How this was made
This page sets out the method behind the entries: how the addresses were picked, what was used to write them, what is deliberately absent, and how to tell us that something is wrong.
How the addresses were chosen
An address belongs here when the building itself is the reason to describe it: a structure that held another purpose first, a form of accommodation that departs from an ordinary hotel room, or a site that exists only while it is cold. Anything that could not be described accurately from published material was left out.
Where a chain address could not be confirmed as open, another working address of the same chain was used instead, and the substitution is stated in the entry rather than hidden.
What was used
Descriptions were written from material published by the operators and from established reference works. Where sources disagreed, the entry was narrowed to what all of them supported. Each entry carries a month under Source date, which is the month its text was last read over against those sources.
No text here is reproduced from an operator. Nothing was written from memory or invented to fill a gap.
What is not here
There are no prices, no star ratings, no room counts, no reviews, no reservation links and no commercial arrangements of any kind. Hotels are not measured against one another, and nothing on the site is presented as a recommendation. This is a description of buildings, not an assessment of stays.
How to read the winter section
Winter buildings are made of snow and river ice. They are constructed again from the beginning each cold season, so the plan, the carving and the sleeping halls of one year tell you nothing about the next. Opening and closing dates are set year by year and are published by the operator, not here.
Where a site keeps a heated lodge, a cooled hall, or glass igloos that are warmed, the entry says so plainly, because those parts work on a different timetable from the cold halls.
The fact keys, and why the sections differ
What it is names the kind of structure in the language the sources use. Standing in gives the street, quarter or site rather than a full postal address. Source date gives the month and year the entry was last read over.
The four sections do not share one template, because the useful facts are not the same in each. Art entries describe the shell, the interior and the surroundings. Capsule entries describe the sleeping place and the building around it. Winter entries describe the site, the season's structure and what works outside the cold. Casino entries describe the site and the public rooms only.
Reporting a mistake
Corrections are welcome, particularly where an operator has changed something since an entry was read over. Write to us through the contact page and quote the entry name.