Eighteen houses · eighteen words
One word each of these hotels uses for a room.
Every house has a word of its own for a part of itself, and it is usually a plain one: the passage, the court, the hut with the fire in it, the room made of snow. This site takes one such word from each hotel and writes down what it names there, where the word comes from when a source says so, and how that part of the house is used.
The glossary, A to Z
Alphabetical by word · every line opens its entry
- 10albergo diffusoA hotel spread through the houses of a
village rather than gathered into one building.Sextantio Albergo
Diffuso
Santo Stefano di Sessanio, Italy - 14azulejoThe glazed tile panel set into the walls of the
house, including the one at the stairs.Palacio
Ramalhete
Lisbon, Portugal - 03boardwalkThe planked walk along the river at the
north side of the resort, beside its marina.River Rock Casino
Resort
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada - 06cabanaThe mountain chalet at the lake, standing beside
the ice building and holding its facilities.Hotel of Ice at
Bâlea Lac
Făgăraș Mountains, Romania - 15cabinThe sleeping compartment as the house names it,
in classes borrowed from aircraft.First Cabin
Tsukiji
Tokyo, Japan - 17capsuleThe moulded sleeping unit set in rows in a
shared room, giving this kind of hotel its name.Capsule Hotel
Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae
Tokyo, Japan - 07ceremony hallThe room of carved ice kept for weddings
and services, rebuilt with the hotel each winter.Icehotel
Jukkasjärvi, Sweden - 04entertainment centreThe theatre inside the resort,
named the entertainment centre and used for concerts and events.Casino Rama Resort
Rama, Ontario, Canada - 02galleriaThe covered shopping street inside the
resort, named the galleria by the house itself.Fallsview Casino
Resort
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada - 12haciendaThe estate plan of main house, chapel, arcades
and machine house that the hotel occupies.Hacienda
Uayamón
Campeche, Mexico - 08iglooThe room built of snow and ice, standing in the
resort beside its glass apartments.Snowman World
Resort
Rovaniemi, Finland - 05kotaThe cone-shaped hut with an open fire at its centre,
used by the resort for meals and gatherings.Kakslauttanen Arctic
Resort
Saariselkä, Finland - 18loungeThe shared room on each sleeping floor, open at
any hour to the guests of that floor.Glansit
Akihabara
Tokyo, Japan - 11menzehThe garden pavilion standing in the hotel
park, used as a tea room.La Mamounia
Marrakech, Morocco - 13patioThe inner court of the mansion, with rooms and
stairs opening onto it.Casa Gangotena
Quito, Ecuador - 01pavilionThe building the complex occupies, kept from
an international exhibition and rebuilt inside.Montréal Casino
& Hotel
Île Notre-Dame, Montréal, Québec, Canada - 16saunaThe hot room the house is built around, with its
bathing floor beside the sleeping floors.Do-C
Gotanda
Tokyo, Japan - 09tokonomaThe shallow alcove in a guest room where a
scroll and a single arrangement are placed.Tawaraya
Ryokan
Kyoto, Japan
Four parts
Entries grouped by the kind of house
- 01
Casino Hotels
A pavilion, a galleria, a boardwalk and a theatre: the public parts of four Canadian resorts.
4 entries → - 02
Ice Hotels
Words that survive the thaw at four snow and ice addresses in Finland, Romania and Sweden.
4 entries → - 03
Art Hotels
Six older buildings that brought their vocabulary with them into the hotel.
6 entries → - 04
Capsule Hotels
Four Tokyo houses where the shared rooms carry the weight.
4 entries →
How this is written
A word is only used here if the house or its published sources use it. Origins are taken from dictionaries, never reconstructed. Winter addresses are checked against their operator before publication. The full method, and what this site refuses to print, is set out in Method.