15 Movies Set Almost Entirely in Hotels or Motels

Hotels and motels trap people under one roof, which makes them perfect places for stories to tighten the screws. With long corridors, closed doors and watchful lobbies, these settings give filmmakers a ready made stage where strangers cross paths and small choices snowball into big consequences.

This list gathers films that spend most of their running time inside a hotel or a roadside stop. You will find thrillers, dramas, and even an anthology, all built around front desks, room keys, and the secrets that travel with people who check in.

‘The Shining’ (1980)

Stanley Kubrick sets a caretaker family inside the isolated Overlook Hotel as winter closes the roads and the radio goes silent. Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall lead the cast, with Danny Lloyd as their son and Scatman Crothers as the cook who senses trouble. The film adapts Stephen King’s novel and focuses on long stretches of hotel routine that slowly twist into violence and paranoia.

Production created vast interior sets for the Colorado property, including the hedge maze and the cavernous Gold Room. Exterior establishing shots used Timberline Lodge in Oregon while the interiors mixed purpose built stages with intricate sound design that makes empty hallways feel alive.

‘Psycho’ (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock centers much of the action at the Bates Motel, a roadside stop run by Norman Bates, played by Anthony Perkins. Janet Leigh’s character arrives during a storm and her disappearance draws in Vera Miles and John Gavin as the investigation tightens around the property. The house on the hill and the office below form a connected space that controls movement and suspense.

Hitchcock shot at Universal using the studio backlot for the motel and the steep staircase inside the house. The production relied on a small crew and television style efficiency, while Bernard Herrmann’s score and clever editing in the bathroom scene turned the modest set into a landmark of cinematic craft.

‘Barton Fink’ (1991)

Joel and Ethan Coen follow a New York playwright to the Earle Hotel in Los Angeles where he tries to write a wrestling picture for a studio. John Turturro plays the blocked writer and John Goodman plays the salesman who takes the room next door. The wallpaper peels, the bells ring at odd hours, and the hotel room becomes the creative prison that defines the story.

The production built the Earle with humid hallways, buzzing walls, and a persistent heat that the sound mix underscores with distant clanks and pipes. Much of the film stays within the hotel so the camera explores the desk, the bed, and the window as repeated anchors that track the character’s unraveling and the city’s menace pressing in.

‘1408’ (2007)

Mikael Håfström adapts Stephen King’s short story about a skeptical writer who spends a night in a notoriously haunted room at the Dolphin Hotel. John Cusack carries most scenes alone inside the suite as the room turns his tricks back on him. Samuel L. Jackson appears as the manager who warns him before he steps through the door.

The crew built the room as a flexible set that could flood, freeze, and distort on command. Practical gags combined with digital effects let walls shift and portraits move while the sound team used echoes and clock chimes to map the space. The single location approach emphasizes how small details such as a thermostat or a radio can become plot engines.

‘Identity’ (2003)

A group of strangers strands at a desert motel during a nighttime storm and soon find that someone among them is responsible for a series of deaths. The ensemble includes John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, and Clea DuVall. The narrative folds around a central mystery that keeps everyone inside the rooms, the lobby, and the narrow parking lot.

Production designed the motel as a maze of sight lines so the camera could catch characters arriving and vanishing within a few steps. Rain rigs and wind machines kept the setting sealed off from the world. The script uses room numbers, key chains, and maintenance spaces to structure clues and misdirection.

‘Vacancy’ (2007)

A couple played by Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson breaks down near an almost empty roadside lodge and discovers hidden cameras placed throughout their room. As they attempt to escape, hallways, crawl spaces, and service ducts become critical routes. Frank Whaley plays the clerk whose bland smile conceals a trap built into the property itself.

The production constructed a motel set that allowed walls to fly out for tight chases and quick shifts in perspective. Surveillance feeds and analog equipment appear as props that drive the plot, while the limited footprint forces the characters to reckon with locks, peepholes, and connecting doors that are often only one mistake away.

‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ (2018)

Drew Goddard sets nearly the entire story at a once glamorous hotel that straddles the border between California and Nevada. Guests played by Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, and Chris Hemsworth check in on the same night and find a property wired for observation. The lobby, the bar, and the rooms on both sides of the state line frame every major turn.

Large scale sets reproduced the hotel with working neon, hidden corridors, and a split lobby floor that marks the border in the middle of the check in desk. Musical performance sequences take place in the lounge and connect character backstories to visible spaces. The confined location lets the film track what happens when secrets collide inside one building.

‘Four Rooms’ (1995)

This anthology stays inside the Mon Signor Hotel over one chaotic New Year’s Eve. Tim Roth plays the bellhop who moves between four stories directed by Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino. Each segment uses a different floor and a different room so the hotel binds the episodes into a single night.

The production treats the elevator, the stairwells, and the front desk as recurring waypoints that stitch together the shifting tones. Well known actors including Antonio Banderas, Madonna, and Bruce Willis appear as guests whose demands escalate in close quarters. The bellhop’s cart, room keys, and service phone supply props that link the stories.

‘Mystery Train’ (1989)

Jim Jarmusch builds three intersecting tales around a worn Memphis hotel where travelers cross paths without realizing it. Couples and loners drift through rooms watched over by a clerk and a night porter played by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Cinqué Lee. The city outside is present through music and radio but the hotel remains the anchor for all three stories.

The film uses repeated shots of the lobby and the corridor to mark time as different guests arrive at the same place with separate goals. Production shot on location in Memphis and embraced the building’s aging textures. The front desk bell and the old elevator recenter the narrative each time the perspective shifts to a new pair of visitors.

‘The Innkeepers’ (2011)

Ti West sets a ghost story in the Yankee Pedlar Inn during its final weekend of operation. Sara Paxton and Pat Healy play employees who patrol empty floors and track unexplained noises after most guests have left. Kelly McGillis appears as a former actor who senses unfinished business in the hotel’s history.

The film shot in the real inn and uses its creaky staircases, long carpets, and basement laundry as built in atmosphere. Daytime scenes establish the layout so night scenes can play with doors that should be closed and phones that should not ring. Much of the tension comes from staff routines such as delivering extra towels or checking boiler rooms.

‘Bug’ (2006)

William Friedkin adapts Tracy Letts’s stage play and keeps nearly all the action inside a small Oklahoma motel room. Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon play characters who spiral into shared delusions while they cover vents, tape windows, and search for imaginary insects. The confined space turns everyday items such as lamps and mattresses into signals of growing paranoia.

The single room set allowed the camera to creep closer as aluminum foil, glue traps, and bright lights take over the walls. Minimal exterior shots keep attention on dialogue and body language. The film uses that focus to track changes in trust, showing how quickly a temporary shelter can turn into a bunker.

‘Hotel Rwanda’ (2004)

Terry George tells the story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who shelters people at the Hôtel des Mille Collines during a period of violence. Don Cheadle leads the cast with Sophie Okonedo as his wife, and Nick Nolte as a United Nations officer. The hotel’s supply chains, guest lists, and kitchen stores become tools for survival.

Production filmed in South Africa with additional work in Kigali to capture the real building’s exterior and city context. Much of the film remains inside the lobby, the pool area, and the guest floors, following how a manager uses staff discipline and hospitality protocols to protect families who crowd into rooms and hallways.

‘Hotel Mumbai’ (2018)

Anthony Maras reconstructs the siege of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel through the experiences of staff and guests. Dev Patel plays a waiter and Anupam Kher plays the head chef who insists on service standards even as danger spreads. Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, and Jason Isaacs appear as visitors trapped inside as the hotel turns into a battleground.

The film combines staged interiors with practical stunts to show service passages, banquet halls, and suites under pressure. The kitchen brigades and security systems become critical elements in evacuation and defense. By holding to the hotel’s floor plans, the film maps how staff coordinate movement through service elevators and back corridors.

‘Lost in Translation’ (2003)

Sofia Coppola follows two Americans who meet at the Park Hyatt Tokyo while each struggles with sleepless nights and uncertain paths. Bill Murray plays a visiting actor shooting commercials and Scarlett Johansson plays a traveler whose partner is busy with work. Their conversations unfold in a lounge high above the city and in quiet rooms where jet lag keeps both awake.

A lean crew shot in real locations with ambient city light and a small footprint that allowed filming in busy spaces without shutting them down. The hotel’s bar, pool, and elevators frame most interactions while occasional trips outside reset the mood before the story returns to the soft clink of glasses and the steady hum of air conditioning.

‘The Florida Project’ (2017)

Sean Baker sets the story around a budget motel near a major theme park in Florida where families live week to week. Brooklynn Prince plays a child who roams the property with friends while Willem Dafoe plays the manager who tries to keep order. The motel rooms are small, so much of daily life spills into outdoor walkways and the parking lot.

The production filmed on location and worked with real businesses in the area to ground the setting. Brightly painted exteriors and room decor emphasize that this is a long term residence rather than a vacation stop. The camera often stays at child height as it follows games across balconies and along the railings that run the length of the building.

‘Hotel’ (1967)

Richard Quine adapts Arthur Hailey’s novel about the running of a New Orleans luxury property during a week of crises. Rod Taylor plays the general manager dealing with a controversial guest and a potential sale while Karl Malden and Melvyn Douglas add pressure from different fronts. The hotel’s executive offices and service tunnels play as big a role as the suites upstairs.

The film uses a large ensemble to show how a full service hotel functions from the switchboard to the banquet hall. Production staged crowd scenes in lobbies and reception areas and used practical elevators and kitchens to keep movement continuous. The result is a portrait of a building where staff and guests are constantly on the move even when the outside world barely enters.

‘Tape’ (2001)

Richard Linklater places three former classmates in a single motel room where an old conflict resurfaces during a tense reunion. Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman carry the drama with long conversations that shift power between the bed, the bathroom, and the door. The room’s cheap furniture and plain layout give the actors only a few steps to reposition the scene.

The production shot on digital video and leaned on real time pacing so the arguments feel continuous. The motel’s location matters less than the neutral design of the interior, which becomes a neutral arena for memory and accusation. The small space keeps attention on pauses, glances, and the simple click of the latch.

Share your favorite hotel or motel set film in the comments and tell us which scene made the setting feel unforgettable.