kind of tabs, I got here throughout the Lodge Information API from liteAPI, who had been very type 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 each nation code and pulled inns with that identify wherever on the planet.
I consult with “cities” all through this text, however a couple of names (like California and Manhattan) aren’t cities. I included them as a result of they’re extensively utilized in lodge names.
The code under illustrates learn how to 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 every metropolis identify in your checklist (e.g., Paris, Vienna, Rome)
citylist=["Paris","Vienna","Rome"]
for metropolis in citylist:
print('Beginning extraction for', metropolis)
outcomes=[]
# Loop by every nation code (e.g., US, FR, DE) out of your DataFrame,
# Please supply your individual checklist 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/inns"
"?countryCode="+alpha+
"&hotelName="+metropolis+
"&restrict=5000"
"&hotelTypeIds=201percent2C203percent2C204percent2C205percent2C206percent2C208percent2C219percent2C231"
)
# Launch the request and append the consequence to the checklist
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 town
df_all.to_csv(str(metropolis) + '_24_04.csv')
I filtered for precise matches to maintain issues clear, so “Lodge 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 Lodge Roma in Rome), “inaddress” when the lodge is on a road named after a metropolis (e.g Lodge Roma on Roma Avenue) and “exterior” for every thing else.
As for town names, except for the plain Bristol, I picked them primarily based on vibe slightly than geography.
I began the checklist with old-world appeal: 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.
As an instance, take the gorgeous foyer of The Parisian Macao, a Paris-themed lodge in, you guessed it, Macao, China.
And now, the large reveal… Under is the definitive checklist of essentially the most borrowed metropolis names utilized in lodge names all around 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, after all, 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 large focus of Metropolis Title inns in Europe in comparison with the small scatter in North America. What are inns referred to as after in NA? Perhaps content material for one more article?
Now, again to the numbers, right here’s learn how to learn the desk (Should you’re curious, I used the library PlotTable).
- Lodge Title: The Metropolis talked about within the lodge’s identify.
- Variety of Nations: What number of international locations have inns with this identify.
- Variety of Resorts: Whole inns worldwide with this identify.
- In metropolis: What number of are literally positioned in the true metropolis.
- In Handle: What number of are on a road or space with the identical identify.
- Exterior: The remainder and the fascinating bit – inns borrowing the identify however positioned nowhere close to the precise place.
And the winner is…
Paris, town of sunshine and love, comes out on prime with over 1100 inns all around the world. Sufficient to e book 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 a large hit.
At quantity three is Rome, the place it looks like there’s Lodge Roma in nearly each city in Italy.
And I do marvel, is that this actually because of the luxurious and appeal that these cities evoke? — or that some names simply sound “costly”? Let’s deep dive within the subsequent part.
Why do inns 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 inns there model themselves with “Venice” within the identify to seem in journey searches. For instance, the “Hilton Backyard Inn Venice Mestre San Giuliano” is much extra prone to present up when somebody googles “locations to remain in Venice”. Try the next map, which illustrates all inns close to Venice that embody ‘Venice’ of their identify.
Identical factor occurs with Paris. Many inns are positioned exterior 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 scent that 5 Euro espresso in entrance of the Eiffel Tower.
Different occasions, 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 Resorts 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, a lot of their inns undertake a European-inspired branding model with neoclassical columns, chandeliers and classical piano music performed within the foyer. Laborious to withstand, proper?
In reality, once I take a look at the information, China alone accounts for nearly 1000 inns that embody Vienna of their identify, excess of any nation, together with Austria itself.
Different enjoyable examples of branding are the Manhattan Lodge in Jakarta:
The Venetian Lodge 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 entire journey: Bristol.
The very first thing that I did was to map out each Lodge Bristol – simply scroll as much as see the interactive map your self. The consequence? Not a single Lodge Bristol within the UK exterior of the Metropolis of Bristol.
The inns are slightly scattered throughout Europe and even so far as South America. So I puzzled: how far are these inns 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 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 inns are, on common, simply 22km from the precise metropolis, principally location-driven, as we explored within the first part.
- Vienna inns common 8,416km away — a transparent case of enjoyable branding.
- Bristol inns? They sit at a mean of 1,649km from Bristol — means too far for location to be the explanation.
So, what’s the true story right here? For that, I flip to Roger Williams, a journalist and creator of “Excessive Instances on the Bristol Lodge”, a e book that explores the fascinating origins of Bristol Resorts across the globe.
Williams talks about an 18th-century English nobleman, Lord Bristol. He was often known as a real connoisseur of artwork and journey, and his visits typically elevated a spot’s standing: inns the place he stayed would even turn out to be informally often known as “Lord Bristol’s Lodge.” This, it seems, was how the very first Resorts Bristol opened throughout Europe. Later, different inns adopted the identify, both to sound refined and opulent, or, because the proprietor of Le Bristol in Paris stated again in 1925, merely to maintain up an previous custom that went all the way in which again to the 18th century.
It’s greater than only a identify
This journey began with a easy query in regards to the Lodge Bristol in Oslo, a reputation that felt unusually misplaced. It began with one lodge, however quickly I used to be mapping names internationally. What started as simply metropolis names became 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 town with essentially the most lodge names to its identify. Most of them aren’t even in Paris —the common “Paris Lodge” is 22km away from the precise metropolis.
- Vienna got here subsequent. But it surely’s not only a metropolis—it’s additionally a Chinese language lodge model with near 1,000 areas, all promoting a refined, classical, European fantasy.
- Rome is third, and it seems inns all throughout Italy love naming themselves after the capital. Location or aspiration? Perhaps each.
What all of this exhibits is that lodge names are not often 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 Resorts Bristol worldwide, and the explanation goes all the way in which again to an 18th-century English aristocrat whose lodge preferences became 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 in all probability extra to that identify than meets the attention. And now, you understand how to start out uncovering it.
All pictures and code on this article are by the creator
