Top 10 Luxury Hotels in the Movies - This Decade

by Heather Holman on Monday, July 16, 2007

Ever see a fabulous luxury hotel in a movie and wonder what hotel it is? Hotels where movies are filmed often are renamed to match the movie script and aren’t mentioned until the very end of the credits! Who has time for that? Read my article for a cheat sheet on the Top Luxury Hotels in the Movies: This Decade; and check back soon or subscribe to my feed for movie hotels from past decades!

10. The Park Hyatt Tokyo
    The Oscar Winning Drama written and directed by Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation takes place mostly in a hotel. The Park Hyatt Tokyo to be exact. The film starring Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson and Giovanni Ribisi focuses on the characters finding their true selves while stuck in Toyko Japan.

9. Hotel Chelsea
   The infamous Hotel Chelsea makes another on screen appearance with The Interpreter in 2005. The New York Hotel has been immortalized in song, print and film over the past 100 years but the United Nations Drama starting Sean Penn, Nicole Kidman and Catherine Keener is the first film of this decade.

8. The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino
   The scene in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous where Sandra Bullock chases Dolly Parton through the lobby of a Las Vegas Hotel is The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. The hotel is also soon to be seen again in 2008, in the movie 21 starting Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne. The movie 21 is about six MIT students who take Vegas by storm after being trained to count cards.

7. The Hotel Regina Paris
   The Glamorous Hotel Regina in Paris has two films under its belt this decade. Kiss of the Dragon staring Jet Li and Bridget Fonda and The Bourne Identity staring Matt Damon and Franka Potente. While the sequel The Bourne Supremacy has filmed at The Westin Grand Berlin.

6. The Adolphus Hotel
   The list of Hotels in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, is quiet long! The tasteless yet hilarious movie follows Sacha Baron Cohen documentary style as he plays the Kazak Character Borat. He does manage to get himself kicked out of these luxury hotels, but the most memorable has to be when Borat greets the front desk with his pants down and says, “What's up vanilla face?” The hotel is the The Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas who actually kicks him out before he even checks in.

5. Grand Hotel Pupp
   The prequel to the James Bond Series Casino Royale starting Daniel Craig as the new blonde bond, shows several luxury hotels. But only one of these is an actual hotel where the movie was filmed – The Grand Hotel Pupp, in the Czech Republic, was the actual hotel for the fictional “Hotel Splendide” in Montenegro. It should also be mentioned James Bond docks his yacht outside of the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, but the in room scene is actually filmed in studio.

4. Chateau de Villette
   In The Da Vinci Code, Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou travel around France and the UK searching for hidden clues left by Leonardo Da Vinci. One of the most luxurious stops on their trip is to the mansion of Sir Leigh Teabing played by Sir Ian McKellen. The mansion is actually the Chateau de Villette in France.

3. The Roosevelt Hotel
   The famous Roosevelt Hotel plays the part of two mythical New York City Hotels this decade. In the movie Maid in Manhattan, Jennifer Lopez is a maid at the “The Beresford Hotel” in New York City when she falls in love with Ralph Fiennes and in the thriller 1408, John Cusack receives postcard from the “Dolphin Hotel” where Samuel L. Jackson plays the manager. Both of these hotels are actually the historic Roosevelt Hotel.

2. Villa Balbianello
   The beautiful Villa Balbianello in Lake Como takes on the role of the most beautiful location in all the galaxies in the feature film Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. In the film, Natalie Portman's character Senator Padmé Amidala sneaks away for a tumultuous affair with Anakin Skywalker played by Hayden Christensen.

1. The Bellagio Resort
   Not only has this Luxury Casino appeared in the star studded Oceans Eleven, Oceans Twelve and Oceans Thirteen but The Bellagio Resort has also been the Vegas hotel getaway for the hilarious movies - Head of State, Dodgeball and Knocked Up. Making The Bellagio Resort the Top Luxury Hotel to appear on film in this decade!