Remove ads

Would the Star Wars galaxy have a need for space hotels?

Maximum7 said:
With space travel as common as driving a car, would the novelty of having a space hotel exist?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I like this kind of question, because it's the sort one can break down piece by piece.

The broadest possible form of the question, "Do lodging establishments--inns, hotels, motels, hostels, whatever you call them--exist in a galaxy a long time ago, and far away?" is kind of useless. Even though we seldom see them in any of the movies (the closest we get is probably a pub, or literal public house), the answer like it must be "yes" for the same reason something like a kitchen or a cafeteria or a barracks must exist, as a functional location. This is fundamentally an anthropomorphic setting. Every species, human or otherwise, is basically a physical being that interacts with the physical universe and has physical (and with the lone exception of droids, biological) needs. There are very very few living beings who exist in a dimension imperceptible to those physical beings, or are devoid of some need to rest at some point, or even just to remain idle or physically occupy (droids, again, almost an exception). Telling a operatic fantasy epic involving the journey of a monastic cult of extrajudicial Space Templars versus the military autocracy of Space Nazis probably wouldn't work if both the Templars and the Nazis didn't have the same sort of physical, material, and even political concerns that historical humans on Earth have or had. So the function of public lodging is clear. That's before considering that plenty of novels and games all allude to inns by name in the same setting (even if most of these have been purged per directive from higher up).

On the other hand, restrooms/washrooms/water closets didn't exist in Star Wars for a while, so maybe not. But that seems unlikely.

The better question is, "Do literal space hotels exist?" We can agree that the terrestrial world (either a planet, or a planet-like moon of some kind) is the fundamental geographic unit in this far away galaxy. "Systems" usually only have one occupied planet of note, so "Hoth" is not a remote star system with multiple planets, planetoids, etc. and some sort of asteroid field around some of them--"Hoth" is a remote, icy planet, and no one gives a damn about the star or the rest of the planets orbiting it. Hotels exist on worlds in this galaxy (for the reasons above). But what about the galactic equivalent of a roadside motel or an airport hotel? That is a more meaningful definition of "space" hotel, if not the only one. Outer Space in some variety represents the interstitial medium between geographic units--if you go from Hoth the planet to Bespin the other planet, you cross Outer Space (more specifically, Hyperspace, though there are exceptions to that, you are still in Outer Space). The equivalent of either--a hotel in an airport (transit hub), or a motel on the roadside (infrastructure) could be some sort of extraterrestrial locale built for said purpose; especially in the later case--a "spaceport hotel" in this case is probably just some variety of terrestrial hotel that happens to be close to the spaceport which, in most cases isn't all that different from Baikonur in Kazakhstan or Cape Canaveral in the USA, albeit probably serving more traffic of a higher order of technology. Space stations are kind of rare that far away galaxy--at least in the films. The Death Stars were both mobile military facilities, which still maintained accommodations (even one you could call a "hotel", intended for transient visitors and not permanently posted personnel). Otherwise you don't see many space stations, which seems like the logical location for a "space hotel"--except in the video games. Totally Games' TIE Fighter and X-Wing series are full of space stations (as a limitation of the technology, the entire games' setting is extraterrestrial), generally treated as permanent geographic landmarks (in that they don't change their orbit or cross from system to system, like the Death Star did) which are present in almost every mission and for a variety of purposes, both civilian and military. Some of these are even described as having public accommodations. Viola, "space hotel" by the more stringent definitions. Such locations would work in terms we can understand: at some point, when traveling, people must rest, and they don't always want to do so in their mode of travel (airplanes or automobiles). A location offering an alternative is desirable.

Space travel in that galaxy far away operates similarly--but not exactly the same. So while we can be sure in the existence of "space hotels", maybe they're not as necessary as in Earth travel. The most common mode of transport portrayed in the films, the Millennium Falcon, has sleeping accommodations--any larger ship can be assumed to have that option, of which there are no shortage, as well as certain smaller ones. A stationary accommodation might not be necessary for anyone who can outfit their ship said accommodation. We have this on Earth too: certain aircraft and automobiles do exactly that (large transoceanic passenger liners, and long-haul trucking). Even more so, ships and trains, are historically famous for sleeping accommodations, representing longer travel times than aircraft combined with a much higher ratio of idle passengers to active crew, and have beds, "sleeper cars" and other accommodations. But it's probably safe to say that not every spacecraft in the galaxy far away resorts to this.

And what about the possibility of mobile space hotels? The galaxy far away is established to rely on regular travel routes, the most popular of which are heavily trafficked. Is there the possibility of some very large ship, the combination of an aircraft carrier and a roadside motel in our terms, that travels along said paths and could offer temporary accommodations for people on their way? An interesting thought, though maybe not directly relating to your question...

(So a very long way of saying "yes", and that's enough time spent at my desk at work.)
 
Last edited:
Wasn't Cloud City from Empire basically a tourist attraction? So hotels seem likely. And Last Jedi has a space casino-like locale, so again... probably has hotels.
 
Pretty sure Booster Terrik's giant red Star Destroyer space casino had hotel lodgings.

And pretty much any space station of note would need some sort of hotel lodgings, simply because not everyone would want or be able to sleep in their ship for the duration.
 
Id imagine so, if you're vacationing on another world you need somewhere to stay. If we're talking spaceship hotel, there'd have to be cruises in this galaxy right
 
You can fly anywhere in the world in a day at most. Hotels noticeably still exist
 
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top