How We Read A Plan

Every entry on this site answers four questions and no others: what plan the house follows, where that form came from, what was kept of it, and what was changed. The order never varies, which is the point of it. A reader who has finished one entry knows exactly where to look in the next, and the eighteen buildings can be compared on the same terms instead of on whatever each of them happens to be known for.

What counts as a plan

The arrangement of rooms and routes: where a guest enters, what the corridor is, what the rooms open onto, and how the parts of a building stand in relation to one another. A courtyard with a walk around it is a plan. A vault with rooms along it is a plan. A style label is not.

Where the sources come from

Published material only: what hotels and operators publish themselves, maps and aerial views, and writing about the buildings in the open record. Where a fact could not be checked, the sentence was rewritten so that it did not depend on it.

What is not here

No prices, no room counts, no star ratings, no reviews and no bookings. No dates of construction, no named architects, and no style labels unless a source uses them. Nothing is called the finest or the only one of its kind, and no gaming floor is described.

Telling us about an error

Buildings change, and published descriptions go out of date. If something here is wrong, write and say which entry and what the correct position is; the address is on the Contact page.