If you are obsessed with The White Lotus and a literary traveler like me, devour books set in hotels like The Heartbreak Hotel, The Wedding People, A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, and Dial A For Aunties. These novels will have you checking in and never wanting to leave.
Confession: I judge hotels by their story potential almost as much as their sheet thread count and happy hour offerings. Is there a creepy hallway with flickering lights? A ritzy lobby full of secrets? A wedding about to go catastrophically wrong? Perfect reading material, right?!
Hotel fiction has it all: paranormal happenings, illicit affairs, rom-com disasters, and enough generational family drama to fill every suite on the floor. Think magic, ghosts, a talking fox, and love. These are my all-time favorites. 💜 Christine
💕 Fantasy, Romance, and Cozy Hotel Novels
Our Uncorked Readers covet cozy and contemporary romance books, perfect for our famous Uncorked Reading Challenge. These novels touched my heart. 🎞️ You might also enjoy these engaging movies featuring hotels.
The Heartbreak Hotel by Ellen O’Clover
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: With a background in therapy, Lou is on the mend from her own cheating-musician breakup. She knew the relationship was dying, but she didn’t want to lose the gorgeous rental home she could not afford on her own.
In an effort to stay, Lou offers the landlord, Henry, a deal: let her transform the house into a bed and breakfast to help pay rent. What she fails to tell him: she’s honing in on the heartbreak niche and is transforming the property into a healing retreat, the Comeback Inn, for the brokenhearted. OK, there are a few other secrets (and TWs), too.
💭 My Thoughts: I absolutely loved The Heartbreak Hotel. From a sweet bed and breakfast in the mountains with the nicest guests to a cautious, endearing veterinarian landlord, I couldn’t put this one down.
I fell in love with Custard the dog, Rashad, Nan, and Mei. There’s hiking, ice cream, and temporary tattoos, along with silly drunken nights and murder basements. There are also heavier topics, such as grief, parenting, and mental health.
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: Sera Swan discovers her great-aunt dead in the garden, successfully resurrecting her, but losing her magic in the process. With the help of her quirky inn guests and a skelly rooster – who have become more like family – she attempts to get her magic back, especially since she might be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Yet, is she more than just her magic?
💭 My Thoughts: Add in a little romantic comedy, a troublesome talking fox, a corrupt magic Guild, and solid neurodivergent and mental health representation, and you have a strong, unputdownable romantasy.
I love that the inn is a character in and of itself, determining who finds its sweet haven. Sera builds a nontraditional family and community full of feel-good vibes. Both our Uncorked Readers and I adored this witchy novel.
The Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: Get ready for the ultimate tourists versus locals read. Graham runs a delicious hole-in-the-wall restaurant, The Tourist Trap. Originally meant for locals, The Tourist Trap now sees visitors lining up outside in search of that boozy and disgusting-sounding Growly Bear.
Moose Springs seethes with hostility aimed at these rich and, oftentimes, inconsiderate guests who drive under the influence and terrorize the wildlife. Can we please stop taking selfies with moose?
Graham despises the tourists the most until he meets Zoey, a two-week vacationer who is unlike any other guest he’s ever encountered. Maybe it’s her cute glasses or penchant for getting caught up in disaster…
💭 My Thoughts: For travelers looking to tour a chilly climate via armchair and for those who appreciate conscious tourism, The Tourist Attraction is one of the sweetest romance and escapist books on this list. Living in Asheville, people have a similar love-hate relationship with tourism. I picture Graham as Luke from Gilmore Girls.
📚 You Might Also Like: For more books set in hotels, check out Morganthaler’s second and third in the series: Mistletoe & Mr. Right (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) and Enjoy The View (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️). These books may be read as standalones.
The Suite Spot by Trish Doller
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: After being wrongfully fired, Rachel Beck moves to Ohio with her daughter, Maisie, to help start a new brewery hotel. However, Mason, the owner, hadn’t warned her that the hotel isn’t quite built yet, and he wants her to design it. She’ll also be sharing a home with him.
Both Mason and Rachel have a bit of baggage, but they can’t help falling for each other. Will their relationship become more than just boss and employee, and what will happen with the hotel?
💭 My Thoughts: Readers will love designing a beer-themed hotel with Rachel while watching as she integrates with this small island community.
Trish Doller’s Beck Sisters series is one of my favorites for its feel-good endings – even if you end up with misty eyes – and its ability to address heavier topics. It’s magic how Doller can incorporate engaging fluff with such a heavy punch straight to your gut (and heart!).
Just keep in mind that The Suite Spot is the second in the series, but can be read as a standalone. I read all three out of order with no issue.
🏨 Contemporary Literary & Historical Fiction Set In Hotels
Amor Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow is still in my TBR pile, along with Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner. These are a few more recent books set at hotels that I just couldn’t put down.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: Phoebe heads to an $800-a-night hotel in Newport, where she is the only person who isn’t one of “the wedding people” for Lila & Gary’s upcoming nuptials; she also doesn’t plan on leaving alive.
It’s a 6-day wedding extravaganza, and Phoebe has no idea that this event and these people will forever change her life. Gary, Juice, Patricia, Jim… they are hard not to love. Phoebe is brilliant, witty, strong, and visceral.
💭 My Thoughts: The Wedding People is officially one of my top books of all time. I’m not sure what it was: the 40-year-old protagonist, the complicated friendships, the reflections on life, marriage, and work… However, I fell deeply into the rawness and honesty of the storyline and these characters.
The dark humor helps navigate tough situations and feelings – plus, it’s realistic and relevant. You might cry while laughing. As a mood reader, I needed to be in the right headspace to finish this.
Last Summer At The Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: Head to the Catskills for a generations-old but now failing hotel. It’s not a surprise that fading glory is a prominent theme in hotel fiction, and Last Summer At The Golden Hotel is no exception.
New England’s elite used to flock to The Golden Hotel for reunions, cheesy contests, and a detox from the real world. Unfortunately, The Golden Hotel’s two managing families, the Goldmans and Weingolds, have failed to keep up with the times. Seriously, there’s no WiFi?
With the hotel’s bottom line in the red, the owners must decide to sell this iconic Catskill getaway or try something new. As the families meet for an ominous vote, their secrets and dreams unfold. Is this hotel sadly destined to become a casino? Can someone save it?
💭 My Thoughts: More importantly – and what I enjoy – we meet the owners’ children. Can these Millennials preserve the legacy of their youth? Do they even care? Who will they become? If you enjoy slow-burning generational family stories and childhood nostalgia, Last Summer At The Golden Hotel is perfect for you.
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: Travel to Spain via your armchair, following the Spanish Civil War as fascist dictator General Francisco Franco rules the country. Finally allowing wealthy Americans into the country – but mostly at the ritzy hotel, Castellana Hilton, and under close watch – we witness how the country’s leadership affects the lives of Spain’s youth, including Ana, Daniel, Rafa, Fuga, and Puri.
Texan Daniel Matheson wants nothing more than to be a photojournalist, while his father insists he take over the family oil business. Daniel knows that Ana, their beautiful hotel maid, can help him create the best story with his pictures to win a college scholarship. Their chemistry is incredible, too.
Throughout the novel, we meet Ana’s struggling family and watch as her brother, Rafa, works with his best friend Fuga to become a famous matador. When Ana’s father tells Daniel to photograph the local orphanage, he is a bit confused. Puri, their cousin who works there, is also seeing suspicious behaviors.
💭 My Thoughts: Spain has a dark secret with the potential to change all of their lives. In a time period that rewards silence and obedience, see what happens when we speak the truth.
I have yet to meet a Sepetys book that I don’t enjoy. If you are looking for young adult novels that adults will also love, The Fountains of Silence promises to be an unforgettable one. Don’t let the length scare you off – it’s worth it! This is one of the most well-researched historical fiction books set in hotels.
📚 You Might Also Like: Find more great books from Ruta Sepetys on our Baltics reading list.
🔪 Best Hotel Mysteries & Thrillers
It’s no secret that Stephen King’s The Shining (1977) is one of the most famous classic hotel horror books. Below, find spooky but not so scary murder mysteries, psychological thrillers, and suspense novels. 🎞️ For King fans, you might also enjoy these hotel horror films.
Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: Meddy grew up Chinese-Indonesian, navigating multiple languages, different cultures, and immigrating to America. Now she’s in California, where her aunts and mom run a thriving wedding business and guilt her into working as the family photographer. …And set her up on a blind date.
Unfortunately, Meddy accidentally kills her date. Twice. With a body in her trunk and a ritzy hotel wedding on the calendar, the aunties must pull off the event of the century without anyone noticing. This is trickier than it sounds, as Meddy’s first love is also the hotel manager.
💭 My Thoughts: Dial A For Aunties promises laughs, love, and loads of aunties with just a pinch of foodie fiction. Having lived in Indonesia, I enjoyed seeing Bahasa Indonesia on the pages.
Sure to warm your heart, this light novel promises endless entertainment that will make you want to call your family ASAP.
The Maid by Nita Prose
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: Molly enjoys her job as a maid for the high-end Regency Grand Hotel, finding solace in cleanliness, proper etiquette, and routine. She works hard but finds herself the butt of jokes that she doesn’t always understand.
Grieving the loss of Gran, Molly does not always read social situations or intentions correctly. When she finds wealthy entrepreneur Charles Black dead in his suite, she becomes entangled in a murder mystery, finding herself framed as the police’s number one suspect. Her fainting spells don’t help.
With the help of sincere friends, can Molly prove her innocence? And, while Molly may be innocent of murder, is Molly as guiltless as we are led to believe?
💭 My Thoughts: The Maid is filled with both suggested and in-your-face plot twists, some more predictable than others. You’ll adore Molly and her newfound community while wanting to slug the bad guys. The Maid promises both frustration and heart.
While it is never stated that Molly may be autistic or otherwise neurodivergent – and we don’t want to make assumptions about her character – some reviewers, including many who are neurodivergent, have criticized the representation of Molly, while others have praised it. Read with awareness.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: Travel by boat to a creepy island that is home to a menacing graveyard and bog. Get ready for Gatsby-proportioned wedding festivities – with a similar outcome.
A story with alternating timelines and perspectives, wedding celebrations turn dark as a waitress screams over a body. All of the guests are detestable as rich, spoiled, and tipsy snobs. The ushers are part of a childhood cult-like prep school and have never grown up. The women have destructive and poisonous relationships with the men in their lives. Everyone has secrets and a motive. Whodunit?
💭 My Thoughts: For Agatha Christie lovers looking for a more modern tale, The Guest List will appeal to you. The fast-paced plot is thrilling and a tad deliciously cliché. Novels set at hotels and inns don’t get any more dramatic and obnoxious than this – and you know I love destination wedding settings.
📚 You Might Also Like: More Books Set In Ireland & Great Island-Set Books
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: In 1982, in upstate New York, Carly Kirk’s Aunt Viv mysteriously disappears from the Sun Down Motel. With Carly’s love of true crime and her mother’s recent death, she travels to the cursed town of Fell to investigate her aunt’s disappearance.
In a chilling timeline, jumping between Carly’s story in 2017 and her Aunt Viv’s in 1982, meet the creepy ghosts of the Sun Down Motel. You’ll smell random cigarette smoke, get locked in with the candy machine, and watch drug deals and affairs go down as a young boy runs for the pool.
Will Carly uncover the mystery of her aunt’s disappearance before getting caught up in a deadly tragedy of her own?
💭 My Thoughts: Simone St. James is one of my go-to authors for well-developed ghost stories and modern-day murder mysteries. Thrilling and chilling, I read this book a tad scared but also as fast as I could.
You might find yourself empathizing with the ghosts, looking over your shoulder – even if the sun is out – and yelling at Viv for being so naive while cheering for her the entire time. Girl power, mystery, ghosts, and 🔪 on the loose!? What more could you ask for?
📚 You Might Also Like: Seriously spooky books & gripping books featuring haunted houses
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
Quick Glance
📖 Plot: Once a controversial sanatorium for women with Tuberculosis, architects have renovated the building into a beautiful hotel in the Swiss Alps – with a gross fetishization of its history. Even spookier, the lead architect went missing years ago. Something is off here.
Enter Elin Warner and her boyfriend, who are traveling to Le Sommet for her somewhat estranged brother’s engagement party. Elin is determined to confront Issac about the death of their younger brother from their childhood. As an avalanche traps them at the hotel, Elin realizes that a 🔪 is on the loose.
Can Elin catch them before more people die? And what really happened at this sanatorium?
💭 My Thoughts: With all of the initial hype, I started wary. However, The Sanatorium is both thrilling and eerie with strong themes, characters, and the perfect level of suspense. Did I mention it’s atmospheric and creepy?
📚 You Might Also Like: Books set in Switzerland
🏨 Now go check in! Which of these books is calling your name? Let us know in the comments. Your next great read is waiting. 🗝️
May I also respectfully suggest the 1965 novel Hotel by Arthur Hailey. Kind of the OG hotel novel.
Of course! We love more recommendations. Thank you!