The "Green Star" Hotel (House of Fail November 2008)

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This is my contribution to the EAxis House of Fail challenge at MATY this month, the goal of which is to take one of the horrible lots that come with the game (this month it was "Sim Lane 130", which you may or may not know) and do something nice with it. External walls can't be moved but the rest can be gutted and rebuilt, and no CC must be used.

So, I turned this into a hotel (there is a residential version too, see my "Blue Star" upload). Not an actual one, since I don't have BV, but it works very nicely as a community lot -- I believe it wouldn't be hard to turn it into a BV hotel either. I expanded the ground floor a little and added a basement; also I possibly cheated a teensy bit by making the backside decking one tile wider (but hey, so did others).

The "Green Star" is a wellness hotel and spa, with focus on relaxation, fitness, and light entertainment -- it's not a party location, although there are a few bars and such. It is small, with only three double rooms, but has lots of features:
  • Indoor and outdoor pool, indoor hot tub, and a small gym (this is all the gym equipment I can has, for lack of EPs -- Uni etc users will have to put the rest outdoors)
  • Restaurant
  • Outdoor grill with dining
  • Minigolf
  • Lounge with bar and fireplace; rooftop bar (outdoor) with fireplace and free espresso
  • Beauty salon, with back room that could be used for a massage table (BV owners); I put a small clothing store there instead
  • Public toilets and showers downstairs -- I believe a BV sauna would fit into the shower room (you could make one of the toilets into a shower instead)
  • Three double rooms, one of them with a private bath, the other two share a bath across the hall
  • Two of the rooms have a balcony, the other one has direct access to the upstairs greenhouse and rooftop bar
  • Parking for four cars (same placement as on the Blue Star -- I left the driveways in place, for realism and in case somebody wants to turn this one into a residential too)
  • Chess sets and sitting areas all over the place
  • Sparse but tasteful landscaping

Other points:
  • Inobtrusively fenced off (i.e., without looking like a fortress) so that pets can't mess around -- except for one small flowerbed which I forgot, the one next to the driveway
  • The lot impostor looks surprisingly good (no bomb crater appearance)
  • One could probably actually grow fresh fruit in the upstairs greenhouse if this is run as an owned business, so that visitors can pick them and make their own juice (I believe you need a hack for greenhouses that aren't on the ground floor -- there is one on this site I think)
  • Very playable: everything is easy to see at one glance; the basement in particular is easily viewable since it doesn't have many foundation walls
  • If you turn this into a residential lot, please check if there are enough fire alarms -- I have never seen a fire on a community lot, so I didn't really pay attention to this
  • This is built on Mootilda's version of the Maxis lot (thank you, Mootilda!) -- lot edges are 100% flat

Playtested in my full game (Nl+OfB+SSn+Pets) with no hacks, for several long visits. It looks particularly nice at night; I really like how the lighting turned out on this lot.

I saved this with fireplaces lit, music playing, and fish in the tank (which worked for my testers) -- however, I made one more build mode change after that and I'm not sure if the fish survived that.

If you have lots of visitors and few hacks, it might be a good idea to put some additional dining tables on the front terrace (near the entrance) or have 2–3 small tables instead of the big one in the separée -- during playtesting, my host tried to seat people at the upstairs bar (which makes no sense) because there were no free tables in the restaurant and in an un-hacked game, unplayable visitors arrive rather hungry (which means they only want to eat and then leave .. so the restaurant is a little overrun).


Have lots of fun with this!


Lot Size: 3x3
Lot Price: 203.435§
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