History Series / HotelHell

* AwesomeButImpractical: The stylish Keating Hotel in San Diego is made to evoke Ferrari cars (Eddie, the owner, being a supercar fanboy, hired an automotive designer to decorate the hotel in his requested image.) Too bad the hotel's operations weren't nearly as sleek and smooth as the decor. Case in point: all service calls were routed through the front desk and the restaurant was housed in a separate building down the street. Even the decor was impractical, since rooms often didn't have enough seating or table space to eat ordered food and there were ridiculous layout designs like the bathtub not being in the bathroom.

* FeetOfClay: A billboard for the Roosevelt Inn has a billboard depicting the owner in a chef's outfit. Later in the episode, he's shown bungling dinner service, and fails to even cook a soft-boiled egg.

* DinnerTheatre: The Roosevelt Inn has the SherlockHolmes Murder Mystery Diner. Ramsay thinks of it as ridiculous.

** The premiere episode, featuring Juniper Hill Inn in Windsor, Vermont, has an example in Robert, the manager. Between his spending money on antiques for decoration, as well as a $100,000 motorcoach, his failure to pay his staff on time or a decent paycheck, and his obvious lack of understanding of why his staff is on the verge of revolting against him, it's fairly clear why the inn isn't doing so well.

* BerserkButton: Ramsay goes berserk whenever owners of the hotel treat their staff terribly, especially

** The Hotel Chester's chef - co-owner Sukie - had zero training, and it showed in her weird, ill-advised experiments with sushi. Case in point: giant rolls that wouldn't fit in anyone's mouth and had cream cheese in the middle, and of course the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Strawberry Fields sushi]].

* RealSongThemeTune: See also TitleThemeTune below.

* ButNowIMustGo: Chef Ramsay sometimes has this effect when he's finally fixed the hotel, but the owner(s) wish he could stay longer.

* ForeignCultureFetish: Cali, the owner of the Meson de Mesilla, is obsessed with Italy, using Venetian plaster for the walls, painting murals with Tuscan views, and having a Tuscan-inspired menu in the restaurant despite being located in New Mexico,

* BrutalHonesty: Ramsay's ''modus operandi''.
** Also David, one of the prep cooks in Meson de Mesilla, who outright told Ramsay that the food was awful and he wouldn't eat it. [[ThePollyanna He still seemed to be in good spirits, despite being forced to serve it.]] [[spoiler: When Ramsay finds out he's actually a good chef, he puts David in charge of the breakfast menu.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: He shows some of this at the Brick Hotel, whereupon noticing some doll furniture in an alcove, takes it out to sit on to talk to the housekeeper.

* CatchPhrase: Whenever people show up on the first day of Ramsay's visit to check out the various hotels and restaurants, he likes to state in his narration, "I feel sorry for all of them" (or some variation thereof).
** He also has the tendency to refer to hotel guests as "the people who could keep the doors open."

* CloudCuckoolander: Karan, the manager of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia's Towns Inn. She has filled the hotel her son bought for her to manage with rooms full of filthy baskets and creepy dolls, stores her clothes in people's rooms, and [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking sees no problem with the hotel's hamburgers being heated up by boiling in a pan.]] She also seems to walk about with a vacant expression, rarely seems to show any actual emotion or passion, and operates the hotel half the time like a bad thrift store. She admitted that she became an innkeeper simply because it seemed like a fun to do with the rest of her life, despite not having any knowledge of how to actually run an inn. After Gordon implements his changes, however, she seems much more sane, implying that she was simply detached from the whole affair and needed some structure, though she's still a little whimsical.

** The Vienna episode ends with Gordon Ramsay revealing in voiceover that after he left, the owners reverted straight back to the old decor and the old menu. As such, the hotel continues to have a crummy reputation around town.
*** If you wanna crank it UpToEleven, the Vienna was eventually forced to shutter after a fire broke out there in 2017.
** Lakeview Hotel in Chelan, Washington is pretty much the same way, at least as presented on TV. The major problem was the male owner's mistreatment of the locals and local businesses. Gordon emphasized that he needed to start rebuilding relationships and brought in a group of local businesspeople to talk with him and start tearing down walls. Unfortunately, after Gordon left, the owner reverted right back to form, resulting in several of the staff leaving and the hotel's reputation going right down in the dumper. The owners [[http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/a-week-in-hell-chelan-business-owners-dish-on-filming/article_8db86458-373d-11e6-9d87-83481d0af732.html claimed]] much what was shown on the episode was staged. The male owner describes the filming as actually having been a "fun experience" at the time.
* DreadfulMusician: The owner of the Meson de Mesilla fancied herself as the next Music/{{Cher}}, and insisted on performing live in every dinner service. To say that the guests (and Gordon) disagreed would be a ''massive'' understatement, and between her poor singing and the cheap, crappy speakers that she played her music through, it produced an effect that bordered on MindScrew.

* HopeSpot: Early in the second half of the Juniper Hill episode Gordon persuades co-owner Robert to sell off his collection of antiques, which is supposedly worth around a quarter of a million dollars, which would clear up the hotel's debts and leave enough funds for it to operate for the next year regardless of guest numbers. Gordon calls in an antiques dealer...who promptly tells him and Robert that the collection is made up of copies and items that were never that valuable to begin with, and is therefore worth maybe $10,000 - $15,000 at most, which is less than he'd paid for the items, and ''much'' less than he thought they were worth. Cue a massive FacePalm from Gordon, as it dawns on both he and Robert how bad the situation really is.

* ManChild: The Roosevelt Hotel owner. Remember, he used to go to school there...

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: At the Roosevelt Hotel, the owner stages a monthly Franchise/SherlockHolmes-esque mystery dinner, and he and everyone else put on ridiculous English accents that waver between this and OohMeAccentsSlipping.
** He even proclaims that his English accent is better than Ramsay's. Except [[CriticalResearchFailure Ramsay is from Glasgow.]] Granted, his accent is a little less Scottish than most, but still...

* PointyHairedBoss: The two sisters that run the Calumet Inn are in their late 20's/early 30's, respectively, but are [[SpoiledBrat spoiled rich kids]] that have little-to-no real world experience, much less an understanding of how to run a business. This doesn't stop them from [[KnowNothingKnowItAll micromanaging the staff,]] though.
** Karan, the manager of Towns Inn. She not only keeps her own personal belongings and clothing locked in closets in the guests' bedrooms and doesn't see a problem with this, painting over rotting dry wall, or frustrating her employees who have to cook with old and outdated equipment and reheated food ([[OnlySaneMan to the eternal frustration of the Head Chef]]).

* RageQuit: Ramsay when Robert lied about not taking his staff's tips. Ramsay later came back to make sure the staff got paid.
** Gordon ''almost'' does this with the Towns Inn when he sees how filthy it is (via a hygienic scan: 30 is considered clean; his room measured an '''803'''); he's only stopped when, as he's leaving, he glances into the front office and notices that Karan also lives there. Given that Gordon has a soft spot for mothers and older women, he decides to try one more time with the inn, and is finally successful.

* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Layla, the owner's dog from Four Seasons Inn. The same could be said of the other dogs that show up in the episode.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Mandy does this at the Calumet Inn, even after Ramsay told her that she was the best thing about the hotel. Eventually, she did agree to come back as general manager, but only if owners Vanda and Rina left her and the hotel alone.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gordon has to give this to the hotel owner, Robert in the very first episode after hearing some of the appalling stuff he was doing, including withholding pay from his employees and cheap-skating on food quality... while simultaneously spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on paintings and antiques and charging ''fifty-four dollars'' for a single meal.
** He also has to give one to the two sisters that own the Calumet Inn, in order to make them realize how [[PointyHairedBoss extremely out of their depth]] they were.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The stylish Keating Hotel in San Diego is made to evoke Ferrari cars (Eddie, the owner, being a supercar fanboy, hired an automotive designer to decorate the hotel in his requested image.) Too bad the hotel's operations weren't nearly as sleek and smooth as the decor. Case in point: all service calls were routed through the front desk and the restaurant was housed in a separate building down the street.
** Even the decor was impractical, since rooms often didn't have enough seating or table space to eat ordered food and there were ridiculous layout designs like the bathtub not being in the bathroom.

If you're looking for terrible or scary hotels in general, that's Main/HellHotel.

** [[invoked]] Phillip, the owner of the Monticello Hotel, has a serious alcohol problem, and does his damnedest to save a penny, including cutting down on hours for his staff (forcing them to come in early and not even clock in), and putting his own used furniture in the rooms (including [[{{Squick}} mattresses stained with his own semen]]). Luckily, by the end of the episode he's gotten help, checked into rehab, and the hotel's head chef (himself sober for nine years) has offered to be his sponsor.

* BrickJoke: At the Calumet Inn, Ramsay chastises the owners' father for buying them a hotel despite their lack of experience, adding that if he really wanted to teach them responsibility, he should have bought them a goldfish. At the end of the episode, Ramsay's parting gift to the sisters is a pair of goldfish for them to take care of.
* BrownNote: For Ramsay, the music of the awful Cher impersonator (AKA [[BadBoss the owner]]) becomes this.

** Also David, one of the prep cooks in Mason de Mesilla, who outright told Ramsay that the food was awful and he wouldn't eat it. [[ThePollyanna He still seemed to be in good spirits, despite being forced to serve it.]] [[spoiler: When Ramsay finds out he's actually a good chef, he puts David in charge of the breakfast menu.]]

* CloudCuckoolander: Karan, the manager of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia's Towns Inn. She has filled the hotel her son bought for her to manage with rooms full of filthy baskets and creepy dolls, stores her clothes in people's rooms, and [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking cooks hamburgers by boiling them.]] She also seems to walk about with a vacant expression, rarely seems to show any actual emotion or passion, and operates the hotel half the time like a bad thrift store. She also admitted that she became an innkeeper simply because it seemed like a fun to do with the rest of her life, despite not having any knowledge of how to actually run an inn. After Gordon implements his changes, however, she seems much more sane, implying that she was simply detached from the whole affair and needed some structure.

** Karan of the Towns Inn, after receiving a makeover, looks decades younger. Not only that, but she also becomes much more confident and assertive.

* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Layla, the owner's dog from Four Seasons Inn.
** The same could be said of the other dogs that show up in the episode.

** Lakeview Hotel in Chelan, Washington is pretty much the same way, at least as presented on TV. The major problem was the male owner's mistreatment of the locals and local businesses. Gordon emphasized that he needed to start rebuilding relationships and brought in a group of local businesspeople to talk with him and start tearing down walls. Unfortunately, after Gordon left, the owner reverted right back to form, resulting in several of the staff leaving and the hotel's reputation going right down in the dumper. The owners [[http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/a-week-in-hell-chelan-business-owners-dish-on-filming/article_8db86458-373d-11e6-9d87-83481d0af732.html claimed]] much what was shown on the episode was staged. The male owner describes the filming as actually having been a "fun experience" at the time, and interestingly enough, most online reviews for the hotel actually seem to be rather positive.

* DinnerTheate: The Roosevelt Inn has the SherlockHolmes Murder Mystery Diner. Ramsay thinks of it as ridiculous.

* YouDidntAsk: In "The Town's Inn, Part 1," Ramsay is pointing out to the innkeeper, Karan, the insanity of the idea of there being her personal wardrobe in his room. She says that the wardrobe is locked and he doesn't have to deal with it and he tells her "But you didn't tell me that when you took my money," getting him this response.

An American reality television show that first aired on {{FOX}} on August 13, 2012. Following a format similar to ''Series/KitchenNightmares'', the show follows Creator/GordonRamsay as he visits hotels in dire need of assistance.