The Hotel Cortez
A glamorous cage of eternal torment where the past never truly dies.
The Hotel Cortez is the downtown Los Angeles hotel at the centre of American Horror Story: Hotel, the fifth season. It was built by the serial killer James Patrick March as a place to torture and murder people, and in 2015 it is led by his widow Elizabeth Johnson, the Countess, a vampire.
Quick Facts
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Notable feature
- Room 33
Lore & Background
The Countess lives there with her lover Donovan. The staff include the front desk manager Iris, who is Donovan's mother, and the bartender Liz Taylor. The hotel's ghosts include March himself, the heroin addict Sally McKenna and the maid Hazel Evers, and the Countess keeps her vampire children in a secret room. The fashion designer Will Drake buys the hotel, and detective John Lowe comes to it while investigating a series of murders. After John shoots the Countess, her ghost is trapped in the hotel for good.
Did You Know?
- The Hotel Cortez is loosely based on the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
- In Room 33 the Countess keeps the baby Bartholomew.
- Exterior shots of the hotel were filmed outside the James Oviatt Building.
More in Covens, Cults & Groups
Elsewhere in American Horror Story
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