How do I create a hotel?
It's actually not that different to creating residential or community lots, however just building the hotel and placing the front desk does not make it a hotel and it won't function as one. To make it function correctly you must be sure the lot contains several crucial items, most importantly you will need to use a cheat to rezone the entire lot as a hotel. Since rezoning the lot as a hotel will disable some of the normal build/buy mode functions, it's best to leave that step until last.
Important Notes
Your hotel must include one each of the following if it is to function correctly:
- Hotel desk - ConciergoSum Desk by Welcome Home Furniture.
- Hotel room door - Solidity Door.
Also note the following:
- Hotel doors must always face outwards. (The smaller room sign must be facing out, the larger map image faces in).
- Hotel rooms should not have more than one hotel door leading into them.
- Hotel rooms that share a bathroom will not lock properly. (If you don't want to give them one each, consider a separate communal toilet or shower elsewhere on the lot instead).
The price your sims pay for a hotel room depends on:
- Number of tiles within the room. (i.e. the room size).
- Value of all the objects in the room.
Therefore it pays to take these into account when you design your hotel and it's price range.
Building your first hotel
Okay let's build a small functioning hotel to demonstrate. (Click images to enlarge).
I've placed a small 3x2 community lot in my neighbourhood, I've called it Small Cabin Hotel. I've created a single ensuite hotel room as part of the lot, I've also placed a Flipin' Fred's Flapjack Shack, an Axe-olutely Throwing Station, a simple seller souvenir rack among sundry other objects.
Here's what our small hotel looks like so far:
Now we add the Solidity Hotel Door in the right place so the game knows it's meant to be a hotel room. Note the sign on the outside of the door:
Now we add the ConciergoSum Desk:
Now one last step before we can call it a hotel, we must use a cheat to rezone the lot. Open the cheat box by holding down the Shift + Ctrl + C keys, into the cheat box type:
changeLotZoning hotel
Now save and exit the lot for the cheat to take effect. If you now re-enter the lot and go into the build mode, you should see that some of the tools have become disabled. This confirms the cheat has activated and your lot should now be zoned as a hotel:
All we need now is a willing volunteer...and right on cue comes Gordon to check in for us and try out our hotel:
Good job Flipin' Fred is always around to feed the locals:
The bed is quite comfy too. Hmm, should have placed the 'Do not disturb' sign I think:
There you go, that's all there is to it.
If you find you need to access all the build mode tools on any hotel zoned lot, all you need to do is rezone it back to a community lot. Use the cheat:
changeLotZoning community
to re-enable all the build/buy mode functions. Don't forget to rezone it as a hotel again when you are finished.
Non Vacation Neighbourhoods
Yes, you can place or build any of your hotel lots in a non vacation neighbourhood, all of the normal hotel functions are present with one notable exception. Hotels in non vacation neighbourhoods don't have the ability to save while your sims are on them, even if you have checked in. Unfortunately you will still have to send sims back to their home lot before you can save.