Room with a view: The 20 best hotels on screen

Based on John Irving’s novel, The Hotel New Hampshire takes place at the hotel of the same name. It’s a very funny and often very strange film, particularly since so much of it focuses on the various guests and their eccentric habits, to say nothing of the habits of the Berry family, who own the hotel. With its unique blend of comedy and drama, the film shows how versatile a hotel can be as a setting. It’s a place that’s a home for some and a temporary stopping point for others. In other words, it is the perfect locale for absurdity.

The Hotel Bristol is the setting for What’s Up, Doc? , the screwball comedy from late director Peter Bogdanovich. At the heart of the story is the romance that develops between Ryan O’Neal’s high-strung musician and Barbra Streisand’s far more relaxed Judy Maxwell. Given that this is a screwball comedy, all sorts of hijinks ensue, though, of course, the right people end up together by the end. The hotel proves to be the perfect setting for the comedy actions that take place, and the film as a whole demonstrates Bogdanovich’s talent for breathing new life into some of the well-established genres of Hollywood’s past.

Pretty Woman more than deserves its reputation as one of the best rom-coms of the 1990s. Julia Roberts is in her element as the romantic lead, and the film takes place in the luxurious setting of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. It’s hard to imagine a more suitable location for this tale of a sex worker who falls in love with Richard Gere’s businessman. It brings with connotations of romance, passion, and, just as importantly, history (no small thing, considering the number of famous guests who have come through the hotel’s doors). Of course, the Beverly Wilshire has also been used in a number of other productions, including, most notably,  Entourage. 

There’s something infectiously charming about Hotel Transylvania, both the actual hotel and the movie that bears its name. As one would expect, this particular hotel is the kind of place where the various monsters of the world can go to get away from it all (particularly humans). Everything goes haywire when a human, Jonathan, shows up and checks in. It’s an undeniably silly film with a very simple story, but the Hotel Transylvania still seems like the type of place one would visit, if for no other reason than to get a glimpse of the monsters in their candid moments. 

Dirty Dancing remains one of the most beloved romance films of the 1980s, thanks in no small part to the sizzling chemistry between Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze, who star as Frances "Baby" Houseman and her love interest, dance instructor Johnny Castŀe. Much of the film’s action takes place at the Catskills resort Kellerman’s. Even though the actual resort in question was in Mountain Lake, Virginia, the film manages to capture the feeling of what it was like to vacation at the numerous resorts in New York’s Catskills, a portrait made all the more poignant by the fact that almost all of these resorts no longer exist.

Hôtel des Mille Collines is the setting of Hotel Rwanda, a film as haunting as necessary. Set during the Rwandan genocide, it focuses on Don Cheadle’s Paul Rusesabagina, who manages the Hôtel des Mille Collines as the conflict begins to escalate. Much of the film focuses on his efforts to save lives while keeping the hotel running (to preserve appearances). The hotel is the setting for some of the film’s memorable scenes, and it would also make an appearance in another notable film about the genocide, HBO’s Sometimes in April (which was released in 2005, a year after Hotel Rwanda). 

The Golden Girls was one of the most successful and beloved sitcoms of the 1980s and early 1990s, and after Bea Arthur departed, it was retooled with the remaining three members of the cast. Rose, Sophia, and Blanche sell their beloved house and buy a hotel in which they live. While the series never quite recaptured the unique magic of the original show — partly because Arthur was irreplaceable and partly because its storylines tended to be much darker and depressing than its parent series — it was still fascinating and, at times, fun to watch the girls try to make a go of their new business. 

White Christmas is an essential viewing experience for many during the holiday season, and it still retains its power to charm. The story revolves around the efforts of a pair of army buddies, played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, who team up with Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen to save a fading hotel owned by their former commanding officer. The hotel makes for the perfect setting for the sort of old-fashioned musical at which the classic Hollywood studios excelled. The film’s Vermont setting makes this the perfect movie to cuddle up with during the holiday season.

The hotel often makes for a perfect setting for a sitcom, which helps to explain why so many comedies are set there. One of the most beloved and timeless is Newhart, which, as its title suggests, stars Bob Newhart as Dicĸ Loudon, who runs the Stratford Inn with his wife, Joanna (played by Mary Frann). Unsurprisingly, given the nature of the sitcom, many of the most hilarious situations in the show arise from both the wacky residents of the town as well as the guests who arrive at the hotel. Of course, as it turns out, the entire affair, hotel and all, was really just one long dream sequence of Newhart’s earlier character, Dr. Bob Hartley of The Bob Newhart Show. 

In some ways, the Merchant Ivory films of the 1980s and 1990s are the epitome of class, sophistication, and British period drama. Based on the E.M. Forster novel of the same name, A Room a View focuses on a pair of young English lovers, the repressed Lucy Honeychurch and the much less restrained George Emerson. Their love plays out against the backdrop of the lovely Italian hotel Pensione Bertolini in Florence. Even though only a part of the film takes place in the hotel, it inspires something in the lovers, and the film even ends back where it began, where they have now achieved their goal of the room of the title, gazing out at the Duomo.

After scoring an enormous success with Home Alone, Chris Columbus also directed a sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which, as its title suggests, finds young Kevin stranded in New York City after he gets on the wrong plane. He manages to scheme his way into the opulent Plaza Hotel, where he raises the suspicions of the nefarious concierge (played by a scenery-chewing Tim Curry). Kevin makes ample use of the perks of one of the city’s most famous hotels, running a huge bill in the process. Kevin’s scheming is, of course, part of the film’s humor, and Curry makes the perfect foil for Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin. 

Mama Mia! is, in many ways, the quintessential early 2000s musical, boasting an embarrassment of riches in terms of its cast (including the one and only Meryl Streep) and the songs of ABBA. It also features a lovely setting, the Villa Donna, located on the fictional Greek island of  Kalokairi. It’s obviously a place Streep’s Donna has taken a lot of work to make her own, and it’s the kind of place the viewers can imagine themselves staying, which is always the mark of a truly great on-screen hotel. While the hotel itself is fictional, it does bear a striking resemblance to many real-life hotels located on the Greek islands.

Alfred Hitchcock was one of the undisputed masters of suspense filmmaking, and in Psycho, he demonstrated a talent for the horrific. The central location in the film is the Bates Motel, run by the deeply disturbed Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who murdered his mother and, in the process, shattered his own psychology. Its looming silhouette is ominous when the viewer first sees it, but the inside is even more disturbing, a site filled with stuffed birds and deadly goings-on. In addition to being the centerpiece of Hitchcock’s Psycho, it also became the centerpiece of the popular TV series Bates Motel, which takes place in the present and fleshes out the tortured relationship between Norman and his mother. 

The Grand Budapest Hotel, which grants its title to the Wes Anderson film, certainly looks like it came straight out of the whimsical director’s imagination. By the time the film begins, it has already fallen on hard times, but it still shows signs of its former grandeur. It’s the type of place that seems to live and breathe, even as it exhibits the same types of whimsy that are always such a key part of Anderson’s locales. Moreover, it makes for the perfect setting for the many madcap — and often strangely touching — events that comprise the film's narrative. 

During its two seasons, The White Lotus has established itself as one of the most subversive comedies of the 2020s. Within its setting of an exotic luxury hotel, the series pokes ruthless fun at the foibles and myopia of the wealthy and well-to-do, whether it’s Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya McQuoid or the handsome but obnoxious Cameron Sullivan (played by Theo James). It’s the perfect squirmy comedy, as one can’t help but cringe at the entitled obliviousness of its central characters, even as one can’t also help but feel sorry for the members of the staff, who are inevitably left having to clean up the mess.

The film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,  which bears the name of the hotel at the center of the story, is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to its cast. It features some of the biggest names in British cinema, including Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, the late Tom Wilkinson, and Dev Patel. Its story is about a group of British retirees who move to India to take up residence in said hotel. It is touching and sweet as the viewer learns about and appreciates their different stories and lives. Funny, touching, and sometimes even heartbreaking, it’s a beautiful reminder that life doesn’t stop once one reaches fifty.

Throughout its six scenes, Schitt’s Creek managed to establish itself as one of the most beloved comedies of the 2010s and 2020s. Focusing on the Rose family, it chronicles their fall from wealth and their fish-out-of-water adventures in the small town of Schitt’s Creek. They reside in a local motel — later called the Rosebud Motel — and try to rebuild their lives. The motel is a perfect setting for the Rose’s antics, particularly since they have to cram their entire lives into adjoining rooms. Like the town, the motel may not be much to look at, but it’s home. 

Long regarded as one of the best British comedies ever made, Fawlty Towers takes place in the hotel of the same name, run by Basil Fawlty and his wife, Sybil (played by John Cleese and Prunella Scales, respectively). Unsurprisingly, lots of farcical things happen, and Basil is one of those curmudgeonly people who seems to loathe his customers even though they are the sole reason his hotel exists in the first place. Cleanse is at his absolute best, and even though the series was made in the 1970s, it still retains its biting sense of humor, and its achievement is all the more remarkable, considering there were only twelve episodes made. 

When it comes to on-screen hotels, it’s hard to beat the fame of the Overlook Hotel, which is at the center of Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shining.  When Jack Nicholson’s struggling writer, Jack Torrance, arrives with his family, they soon find out there is more to the hotel than meets the eye. Whether it’s elevators filled with blood or sinister twins, there’s more than enough here to push poor Jack into murderous insanity. However unfaithful the film might be to Stephen King’s book, there’s no question that Kubrick managed to capture the unsettling nature of the hotel, a place where past and present collide, with deadly results. 

Each season of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story takes place in a different locale. In season five, it moves into the ill-fated Hotel Cortez, where many guests check in but relatively few ever leave. The series greatly uses this liminal space, and the hotel itself is opulent and even garishly beautiful. Beneath all of that, however, there are dark secrets and hidden dangers, and it even plays host to the spirits of serial killers past. As all of this wasn't enough, it’s also the home of a seductively beautiful vampire known as the Countess. Some elements might strain credulity, but the production design is top-notch.