About this index
Who writes Clear Horizons, how the four categories were chosen, and what the site refuses to do.
The short version
Clear Horizons is an independent editorial index of hotels that are unusual in structure rather than in price. It is written by a small team, published without advertising, and funded by nobody with an interest in where you sleep. There is no booking engine, no affiliate link and no commercial relationship with any property described here.
Why four categories
Art hotels, capsule hotels, casino hotels and ice hotels have almost nothing in common except this: in each case, a decision about the building came before a decision about the market. A collection needed wall. A city needed beds in a very small footprint. A licensed floor needed a hotel around it. A winter needed something to do with itself. Grouping hotels this way surfaces comparisons that a destination guide would never make.
Four entries per category is a deliberate constraint. It forces a choice, and it keeps each entry long enough to say something. Properties may be swapped out over time if one closes, changes character, or is simply displaced by a better example.
How the writing is done
Each entry is assembled from published material about the property, the operator's own documentation, and — where it exists — reporting by people who have stayed. Anything that would need a footnote to be believed is left out. That means no room counts, no prices, no temperatures and no awards. What remains is the description of a place, which is the part that stays true longest.
No hotel is shown a draft, and no hotel has approval over the wording. If a property disagrees with something written here, the correction process is the same one available to any reader.
What we will not publish
- Star ratings, scores, or any ranking of one hotel against another.
- Guest reviews or testimonials, whether collected or composed.
- Prices, availability, or anything resembling a booking flow.
- Sponsored entries, paid placement, or affiliate links of any kind.
- Gambling content. The casino hotels section describes hotels; it does not describe or promote gaming.
Geography
The index is international by design and has no home country. Properties are spread across Europe, Asia and North America, and where they cluster — capsule hotels in Japan, ice hotels above the Arctic Circle — it is because the format genuinely clusters there, not because of an editorial preference.