Ionian Hotel War
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The Ionian Hotel War was a rivalry of two prominent hotels in the Ionian Highlands of Urcea during the 19th century. Taking place during the Aedanicad, the two hotels - the Velucian Palace and Hotel Julius - serve as both a historical episode and a symbol for the prosperity enjoyed in Urcea during the period.
Velucian Palace and beginning of the rivalry
The Velucian Palace's direct predecessor - the Mountain View Inn - was a small boarding house constructed by Thomas Romo in 1767, sitting prominently among the Ionian Mountains and offering unrivaled views at that time. Romo, a War of the Caroline Succession veteran who had received privilegiata status for his service in the war, bought the land rights from the local Ionian clan and began to use his social status to promote his new boarding house to fellow privilegiata in Urceopolis. After several years of middling success on attracting all-summer guests, the Mountain View Inn became extremely successful by the mid-1790s. The Second Caroline War lead to a temporary halt to business as the Ionian area became contested during the conflict, but memories of the Mountain View Inn lead to it becoming somewhat legendary in Urceopolitan social circles during the conflict. By the end of the war, Romo had a backlog of hundreds of prominent Urceopolitans looking to book time at the Mountain View Inn. The small, eighteen-room boarding house was quickly outgrown by interest. Accordingly, Romo began plans to construct a new hotel directly adjoining the Mountain View - the Velucian Palace, a hotel named for House de Weluta who originated in the Ionian region. Construction began in 1810 and was complete by 1814.
The first Velucian Palace opened its doors for summer 1815 and had 189 rooms. The hotel was immediately successful, drawing large crowds of well-off privilegiata who were willing to make the long trek from across the Valley to stay in the mountains.
Hotel Julius
As the rivalry continued to grow in the 1870s, the Hotel Julius erected what many considered to be an engineering feat. By means of a complicated, byzantine rail network running down the backslope of several mountains and threw passes cleared by dynamite, the Julius managed to establish a rail line running east through the Ionian Mountains down to Transionia, opening the hotel to customers from that area as well as from Dericania. Accordingly, throughout the latter half of the rivalry, the Julius played host to many Deric nobles or their retainers and courtiers, enhancing the general prestige of the hotel.
End of the rivalry
With increasing political instability in Urcea, the two Ionian hotels reached peak attendance and interest in 1887 as many people preferred to escape the crowded, divisive corridors of Urceopolis for mountain air, after which year both hotels went into deep decline after 1889 and the death of Aedanicus VIII. Unrest in the Ionian Highlands against the new Crown Regency lead to the perception that travel into the area was unsafe, with both hotels becoming unprofitable for the first time in 1892. The '97 Rising lead to a collapse of the Ionian tourist industry, and both hotels announced they would not be opening for the 1898 season, although they assured longtime customers that the halt would be temporary. During the Rising, both hotels were taken over by forces loyal to House de Weluta, serving as joint headquarters and barracks to local legitimist forces. The telegraph and transportation lines erected for the convenience of guests now made the
Though the war ended in 1902, significant economic disruption and elimination of the old class system lead to a stagnant recovery period which was eliminated by the Great Depression beginning in the late 1900s. The hotel industry rebounded somewhat in the 1920s, but the Second Great War lead to most economic excesses being curtailed as a wartime expediency. The Julius's transionian railway was scrapped for wartime resources during the conflict. Easily available commercial air travel significantly reduced the appeal and fashionability of the Ionian vacation scene as newer, more exotic overseas vacation destinations were available after the war ended in 1943. Although most of the great hotels of the late 19th century were out of business or gone by 1960, the Hotel Julius remained, its reputation alone making it the lone beneficiary of industry consolidation. By 1985, the Julius began to see an uptick in interest, and major renovations in the 1990s restored its mass appeal as well as original art and structure, making it a widely sought after destination.
Legacy
The Ionian Hotel War is viewed as both a consequence and a driver of the golden age of tourism in the Ionian Highlands that took place in the 19th century. Accordingly, the Hotel War left lasting cultural and economic impacts on the Highlands. While the rivalry itself ended, the Hotel Julius continues to be a popular and fashionable destination in the 21st century. Skiing and other popular tourist activities remain a cornerstone of the region.
Local businesses and residents often took association with a particular hotel as a source of pride. For a number of reasons poorly understood by historians by popularly canonized in myth, the Hotel Julius is strongly associated with the Holchester Horsemen while the Velucian Palace is historically associated with the Beldra Mariners, both Urcean baseball teams of the Continental Baseball Conference. Fans of both teams make annual "pilgrimages" to the Hotel Julius and former site of the Velucian Palace which are typically tongue-in-cheek affairs which resemble tailgating. The Hotel Julius once discouraged such events but has now prioritized Holchester fans on the annual Horsemen Weekend. The rivalry series between the two teams are known as "tourist turfwar".
The Hotel War not only served as a rivalry between two prominent, fashionable destinations, but came to represent the prosperity of the Aedanicad and was subsequently romanticized, the conflict and locations serving as important backdrop in many pieces of Urcean fiction. The Hotel War era remains a popular time period in which modern period piece films are set.