The World of Hotels Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hotel Ritz

The Ritz was owned by Dodi's father Mohammed al-Fayed. There are many conspiracy theories as to the events leading up to the fatal car crash that claimed the lives of Dodi and Diana, but I shall stick to those facts that were establish by the inquest into the accident.

After dining at the Ritz, Dodi and Diana left the hotel by a side entrance to avoid a pack of waiting photographers (this departure was captured on CCTV and has been much repeated on TV news and documentary shows). They got into a Mercedes limousine with Diana's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones and the Ritz's deputy head of security, Henri Paul, who was driving.

The car set off from the hotel at high speed, heading towards Dodi's apartment in the Rue Arsene Houssaye, chased by several paparazzi on mopeds. Approximately three minutes into the journey, the car sped through the Place de l'Alma underpass at around 60mph. Henri Paul lost control of the car and struck a pillar head-on; killing him instantly. Dodi was pronounced dead at the scene one hour later despite desperate attempts at resuscitation. Diana was taken from the scene in an ambulance which took an hour to reach the hospital. Surgery was undertaken to try and save her life but her injuries were severe and she was declared dead at 4am - three and a half hours after the crash. Rees-Jones was the only survivor of the crash but suffered major injuries that caused memory loss.

Blood tests showed that Henri Paul was around twice the legal limit for driving at the time of the crash. The official inquest declared that Dodi and Diana had been unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of chauffeur Henri Paul and paparazzi photographers.

Answer: It was in a tree

The hotel's name is the "Treetops Hotel" and it was built in 1932 as a two-room hunting lodge. It was destroyed in the Mau Mau uprising of 1954, when Kenyan rebels protesting against British rule in Kenya burnt it down. It was rebuilt three years later and now stands as a 50-room hotel.

Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth (as she was then) stayed at the hotel on the night of February 6, 1952 as a guest of the hotel's owner, Major Eric Walker. In the famous phrase written in the hotel's guestbook, Elizabeth at bedtime "went up a princess and came down a Queen". On rising for breakfast on the morning on February 7, Elizabeth was informed that her father, King George VI, had died in his sleep, making Princess Elizabeth the new Queen Elizabeth II.

Answer: "I want to be alone"

Garbo, born Greta Gustafsson, was a very private person and shunned the trappings of fame that her lauded status as an actress and star accorded her.

Garbo later claimed, "I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said, 'I want to be let alone.' There is all the difference." The evidence of the film however suggests otherwise (you can hear the clip at http://www.filmsite.org/wavfiles/grandhotel.wav). Garbo played Grusinskaya, a ballerina who is tired of her fame, her workload and her hangers-on and has holed up in the hotel where "nothing ever happens". The full line from which the quote is taken is "I want to be alone. I think I have never been so tired in my life."

John Barrymore plays a debonair thief who has designs on Grusinskaya's jewelry but ends up falling for her and steals her heart instead.

Grand Hotel won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1932.

Answer: MGM Grand

When it first opened the hotel had a Wizard of Oz theme, with the casino being known as the Oz casino. Behind the casino was a theme park intended to make the hotel more family friendly. However, the theme park was not a huge success and closed in 2001 to be replaced by a hotel condominium complex called The Signature. This happened one year after the majority of the Oz themed parts of the hotel and casino were dropped.

At the time of writing the MGM Grand is believed to have a total of 5,690 rooms and is still the largest hotel in the US although the First World Hotel in Malaysia is now listed by the "Guinness World Records" book as the world's largest with 6,118 rooms.

Answer: The Bates Motel

The film and the novel in question are both, of course, "Psycho". The Bates Motel is the property of one Norman Bates, played brilliantly in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed film by Anthony Perkins. Marion Crane, played by Janet Leigh, arrives at the motel after going on the run from her boss who she has just embezzled to the tune of $40,000.

After chatting with Norman and having a meal of sandwiches and milk, Marion decides that she is going to return to her office in Phoenix and give the money back. Resolved in her mind about her future plans, Marion decides to turn in for the night but before going to bed she decides to take a shower...

Answer: 4

Monopoly is renowned for being very flexible in its rules, encouraging the adoption of "house rules" in order to allow players to reduce the duration of the game if they so wish. However, the number of houses built is an immutable law of the game.

Whilst you can pay to upgrade your four houses to a hotel, a tactic that many players employ is to build four houses on each of their properties and not make the upgrade. The reason for this is that the game has a limited number of houses available (only 32 for the 22 properties on which they can be built) thereby preventing opponents from building up their own properties.

Answer: Bertram's Hotel

"At Bertram's Hotel" was published in 1965 and was (if I have counted correctly) Agatha Christie's 57th novel published under her own name.

Jane Marple decides to take a holiday in London and checks into Bertram's Hotel for a few days of relaxation. But, what she doesn't know at the time, is that also staying in the hotel are a number of guests with secrets to hide. Soon, as one guest disappears and another is shot, those secrets begin to make themselves known...

Answer: Hotel Yorba

"Hotel Yorba" was the first single released by The White Stripes from their third album "White Blood Cells" released in 2001.

The song title is taken from a former hotel in Detroit, Michigan, where White Stripes singer Jack White grew up. It is now part of a social housing project. The song was recorded in one of the rooms in the hotel.

The lyrics of the song's chorus are;

"Well its 1 2 3 4
Take the elevator at the Hotel Yorba
I'll be glad to see you later
All they got inside is vacancy"

Answer: The world's oldest hotel

According to "Guinness World Records", Hoshi Ryokan is the oldest hotel in the world that is still open for business. The hotel was founded after Taicho Daishi, a Buddhist teacher, went hiking up Mt Hakusan in 717 AD. He claims the deity of the mountain told him of the village of Awazu, some twenty kilometres from the mountain, and of the restorative powers of the hot spring that could be found underground there.

Taicho visited the village and unearthed the spring, using it to heal the sick of the village. Convinced by the accuracy of the deity's prediction, Taicho commanded his disciple, Garyo Houshi, to stay at the village and build a spa there.

Answer: The Hotel New Hampshire

The novel tells the story of the dysfunctional Berry family - parents Win and Mary and their five children, John, Franny, Frank, Lily and Egg - and their attempts to set up a hotel in a disused girls school in New Hampshire, before moving to Vienna to help run another Hotel New Hampshire. Its 400 pages contain a plethora of contentious issues including rape, incest, homosexuality, death, prostitution, dwarfism, taxidermy and dancing bears.

Tony Richardson adapted the novel for the screen and kept very faithful to the Irving's story. Beau Bridges starred as Win, with Lisa Banes as his wife. Jodie Foster played Franny and Rob Lowe, Johnny. Seth Green was the youngest child, Egg and Natassja Kinski played the bear.