Once thriving vacation spots, these memorable hotels have been sadly lost – but not forgotten. From the glamorous gathering places of the rich and famous to quirky venues which put their own unique spin on things, these once-successful hotels certainly claimed a place in the hearts of those who visited them. Cast a nostalgic eye over some legendary lodgings and remember times gone by.

It started life in the 1940s as an illustrious love hotel in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania, but today, the Penn Hills Resort is a shell of its former self. Opened in 1944, it became a self-styled honeymoon destination with “love suites” complete with heart-shaped hot tubs, floor-to-ceiling mirrors and candles.

The 500-acre site also included a ski resort, golf course, ice skating rink and even a wedding bell-shaped swimming pool. However, it began to slip into decline in the 1990s and 2000s, as demand for kitschy love hotels fell and visitors began to look for more modern options.

In 2009, following the death of its owner Frances Poalillo, the Penn Hills Resort closed its doors for good. The resort has been eerily abandoned ever since – prey to flooding, thieves and vandals. The main building burned down in 2017 and while the site has been purchased, redevelopment work has yet to begin.

Opened in 1927 in Midtown Manhattan, the 21-floor Drake Hotel was incredibly modern for its time, with electric refrigeration and huge, lavish suites. And it didn’t take long for celebrities to start flocking, with big names including Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali and Jimi Hendrix (pictured at the hotel in 1968) staying there. In its heyday, the rich and famous could be found dining on luxury fare at its prestigious restaurant, the Drake Room, where head chef Nino Schiavone championed the idea of preparing food for guests at the table. 

Rock and roll stars followed in the 1960s and 1970s, when it became the hotel of choice for touring bands including Led Zeppelin and The Who. Despite being renovated in 1991 and still being at the top of its game, spiralling property prices meant its location became one of New York’s most valuable sites. The hotel was sold to a developer in 2006 for a whopping $418 million, equivalent to around £392 million ($554m) today. A towering apartment block, 432 Park Avenue, now stands in its place.

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Venice’s Lido island was just a barren strip of farmland up until the late 19th century, when a group of entrepreneurs clubbed together to turn it into a star-studded seaside resort. The Grand Hotel des Bains, built in 1900, helped the transformation. When the Venice Film Festival started in 1932 the hotel became an integral part, hosting world-famous movie stars and celebrities.

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Designed in a Liberty style, the hotel’s columns and tall shuttered windows exude understated elegance. It’s just as grand inside too: think parquet and Art Nouveau furniture, dainty terraces overlooking the sea and beds with crisp white linen. Its grandeur had faded to shabby chic by the time it closed in 2010, affected by the fallout from the 2008 recession. 

Its closure was still much mourned by film fanatics and culture vultures all over the world. According to city authorities, a shrinking permanent population in Venice has meant there are fewer taxpayers, making it harder to save historic and culturally-significant buildings – not to mention privately-owned ones like this. 

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Despite having been closed for more than four decades, the Baker Hotel still stands as a beloved landmark in Mineral Wells. At the beginning of the 20th century, tourists began to flock to the city for the famed “healing” properties of the waters in its eponymous wells. So residents decided to capitalise on its fame and raised money to build a large hotel. Opened in 1929, it immediately became a smash hit. Even the Wall Street Crash couldn’t stop this hotel.

With 460 rooms spread across 14 storeys, its extravagant facilities included an Olympic-sized pool filled with mineral waters and a hydraulic system that circulated ice water. Stars such as Glenn Miller, Clark Gable and Judy Garland visited. After the Second World War, business declined steadily until its doors closed for the last time in 1972. However, the Baker’s fate could be set to change. There is currently a massive restoration effort underway, costing a reported £46 million ($65m) and due for completion in 2026. 

In the mid-19th century, the Bahamas had a surfeit of labour but not much in the way of jobs or industry. So the then British government invented one: tourism. It built the first luxury hotel in the Bahamas, the Royal Victoria in Nassau, costing £20,000 ($23k) at the time. The four-storey stone building had 221 rooms. It boomed during Prohibition in America, when wealthy types used the hotel as a boozy getaway spot, helped by the short, daily Pan American flights from Miami.

But the crash of 1929 spelled the end of the service and disposable income of many Americans and the hotel's heyday. But it kept some mystique. Reportedly, segments of Gone With The Wind, were filmed there and stars, such as Sterling Moss, continued to head there until it closed in 1971. The building sat empty before being destroyed by a devastating blaze in the 1990s. A surviving segment is now the Bahamas Ministry of Health and the grounds are preserved as the Royal Victoria Gardens.

This legend’s first incarnation was as the pithily named Showboat Hotel and Casino. Built in 1954 with 100 rooms over two floors, it was the first resort hotel within the city limits. After the addition of a bowling alley in 1959, it became a well-known spot for high-level competitions. By 1979, it had 106 lanes and was one of the biggest bowling alleys in the USA.

Its sporting stardom grew with the opening of the Showboat Sports Pavilion in the early 1980s, which hosted wrestling and roller derby. When the hotel was sold in 1998 the owner, Harrah’s Entertainment, refused to sell the name, so in 2000, it became Castaways. After demolishing the hotel tower in 2006, with the aim of turning it into a 20,000-square-foot (1,858 sqm) casino-restaurant, the plans were quickly abandoned and the property was put on the market. Today, the site is home to the Showboat Apartments.

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If you’ve dined in the splendid art deco surroundings of Brasserie Zédel in London’s Piccadilly, you may not have been aware you were in part of what was once Europe’s largest hotel. The Regent Palace Hotel was opened in 1915 and with more than 1,000 rooms, it took up a whole acre of the West End.

At its peak, the Regent Palace employed over 1,000 staff. The height of opulence, it had a grand marble entrance, a huge stained-glass dome in the Rotunda Court and an ornate Winter Garden. It attracted some big names over the years too, including American heavyweight boxer Charlie Polite, pictured in one of the bedrooms in 1969.

The hotel suffered minor damage due to bombing in the Second World War and by the 1960s it had lost its once-classy reputation. When it finally closed in 2006, it was one of London’s cheaper hotels catering for groups. The building was largely demolished and the site redeveloped in 2012, except for the vast basement grillroom, which now forms the Brasserie Zédel restaurant, pictured.

Has there ever been a crazier proposition than the Elephant Hotel, also known as the Elephantine Colossus, Colossal Elephant or the Elephant Colossus? The 122-foot (37m) tall elephant-shaped building, covered in blue tin with a gilded howdah on top, opened in 1885 – two years before the Statue of Liberty. It served as a fully functioning hotel on Coney Island.

Impressively, the elephant-shaped building contained 31 rooms spread across seven storeys, as well as a gallery, a grand hall and a museum. The eyes doubled up as telescopes from which visitors could see dazzling views across New York City. Guests entered through the 60-foot (18m) tall hind leg, and could then spend the night in the trunk, thigh, shoulder, hip or cheek before exiting through the other rear leg.

Sadly, the hotel wasn’t popular with tourists, due to its location in a neighbourhood with a bad reputation, so the novelty soon wore off. Then in 1896, The Elephant Hotel burned down in a spectacular fire that could be seen for miles. We can’t help but wonder whether the world is ready for another elephant-shaped hotel...

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Opened when the Roaring Twenties were in full swing and Manhattan’s population was booming, no expense was spared when building the Roosevelt Hotel. This Madison Avenue gem, named after President Theodore Roosevelt, is an elaborate palace of marble floors, sky-high ceilings and lavish chandeliers. It was also connected to Grand Central Terminal via an underground passage.

The hotel has certainly earned its place in the history books. In 1948, it was the site where Governor Thomas Dewey infamously, and incorrectly, announced he’d won the election against Harry Truman. It’s starred in Hollywood movies including Wall Street, Malcolm X and Men in Black 3, and it’s said to be the place where the New Year’s Eve tradition of singing “Auld Lang Syne” was started, in 1929. 

Much to the sadness of many of its former patrons, the hotel was forced to close in December 2020. After almost a century in operation, the loss of revenue as a result of the pandemic meant it could no longer continue business. In May 2023 it re-opened briefly as an asylum-seeker arrival centre.

The Sands Hotel and Casino is synonymous with the Rat Pack who regularly performed in the hotel's nightclub, the Copa Room. Opened in 1952 on the Las Vegas Strip, it became the epitome of cool as a whole host of celebrities came to hang out. The Sands had 200 rooms divided into four two-storey motel wings but its neon sign was its defining feature – that and the seemingly close ties to The Mob and organised crime.

Frank Sinatra began staying and gambling there during breaks from Hollywood, performing there frequently in the 1950s and 1960s. Sinatra (pictured here with actresses Lauren Bacall, left, and Kim Novak, right) later bought a share in the hotel himself. The classic movie Ocean's 11 was shot there in 1960, only adding to its iconic status. During the three-week shoot the film’s stars, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford all performed together. 

But it wasn’t just about the glamour. Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr were instrumental in bringing about a change in racial policy at the Sands in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a time when Las Vegas was still segregated. Sinatra demanded Nat King Cole be able to dine with him and Sammy Davis Jr insisted his family be allowed to stay as guests. Both Sinatra and Davis are known to have defended the rights of a Black couple denied entry to the lobby, heralding a change in hotel policy. 

Despite being renovated in the 1960s, the Sands’ appeal had begun to wane. The hotel went through multiple owners, including billionaire Howard Hughes, who bought it in 1967 and proposed to add 4,000 rooms, but never actually did. The Sands staggered on for another two decades until it was eventually demolished to much lamenting in 1996. The Venetian and Palazzo hotels now stand on the same spot.

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The Hotel Okura was opened in 1962 and was the most famous hotel in Tokyo. Located close to the American Embassy, it was the favoured lodging place for visiting American presidents as well as movie stars and other celebrities. Its gorgeous lobby was featured in the movie Walk, Don't Run when Cary Grant tries to check in. And in 1976, JVC chose the Okura Hotel for the launch of the world's first VHS videocassette recorder.

On 31 August 2015 the unthinkable happened. The iconic main building was closed and then demolished to make way for a pair of glass towers, with more rooms, to accommodate the expected crowds attending the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Redeveloped as a luxury hotel, the new Hotel Okura opened on 12 September 2019.

Then on 16 January 2020, COVID came to Japan. The Olympics went ahead but in front of empty stadiums, which resulted in equally empty hotels. Not all was lost, however. The legendary waiting area of the main lobby of the old Hotel Okura was replicated in the new hotel. It is so exact that guests who had stayed in the old hotel are said to have cried tears of joy when they saw it. 

In February 1952, Queen Elizabeth II received news of the death of her father, King George VI, signalling the beginning of her reign. At the time, she was staying at Kenya’s Treetops Safari Lodge. Situated in the picturesque Aberdare National Park, the hotel, which was built in 1932, shot to fame following the royal connection. The reigning monarch also spent time here in 1959 and 1983 (pictured).

However, showing the true extent of the difficulties faced by the travel and hospitality industries, in October 2021 the historic hotel was forced to close. In Kenya, international tourist numbers dropped 73% from 2020-2021, with national parks and wildlife reserves like this one being badly affected. 

Read on for the amazing toruist atttractions from around the world that have been lost forever