Why So Many ‘Bristol’ Hotels Around the World?

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  09.29.08 | 11:23 AM ET

According to the Wall Street Journal, there are nearly 200 hotels worldwide named “Bristol,” popping up in such non-English locales as Oslo, Warsaw, Paris and San Francisco. Just how did the name become so ubiquitous? No one seems to know for sure, but the working theory points to an 18th-century Earl who had lavish tastes in travel.

Tags: Hotels, Europe, England, Shrinking Planet

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


2 Comments for Why So Many ‘Bristol’ Hotels Around the World?

carpetblogger 09.29.08 | 1:03 PM ET

Up until its renovation in the mid-nineties, the Bristol in Warsaw still had bullet holes in its facade from the war. I think parts of it survived the almost total destruction of downtown Warsaw. It’s been quite beatifully renovated.

JJ 09.29.08 | 1:10 PM ET

Curiously enough, they are also abundant in Spain.

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