Booked Into Jail (8 Photos)

These Jails Now Take Reservations

The bars and the thick walls stayed. What changed is the deal: now you pay to get in, and you can leave whenever you like. Every building below once held prisoners, and every one of them now rents out rooms by the night.

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🗝️ The Liberty — Former Charles Street Jail in Boston, USA 🇺🇸

The lobby of The Liberty is the old jail's central rotunda, catwalks and all. Gridley J.F. Bryant designed the Charles Street Jail with the prison reformer Rev. Louis Dwight, and it was completed in 1851. It held inmates until 1990 and reopened as a hotel in 2007. The guards, at least, are gone.

💡 Jail Fact: Only 18 of the 298 rooms are inside the old jail building. The rest are in a 16-story tower built next to it.

📂Artwork File · Seen Jul 2025 — Diners at Clink eat beside original cell bars; a bar fills the old drunk tank The full story, with every source

📷 Photo and cover crop: “Inside the Liberty Hotel formerly Charles Street Jail” by Kenneth C. Zirkel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🔑 Het Arresthuis — Former Prison in Roermond, Netherlands 🇳🇱

The cell block of Het Arresthuis still has its iron galleries, now with chandeliers and sofas under them. The prison dates from 1863 and closed for good in 2007. When it reopened as a hotel in 2011, 105 cells became 40 rooms and suites. Each room still has its original cell door.

💡 Suite Fact: The four big suites are named The Jailer, The Lawyer, The Director and The Judge.

📂Artwork File · Seen Nov 2026 — The hotel kept the cast-iron stairs, walkways and old cell doors of its 1863 prison The full story, with every source

📷 Photo and cover crop: “Prison Hotel” by Frits De Jong / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

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🏰 Bodmin Jail Hotel — Former Jail in Bodmin, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

A stone gatehouse with two round towers is still the way in to Bodmin Jail. It was built in 1779 and closed in 1927, after almost 150 years of holding prisoners. It opened as a hotel in 2021 with 70 rooms, each made by knocking three cells into one. From the road, it still looks built to keep people in.

💡 History Fact: The jail kept the Domesday Book during World War I.

📂Artwork File · Seen Apr 2025 — Each Bodmin Jail hotel room was made by joining three former prison cells The full story, with every source

📷 Photo: Sandy Gerrard / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0), cropped

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🌙 Four Seasons Sultanahmet — Former Jail in Istanbul, Türkiye 🇹🇷

Tiles, arches and a lit-up doorway: the Four Seasons at Sultanahmet does not look like a prison, but it was built as one in 1918–1919. It was left neglected for years before it opened in 1996 as a 65-room hotel in Istanbul's old town. Some of the original marble was kept, down to the elevator entrances.

💡 Sign Fact: The Ottoman inscription over the gate still names the building a jail for murderers.

📂Artwork File · Seen Aug 2022 — The Ottoman capital’s first jailhouse became a Four Seasons with 65 rooms around a courtyard The full story, with every source

📷 Photo: Gryffindor / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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⛓️ Saintlo Ottawa Jail Hostel — Former Carleton County Gaol in Ottawa, Canada 🇨🇦

Rows of barred windows still line the gray stone walls of the Carleton County Gaol. It was built in 1860–62 and closed as a jail in 1972. A year later it opened to backpackers, and today it sleeps up to 160 people, some of them in the old cells.

💡 Death Row Fact: The top floor, once the jail's death row, has been restored to look much as it did.

📂Artwork File · Seen Jun 2025 — Canada’s last public hanging was at this gaol in 1869; guests now sleep in its cells The full story, with every source

📷 Photo: Jeangagnon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🏯 Malmaison Oxford — Former Oxford Prison in Oxford, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

An arched stone gateway leads into the old prison yard of Malmaison Oxford. The castle site dates back to 1071, and it was a prison from 1785 until 1996. In 2006 it opened as a hotel, with 95 rooms behind walls that once kept people in.

💡 Cell Fact: In the old A-Wing, each room is three cells knocked through.

📂Artwork File · Seen Apr 2025 — Oxford’s prison closed in 1996; its cell doors were kept in the hotel that followed The full story, with every source

📷 Photo: Simon Cobb / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

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🛏️ Långholmen Hotel — Former Crown Prison in Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪

The sign over the door still says Kronohäktet, the Crown remand prison. The last prisoner left Långholmen in 1975, and in May 1989 the cells opened as a hotel: 89 single and 13 double cells. Nobody took the sign down.

💡 Museum Fact: There is still a prison museum on site, so guests can see what the rooms looked like before.

📂Artwork File · Seen Aug 2023 — The hotel calls its rooms “cells”; Uniq Hotels says the original cell doors remain The full story, with every source

📷 Photo: Olaf Meister / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🎨 Hostel Celica — Former Military Prison in Ljubljana, Slovenia 🇸🇮

Hostel Celica sits in old army barracks that the Yugoslav army used until 1991. In 2003 the military prison opened as a hostel, and it still has 20 former cells with bars on the windows and doors.

💡 Art Fact: More than 80 artists helped turn the prison into a hostel, with each cell designed by a different group.

📂Artwork File · Seen Feb 2025 — Over 80 artists turned old military prison cells into 20 hostel rooms The full story, with every source

📷 Photo: Sumit Surai / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Which one is your favorite?