How this is checked
Every entry on this site is written from published material and checked against it before it goes up. This page sets out how the eighteen hotels were chosen, which sources are used, what is deliberately absent, and how to tell us that something is wrong.
How the hotels were chosen
The list was fixed first and has not grown since. Four sections were set: casino hotels, art hotels, ice hotels and capsule hotels. Within each section the properties were chosen because the building itself is worth describing, and because enough had been published about it to write three honest paragraphs. No property paid for a place, and none was added because it was easy to link to.
Which sources are used
The hotel's own pages come first, for the shape of the building and the shared rooms. Mapping services are used for location and setting. Published reporting and architectural writing are used for the history of a structure, and for anything about a previous use. Where two sources disagree, the sentence is rewritten to say only what both support.
What is not here
There are no prices, no star gradings, no counts of rooms, no reviews, no ratings and no reservation links. Nothing is placed in order of merit, and no hotel is set against another. Weather, availability and the quality of a night are not predicted, because none of that can be checked from a desk. Invented history, invented faults and invented anecdote are excluded outright.
How to read the winter section
The buildings in the ice section are made of snow and ice and stand for a single winter. They are demolished by the thaw and raised again from nothing the following year, so a plan from one season tells you little about the next. No opening or closing dates are given here. Where an operator also runs heated buildings on the same ground, the entry says so plainly. Dates, access and what is provided for the night are questions for the operator.
Reporting an error
If something here is out of date or simply wrong, write and say which entry and which sentence. Corrections are made against a published source, so a link helps. The address is on the contact page, and the same address is at the foot of every page.