shadowcup.com
A record of eighteen hotels in four categories, written from public sources and revised by hand. The site sells nothing and compares nothing.
Casino Hotels
Four Canadian resorts described as houses: halls, restaurants, spa floors, golf and water frontage.
Art Hotels
Older European buildings taken over for hotel use, with the earlier plan still readable inside.
Capsule Hotels
Repeating fitted sleeping units, with the shared floors carrying everything the rooms leave out.
Ice Hotels
Winter houses high on the mountain, reached by railway, funicular, cable car or snow road.
What does an entry answer?
What kind of building is this?
Every entry opens with the house itself: what it was built for, what was kept when it changed use, and which parts of it a guest actually walks through. Where a house belongs to a chain, the entry says so.
What stands around it?
The second part places the building in its street or on its slope: what the neighbouring ground is used for, what is within walking distance, and, for the mountain houses, which railway, funicular or road brings you to the door.
What should be asked in advance?
The third part is practical and plain: which rooms are shared, what follows the season, which floor plan differs from the rest, and what is worth settling by email before you travel rather than at the desk.
How the register is kept
Entries are written from the hotels' own pages, from maps and from published reporting, then read again before the date in the fact line is changed. When a house closes for work, changes hands or moves to another address, the entry is rewritten rather than patched. How this register works sets out the whole method.