On screen, a great hotel is never just a backdrop — it becomes a character. From luxury to menace, here are seven that earned their place in film and television history.
The Plaza, New York — Home Alone 2 (1992)
A true icon of New York luxury, its lobby and facade gave the film its most unmistakable sense of the city.
Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills — Pretty Woman (1990)
The real-life setting for Hollywood’s most famous rom-com, and a symbol of glamour ever since.
The Overlook — The Shining (1980)
Kubrick’s isolated, dread-soaked hotel — with Oregon’s Timberline Lodge as its exterior — is proof that a building can carry a whole film’s atmosphere.
Park Hyatt Tokyo — Lost in Translation (2003)
Sofia Coppola made the hotel’s hushed, skyline-high calm into the film’s emotional centre — the clearest lesson in how mood sells a place.
Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Paris — Sex and the City
The balcony, the flowers, the Eiffel Tower beyond — a single framed view that became one of the show’s most recreated moments.
The Hotel Cortez — American Horror Story: Hotel (2015)
A purpose-built set, but a reminder that production design and a hotel’s sense of menace can be as memorable as any real address.
Raffles Singapore — Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
Colonial grandeur and cultured calm — a property whose authority on screen comes straight from its real-world character.
The thread through all of them: the camera treats the hotel as a character, not a location. That’s exactly how we approach a brand film — finding the property’s own story rather than listing its rooms. See the work →