Best SL Hotel Rooms by Price
This is a feature I put together for the October issue of Attention SL, you can read the whole issue here.
Introduction
Second Life has dozens of hotels and resorts that do their best to mimic an RL experience. This is something I didn’t realise until a year ago when I started the SL Hotel Inspector website.
These vary hugely by theme (everything from Bali to Mexico) and price, with some rooms and suites costing 50L and one recently opened resort charging 5000L+ a night.
However, whatever your budget, there is plenty of choice if you want to take your significant other on a weekend, or just a night, away.
Having stayed in around 50 Second Life Hotels, I’ve included a pick by price bracket.
Each description includes a bit of information about the room / suite, the hotel itself, as well as of course the SLURL to book. For each I also asked a friend and model to come with me, I’ve linked to their Flickr feeds.
Note that I have excluded two types of hotel.
First of all I have not included any ‘room for the night’ adult places. There are plenty of those around and you don’t need me to point you in their direction.
And secondly, I’ve not featured resorts on closed sims, where you have to book in advance via a website. However, as they are an important part of the SL hotel scene, I will be including them in future features.
With all that out of the way, my picks are as follows:
Under 50L a night - Le Chateau Motel and Resort
50-250L a night - The Luxe Hotel
250- 500 a night - The Victoria Hotel
500-1000 a night - Bonaire Yanu Yanu
1000-2000 a night - Rizzi on the Beach
2000+ a night - Little Santorini
Le Chateau Motel and Resort
Under 50L a night
Le Chateau is a 1980s themed motel that surrounds a small pool and bar. There are half a dozen rooms in the motel itself, each of which have an individual theme.
We stayed in the CCCP room, which as the name suggests, is decked out in Soviet era ambience.
The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will look down on you while you are on the Ruckus bed, which also has a giant hammer and sickle flag behind it.
Other rooms include the “Cockstar Suite”, ‘Ze Kitsch Room” and the “Valentine’s Suite” The rooms are tiny, but it's unlikely you’ll spend too much time in them given what else there is to see.
Besides the motel itself, there’s a camping area with a second pool (1980s leisure wear mandatory). And when we went the owners had just opened up a small French Guiana style village at the end of the property (“Lacourte-sur-Bassin”).
I’m not aware of anyone having tried to recreate French Guiana before, and this area is both fun and worth a visit. In particular check out ‘Guyana Mama’, a cocktail bar with clothing optional beach.
In terms of pricing, the price per motel room is actually 250L a week, which works out at 36L a night, so arguably I am cheating a bit here.
However, I’ve included it as Le Chateau is a pretty unique place that everyone should visit and stay in at least once
Model - Harmony Sandalphon
Luxe Hotel
50 -250L a night
The Luxe Hotel is a new place that's part of the long established Luxe LA RP and luxury living community.
At 75L a night, the standard rooms are astounding value for money, with a good sized bedroom and bathroom.
The rooms are well designed with a Songlos Adult bed, a black nest adult chair with desk, a Kaipaus Hammock Tub and a Ruckus shower.
In addition to the standard rooms, you can stay in a variety of other rooms and suites, with the most expensive setting you back 500L a night.
The public areas of the hotel don’t quite match the standard of the rooms, but in all honesty that doesn’t really matter as the main Luxe LA sim features a range of bars, restaurants and other attractions - a particular highlight is the three storey aquarium with a bar on top.
Finally, Luxe LA has both a marina and airport that’s connected to the SL continents and Blake Sea, meaning it’s possible to sail or fly here.
Model - Harmony Sandalphon
The Victoria Hotel
250-500L a night
The Victoria is another newly opened place that has a kind of boutique hotel feel about it. As a result, It makes a nice contrast to some of the large, cavernous places you see elsewhere.
Suites range from 200-500L a night, when we stayed we chose one of the Premium Suites at 300L. This is bigger and better kitted out than many SL skyboxes with a kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom and study.
The hotel itself has managed to pack quite a lot into a small space, including two swimming pools, a restaurant, gym and rooftop tennis court.
One thing I will mention is that when we went (on the opening day), the Victoria still had a few teething problems.
For example, the process of renting rooms is cumbersome - you are given a board you need to take and rez somewhere, after which you get a notecard (why not just give you the notecard to begin with?).
However the owner of the Victoria has been getting advice from the owner of the long established and popular Essencia Hotel, so hopefully these issues will be ironed out soon.
Model - KT Syakumi
Bonaire YanuYanu
500L - 1000L a night
Bonaire YanuYanu is a Fijian-themed resort spread across three islands in the Fiji series of sims, which in turn have Blake Sea access.
Though the YanuYanu resort has more expensive villas at 1000L+, I recommend the tiki huts at 500L a night, which are located on the furthest of the three islands away from the main reception building (tp there direct or get there by madpea inflatable boat using one of the rezzers).
These have a small bedroom, a bathroom, and a terrace overlooking the water. You also get access to a small pier where you can moor a boat, during your stay. The rooms are really nicely designed, with a private bar, and also Ruckus furniture
Staying in a Tiki gives you access to the rest of the resort, including the two restaurants, the spa (which you can pre book) and the fantastic pool in the main resort
YanuYanu often runs special offers, for example on the weekend we were there, there was a promotion giving everyone who stayed in a Tiki a free dinner for two, so it’s worth keeping tabs on their Facebook page.
Model - Margeaux DuPoint
Rizzi on the Beach
1000L - 2000L a night
The Rizzi was one of the first hotels I reviewed when I started my website a year ago. I liked it so much that I ended up living there for weeks.
I still rate it as one of Second Life’s best hotels, because it’s immersive and it feels real, qualities that are important to me personally when assessing the SL hotel experience.
The Rizzi has junior suites at 250L and suites at 500L a night in the main hotel building.
However, if staying here, I think it’s worth paying more and going for one of the two private villas in the hotel grounds at 1000L a night, or indeed the two storey penthouse at 1750L
Each offers you greater privacy (it’s quite easy to cam into the actual hotel rooms), and you also get your own private pool. I recommend the villas or the penthouse for a weekend with a special someone you want to impress.
The actual hotel has an excellent bar and restaurant and what to me is one of the best hotel swimming pools in Second Life.
Model - Margeaux DuPoint
Little Santorini
2000+ a night
Strictly speaking, Little Santorini isn’t a hotel, but a vacation island with villas you rent on a nightly basis.
As the name suggests, Little Santorini offers a Greek island style experience, which mimics the real Santorini, right down to the black sand beaches.
A Greek village is built on the slopes of a hill, with a vineyard and windmill on top. The island also includes restaurants, shops and a residents’ only spa.
The spa includes a bot masseuse, and is worth a visit in its own right. I’ll be including it in a future resort spa round-up.
The villas start at 795L a night, but I would recommend the more expensive villas at 2000L+ as these have private pools and multiple bedrooms, and so would be perfect if you wanted to go with a group of friends (or two couples).
Model - Lilly Hexem
