Method and filters
How the index is put together
Ten filters, one entry format and a hand check on every hotel. This page explains all three so you can argue with our choices properly.
The ten filters
What each filter means
Waterfront
Harbour, ocean, river or lake within sight of the rooms.
6 hotelsMountain
High country, ranges or alpine terrain around the hotel.
2 hotelsCity
A central address with the rest of the city on foot.
9 hotelsQuiet
Bush, vineyard or open country rather than a street grid.
5 hotelsLandmark building
A conversion, a heritage structure or a building people travel to see.
10 hotelsDesign and art
Interiors, commissioned art or architecture are the reason it exists.
10 hotelsSeasonal
Open for part of the year only.
6 hotelsCar-free arrival
Ferry, train, lift or shuttle gets you to the door.
9 hotelsSpa and pool
A spa, bathhouse or pool is part of the stay.
6 hotelsLive programme
A theatre or concert room with a touring programme.
4 hotelsThe entry format
What you get for every hotel
The opening line
One sentence that tells you what the place actually is. If it does not contain the fact that would decide the matter for you, it gets rewritten.
Two paragraphs
The first covers the building: what it was, who drew it, what stands around it. The second covers the stay: how the hotel works, how you get there, and how it differs from the others in its category.
Quick facts
Four rows — where it is, how you arrive, when to go, and why the hotel is in the index. They are qualitative on purpose. We publish no prices, no star counts and no room numbers.
Best for
One line matching the hotel to a kind of trip and a length of stay. It is a match, not a ranking. Nothing on this site is scored against anything else.
Checked
The month a person last read the entry against the hotel’s own material. It is there so you can judge how stale the information might be.
Where the details come from
Hotel websites, architectural and design press, heritage and planning records, and museum or operator statements. Where a building has a documented history we follow the record rather than the marketing copy. Where we cannot confirm something, it stays out of the entry.
We describe hotels from public information. We do not publish accounts of staying in them, we invent no faults for working businesses, and we take no payment from anyone listed. If a hotel thinks we have it wrong, the correction goes to the front of the queue.
What we leave out
- Prices, star ratings, review scores and room counts.
- Booking links, affiliate links and operator links of any kind.
- Invented criticism of a real business, and any claim that we stayed the night.
- Anything about gambling beyond the safety information on the casino hotels page.