how we read a hotel
Every hotel here is read the same way, in the same order, with the same two questions asked of the building.
We do not sort hotels by age, by style or by how photogenic they are. We ask what the structure does on its own, and what has to be done for it every day, every season or every year.
What holds itself up covers the parts that work without anyone intervening: mass, slope, ground, water running downhill, thermal steadiness in rock or snow, shade thrown by an eave, daylight arriving from an open horizon. These are properties of the plan and the site.
What has to be kept going covers the work that continues while the building is in use: air pushed into a room with no window, glass washed at height, salt taken off metal, snow cut and packed again, plant running against an outside temperature. It never repeats the first block.
Continuous work is not a fault and it is not a complaint about anyone's staff. An ice building is rebuilt every winter because that is the physics of frozen material. A capsule breathes through ductwork because that is how a windowless module is made habitable. Both are design decisions, described as such.
That is also why there are no scores here. We publish no ratings, no stars, no percentages and no cost estimates, because the two columns are not opposed and there is nothing to add up.
One thing to sort out is a line of preparation, not criticism. It flags the practical matter a reader should settle before travelling: a cable car timetable, a stair, a season, a terminal.
Read in november 2026 is the month we last read the published material for that pair through. Buildings and operators change, and the line tells you how fresh our reading is.
Our material is published: architectural writing, operator descriptions, planning and heritage records, and reporting. We put it in our own words. We do not publish stay reports, and nothing here should be read as an account of a night in any of these hotels.
There are no prices, no star grades, no ratings, no booking and no paid placements on this site. We take no commission and we do not charge a hotel to correct a factual error.
Casino Hotels are in the guide because four Canadian resorts are large, structurally interesting buildings on demanding sites. We describe the ground, the structure, the glass and the plant. The gaming floor is not described and not assessed anywhere on this site.
Ice hotels sit at the far end of the same idea. Frozen material carries itself perfectly, and then it is gone by spring. Nowhere else is the split between standing and being kept standing so easy to see.