The Lotus Hotel and Casino is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America. While inside, it seems like time never passes, and nobody wants to leave.
Description
The Lotus Hotel and Casino was created by the Lotus-eaters with the intention that anyone entering would never want to leave. The hotel lures kids inside with addictive games, food (in the case of the movie), and other activities, combined with the unlimited money on plastic cards. Guests seem to never age because time is severely dilated, elapsing at a much slower rate than it passes in the outside world. Known victims of the hotel include Darrin, Nico and Bianca di Angelo, as well as Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood (for a short period of time). In the movie, the cause of guests staying is getting addicted to eating "Lotus Flowers", while in the original book, they stay there because of the addictive games.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
The Lightning Thief
Percy, Annabeth, and Grover enter the hotel because they are looking for a place to rest. They are offered a nice suite, and although Percy senses something is wrong, he goes against his better judgment, and they indulge themselves in games. It is only until Percy notices young people from all different time periods that he realizes that the hotel distorts time, and he snaps out of his trance. He grabs Annabeth and Grover, and when they leave the hotel, they realize that they had been in there for five days, although only a few hours had elapsed inside.
The Titan's Curse
Bianca and her brother Nico are mentioned to have been taken to the Lotus Hotel before World War II, where they unknowingly stayed for seven decades. This way, Hades could still try and make one of his children be the child of prophecy without breaking the pact. Then, the Fury Alecto came and got them out and sent them off to school. Because Hades had them dipped in the River Lethe (the river of forgetfulness), Bianca and Nico couldn't remember anything before their stay.
The Last Olympian
Nico visits Percy once again shorty after Percy returned to Camp Half-Blood. When Percy asked what he was doing at Mount Othrys, he said he was following a lead on his family and past, causing Percy to remember that Nico had spent about seventy years in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, and he still didn't know who the lawyer was who took Nico and Bianca out of the hotel. Later, Hades revealed that he hid them in the hotel as World War II was a bad time to be a child of Hades, and he wanted to keep them out of harm's way until the time was right. When Hades learned of Percy's existence, he took his children from the hotel so one of them could be the child of the Great Prophecy. He also reveals that Alecto was the one that took them from the Lotus Hotel.
Later, when Nico is watching the events that lead to him and his sister being placed in the Lotus Hotel, he sees his mother arguing that she won't raise her children in the Underworld. Hades claims he knows a place in the desert where time stands still referring to the Lotus Hotel. She refuses, leading to her death when Zeus blasted the apartment with lightning. Heartbroken, Hades tells Alecto to dip the children (who he saved) in the River Lethe and placed them in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, where they would be safe.
The Senior Year Adventures
The Chalice of the Gods
Percy compares Hebe Jeebies to a low-rent version of the Lotus Casino, recalling how he, Annabeth and Grover had gotten trapped there five years ago and just barely escaped. However, Grover tells Percy that he's never had trouble leaving and the visiting families just come and go, and they don't seem to be stuck in time unlike at the casino. Percy notices that Grover is right and that no one appears to be from different time periods and leave with no strings attached.
The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure
The Lotus Hotel features in Nico di Angelo's nightmares of his mother that are caused by Nyx.
Following the rescue of Bob, Nico has a dream of the hotel again where he is greeted by Maria and Bianca di Angelo. Unlike his previous dreams, this one was arranged by Hades who brought the real Maria and Bianca to Nico so that he can finally get closure with his family.
Film
The Lightning Thief
In the film, instead of them just wanting to be at Lotus Hotel and Casino, Grover, Annabeth, and Percy had to get the last of Persephone's Pearls. Once they had gotten in, a waitress gave them a Lotus Flower, and it gave the effect of them never wanting to leave, which resulted in symptoms similar to intoxication. They forgot why they were there and decided to stay there and have fun, as suggested by Annabeth. Finally, Percy realized what was going on when he saw a boy playing a game about a movie in the 70's, who said this was the best movie of the year. Percy also heard Poseidon's voice in his head, telling him "Don't eat the flower" while he had a Lotus Flower in his hand and was about to eat it. He got the others to stop eating the Lotus Flowers and come back from their trance. On the way out, they had a big fight with the hotel security; then, they grabbed the third pearl and stole a black Maserati which was up for contest, crashed through the front door, and escaped.
Known Hotel "Guests"
- Bianca di Angelo, stayed for ~70 years (removed by Alecto)
- Nico di Angelo, stayed for ~70 years (removed by Alecto)
- Darrin, trapped since 1977
- Percy Jackson, trapped for 5 days (escaped)
- Annabeth Chase, trapped for 5 days (escaped)
- Grover Underwood, trapped for 5 days (escaped)
Gallery
Trivia
- The Lotus Hotel and Casino is likely derived from the myth of the Lotus Tree. In the Odyssey, there was a tribe called the Lotus-eaters, who were addicted to the fruit of the tree. When Odysseus encountered this tribe, some of his men tasted the fruit and never wanted to leave. Odysseus solved this problem by binding them and dragging them back to their ships.
- The "time" part of the trap was probably inspired by the fact that there are no windows or clocks in any casino, so visitors have no idea if it's day or night, or how much time has passed in the casino.
- In the film, as they are leaving, Grover yells "James Dean, out of the way!" James Dean was an actor in the 1950s, and in reality, he died in a car accident when he was 24 years old. In the film series, however, he apparently got trapped in the casino.
- In the literary series, he was revealed to be a son of Aphrodite who attended Camp Half-Blood in the 1940s and died after Heloise, a daughter of Hephaestus and his ex-girlfriend, cursed his car.
- In the movie, the words "You Will Never Want To Leave" are on the door. This could be seen as a warning, as anyone that eats the lotus flowers will indeed never want to leave the casino.
- As Nico and Bianca were placed in the Lotus Casino before World War II, it is likely that the di Angelo siblings were still there when Percy, Annabeth, and Grover stayed at the hotel during their quest in The Lightning Thief.
- Despite time slowing down for anyone inside the hotel, Nico and Bianca somehow significantly aged. When Alecto placed them inside, they were much younger than when they were introduced in The Titan's Curse. Alternately, they may have been removed from the hotel at some point to be aged up before they were introduced. However, they did not look over 70 years old, which is how long they were trapped there.
- It's plausible that Bianca and Nico were removed from the hotel right after the events of The Lightning Thief, which takes place about a year and half before the beginning of The Titan's Curse. Bianca even mentions that she and her brother have been traveling together for some time since then, so the siblings could've aged significantly during that time instead of actually inside the casino.
- The song "Hotel California" by Eagles may have been a source of inspiration for embodiment of the territory of the Lotus-eaters in a hotel.