Lumoriis Independent hotel guide
Eighteen hotels, four categories

Lumoriis

A practical guide to eighteen hotels, from art houses to ice rooms.

Written from public sources, updated by hand, free of advertising.

Browse the categoriesHow this guide is made

Eighteenhotels covered
Fourcategories
Tencountries
Category

Art Hotels

Six hotels that live inside buildings made for something else, or built with a designer's name attached. Offices, a post hall, a telephone exchange and a hillside house, each kept recognisable while rooms and shared spaces were fitted into them.

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Category

Ice Hotels

Four winter places in the Alps and in Finnish Lapland, where part of the accommodation is built from snow or glass and lasts only for the season. Each is rebuilt or refitted every winter.

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Category

Capsule Hotels

Four places where the sleeping unit is a capsule or a cabin rather than a room, and where washing, storing luggage and sitting down all happen in shared space. Two are city addresses, one is in a shophouse district, and one sits inside an airport.

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Category

Casino Hotels

Four Canadian resorts described strictly as hotels: the buildings, the grounds around them, and the public parts such as theatres, restaurants and spas. The gaming floor is not described or discussed anywhere on this site.

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Structure

What each entry contains

Part one

At a glance

Three short lines that place the hotel before you read further: what kind of building it is, where it stands, and what it is used for now.

Part two

The building

A description of the structure itself, including what it was built for, what has been kept and what was added during any conversion.

Part three

Around it

Where the hotel sits in its city or landscape, what shares the ground with it, and how the surroundings are usually reached.

Part four

Before you go

Plain practical notes without numbers: what to confirm in advance, what changes with the season, and what belongs to a group rather than a single address.

Questions

About this guide

Who makes this guide?

Lumoriis is written and maintained by a small independent team. No hotel, group or operator takes part in the writing, and nobody pays to appear here.

Where does the information come from?

Every entry is written from public sources: hotel and operator websites, published maps, and reporting that names its own sources. Where a claim could not be confirmed, it was left out rather than guessed at.

Why are there no prices, stars or ratings?

Prices change constantly and ratings say more about the people writing them than about the buildings. This guide describes what stands where and how the shared spaces are used, and leaves judgement to you.

How often is the guide updated?

Entries are reviewed by hand and each one carries the month it was last checked. Winter sites are reviewed again before each season, because snow and glass structures are rebuilt or refitted every year.

How do I report a mistake?

Write to us and say which entry is wrong and what the correct information is. A source we can check makes the correction much faster. The contact page has the address.