There is a crucial moment in the conceptual and formal evolution of hotels, and therefore also hotel architecture: the emergence and consolidation of the middle-level hotel chain, which gave rise to a modern establishment model that, while at least for the greater part maintaining the comfort of the high-end old hotels, knew to rid itself of accessory features of the kind that served to give an impression of social rank, but without directly guaranteeing a better stay for the guest. This hotel chain was based on a functionalist architecture which only in its best versions could be said to fit well with the premises of the Modern Movement. In general, these hotels entrusted their images, their symbolic representations, to logos and trademarks, more than to their architecture, which tended to be characterless...