The opposite day I used to be strolling round Oslo after I handed a elaborate constructing with a pink carpet, black awning and a reputation in massive capital letters: Resort Bristol. I used to be mystified. Bristol? In Oslo?
Effectively, 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 believed it will all come all the way down to advertising. However the extra I explored, the extra I noticed three tales unfolding: location, aspiration, and old-world custom.
Observe alongside for a enjoyable knowledge evaluation into the world of accommodations that borrow metropolis names from someplace else. The outcomes? Far more stunning than I anticipated.
What are the highest resort 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 Hotel Data API from liteAPI, who have been very sort to let me use their knowledge for this evaluation.
Right here’s how I went about it:
I ran a world seek for resort names that referenced main cities, however weren’t really in them. For every metropolis identify (say, Roma), I looped by means of each nation code and pulled accommodations with that identify wherever on this planet.
The code under illustrates the best way to extract knowledge for an inventory of cities. It makes use of a operate known 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 means 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 means of every nation code (e.g., US, FR, DE) out of your DataFrame,
# Please supply your individual 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/knowledge/accommodations"
"?countryCode="+alpha+
"&hotelName="+metropolis+
"&restrict=5000"
"&hotelTypeIds=201percent2C203percent2C204percent2C205percent2C206percent2C208percent2C219percent2C231"
)
# Launch the request and append the outcome 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 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 resort relies in the identical metropolis because the identify (e.g Resort Roma in Rome), “inaddress” when the resort is on a road named after a metropolis (e.g Resort Roma on Roma Avenue) and “exterior” for all the things else.
As for town names, except for the apparent Bristol, I picked them primarily based on vibe relatively 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.
As an instance, take the attractive foyer of The Parisian Macao, a Paris-themed resort in, you guessed it, Macao, China.
And now, the massive reveal… Under is the definitive record of essentially the most borrowed metropolis names utilized in resort names everywhere in the world. Consider it because the Olympics of metropolis names that look good on a resort 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 rationale behind this text, the mysterious Bristol. Every dot is an actual resort, so be at liberty to zoom in, filter and watch the factors seem throughout borders.
My largest shock? The large focus of Metropolis Title accommodations in Europe in comparison with the small scatter in North America. What are accommodations known as after in NA? Possibly content material for an additional article?
Now, again to the numbers, right here’s the best way to learn the desk (Should you’re curious, I used the library PlotTable).
- Resort Title: The Metropolis talked about within the resort’s identify.
- Variety of International locations: What number of nations have accommodations with this identify.
- Variety of Lodges: Complete accommodations worldwide with this identify.
- In metropolis: What number of are literally situated in the true metropolis.
- In Tackle: What number of are on a road or space with the identical identify.
- Exterior: The remainder and the fascinating bit – accommodations borrowing the identify however situated nowhere close to the precise place.
And the winner is…
Paris, town of sunshine and love, comes out on high with over 1100 accommodations 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 looks 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 accommodations 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 accommodations there model themselves with “Venice” within the identify to look 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”. Take a look at the next map, which illustrates all accommodations close to Venice that embrace ‘Venice’ of their identify.
Identical factor occurs with Paris. Many accommodations are situated exterior the official metropolis limits, however shut sufficient so you continue to really feel such as you’re on vacation in Paris. Possibly 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 all the things to do with the music performed within the foyer.
I’m speaking concerning the Vienna Lodges Group, based in 1993 in Shenzhen, China. The founder selected the identify “Vienna” to promote class, consolation and classical music—a European fantasy.
To this present day, lots of their accommodations undertake a European-inspired branding fashion with neoclassical columns, chandeliers and classical piano music performed within the foyer. Arduous to withstand, proper?
In reality, after I take a look at the info, China alone accounts for nearly 1000 accommodations that embrace Vienna of their identify, way over 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 resort 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 outcome? Not a single Resort Bristol within the UK exterior of the Metropolis of Bristol.
The accommodations are relatively scattered throughout Europe and even so far as South America. So I questioned: how far are these accommodations from the precise metropolis of Bristol?
Right here’s how I measured it:
- I calculated the gap from every resort’s coordinates to the coordinates of Bristol.
# Compute the gap (in km) between every resort and town middle of Bristol.
# The 'bristol' DataFrame incorporates one resort 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 converse for themselves:
- Paris accommodations are, on common, simply 22km from the precise metropolis, largely location-driven, as we explored within the first part.
- Vienna accommodations common 8,416km away — a transparent case of enjoyable branding.
- Bristol accommodations? They sit at a median of 1,649km from Bristol — means too far for location to be the rationale.
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 Resort”, a ebook that explores the fascinating origins of Bristol Lodges across the globe.
Williams talks about an 18th-century English nobleman, Lord Bristol. He was generally known as a real connoisseur of artwork and journey, and his visits typically elevated a spot’s standing: accommodations the place he stayed would even turn into informally generally known as “Lord Bristol’s Resort.” This, it seems, was how the very first Lodges Bristol opened throughout Europe. Later, different accommodations adopted the identify, both to sound subtle and opulent, or, because the proprietor of Le Bristol in Paris stated again in 1925, merely to maintain up an outdated 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 concerning the Resort Bristol in Oslo, a reputation that felt surprisingly misplaced. It began with one resort, 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 outdated European custom. Right here’s a abstract of what we discovered:
- Paris is town with essentially the most resort 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 resort model with near 1,000 areas, all promoting a refined, classical, European fantasy.
- Rome is third, and it seems accommodations all throughout Italy love naming themselves after the capital. Location or aspiration? Possibly each.
What all of this reveals is that resort names are hardly ever random. They’re promoting a location, a fantasy, or—generally—a convention.
And sure, the cat’s out of the bag: there are over 200 Lodges Bristol worldwide, and the rationale goes all the way in which again to an 18th-century English aristocrat whose resort 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 know the way to start out uncovering it.
All photographs and code on this article are by the creator
