Method

How a word is chosen

The word has to name a part of the building or a fixture in it, and the house has to use it. Where a hotel uses several such words, the one taken is the one its own material returns to most plainly. Words that name the whole hotel are used only where the plan of the estate is the thing being described.

Where the account comes from

Hotel material, maps, dictionaries and published writing. Origins are taken from dictionaries, not reconstructed. Where a hotel changes what it calls something, the entry follows the house.

What is not here

No origins without a source, no pronunciation guides, no translations invented to fill a gap. In the casino section the words come only from published English sources about those complexes, and no words from the languages of Indigenous peoples are used. No prices, no ratings, no bookings, and no description of any gaming floor.

Seasonal buildings

Snow and ice hotels are rebuilt each winter and some are not rebuilt at all. Before publishing, each winter address is checked against its operator; where an address has stopped, it is replaced rather than left standing on the page.

Corrections

If a word is wrong, or a house has stopped using it, write and say so. The address is on the Contact page, and corrections are made to the entry rather than added below it.