It’s safe to say that the second season of The White Lotus has many of us yearning for a glamorous Italian getaway, preferably one at the Sicilian resort where it was filmed. The slow burn of the hit HBO murder mystery is alluring all by itself, but only the most disciplined viewer could fail to be swept away by the rustic charm of the hotel where it’s filmed: the San Domenico Palace in the hilltop town of Taormina, on the eastern coast of the Italian island.
Guests at the fictional White Lotus, the show’s eponymous hotel, lounge on balmy balconies overlooking the Ionian Sea as they gorge themselves on cappuccinos and croissants day after day. The rooms are twice as big as most New York City apartments. And God forbid they need to talk to reception about anything, or they’ll be treated to a palatial lobby lined with red velvet benches that opens to an airy, stone-floored terrace.
To portray this luxurious experience, HBO bought out the San Domenico for two months beginning in February, according to a representative for the hotel’s parent company, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Such an undertaking must have cost a pretty penny, considering that a “superior,” one of the cheapest of the hotel’s 111 total rooms, goes for about $1,400 a night. Other accommodations, like the “Princess Cecilie suite” that comes with a separate foyer and living room, go for over $6,200 a night. And that’s all during off-peak travel season.
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The results speak for themselves. The resort has piqued viewers’ interest since Season 2 of The White Lotus premiered on Oct. 30, according to hotel staff and executives.
Lorenzo Maraviglia, general manager of the San Domenico, tells The Daily Beast that the impact of the show on bookings and general awareness has been “noticeable.”
“Of course we did expect it to some degree, though it wasn’t our main consideration when we decided to work with HBO,” Maraviglia says. “The interest has been primarily from the U.S. market, and though the U.S. has always been strong for us, I would think that the series may make it even more so.”
The hotel only opened as a Four Seasons property in July 2021 after undergoing a change in management and three years of renovations, meaning the company has little historical data on reservations and search results. But web visits from internet users in the U.S. have increased tenfold from October to November as the show’s simmering plotlines continue to unfold, according to the hotel’s senior director of communications, Ilaria Alber-Glanstaetten.
Indeed, an analysis on Google Trends shows a web search spike that began the week of Oct. 30, culminating in peak interest for the private residence-turned-convent-turned-hotel this week, ahead of Sunday’s season finale. Users who searched for the hotel also Googled “white lotus” and “where is white lotus filmed,” among other show-related queries.
“The biggest impact has been in terms of awareness,” Alber-Glanstaetten says.
These are the kinds of results hotel chains are happy to pay for, though the Four Seasons maintains that it didn’t pay for placement and that it had no editorial control over the way the resort was portrayed on the show.
“It is a PR director’s dream to have your hotel featured as basically one of the characters in a movie or a show, as long as the property is shown in a favorable light, of course,” says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research. “It can send bookings skyrocketing.”
And the fact that a dead body was seen being hauled out of the property in the first episode of Season 2—or that scheming sex workers seem to come with the decor on screen—hasn’t deterred people from checking out the premises.
“The truth is hotels do have hookers,” Harteveldt points outs, “and no hotel, of course, wants murder. However, in the context of a TV show that is obviously a work of fiction and where everything is taken to an extreme, no one is interpreting it as fact.”
Instead, the San Domenico’s allure is in its perceptible, TV-ready beauty. White Lotus creator Mike White says he originally wanted to set the season in France, “but when we went to the San Domenico in Taormina, Sicily, there was just something about it. Like, ‘This is it!’” he said in press notes from HBO shared with The Daily Beast. “From the San Domenico, you can see classic Italian villas dotting the coastline; the Greek theater; the mountains are behind you; and Ionian Sea is in front of you. I thought, ‘If you’re going to Europe, this is the view that you want.’ And the hotel is also a converted convent—it had a real vibe. There was a rich, dramatic potential that got me very excited.”
Writing for Travel + Leisure, one writer described how “this glamorous hotel blends its historic past with every modern comfort.” That historic past dates back to 1430, five years after the death of the wealthy Baron Damiano Rosso d’Altavilla, who became a monk and left the opulent residence to the Dominican convent in Taormina, according to a historical summary compiled by the Four Seasons. More than 400 years later, in 1866, the state tried to confiscate the property as it sought to suppress religious orders. The single monk left in the convent pulled out Damiano Rosso’s will and took it to his descendant, who then assumed control of the property and allowed the monk to live the rest of his life in it. In 1896, a new owner added a sprawling wing and turned it into a hotel. It has remained a coastal getaway ever since, hosting Hollywood royalty like Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, and Sophia Loren.
Along with passing interest from those of us who could only dream of such a vacation, the San Domenico’s new turn as the setting of a highly acclaimed TV show may be a boon for business in the long term. It certainly wouldn’t be unprecedented—Harteveldt remembers, for example, how the Fairmont San Francisco used to sell “St. Gregory” packages, named after the inn featured in the ’80s primetime soap opera Hotel. The show shot some of its exterior and interior scenes at the hotel, helping it attract a new legion of fans drawn in by the sweeping staircases, crystal chandeliers, and all the accouterments of grand, early 20th century design.
In New York City, the Plaza Hotel does something similar. An entire tab on the homepage is dedicated to Eloise, the titular character of the 1955 novel about a mischievous 6-year-old girl who lives at the Plaza with her nanny, her dog, and a turtle. Guests at the historic hotel, also managed by Fairmont, can enjoy Eloise-themed tea time at The Palm Court, complete with pink napkins and branded teapots. They can buy Eloise merch at the gift shop. And they can stay at the fancifully decorated Eloise suite for $695 per night, not including the adjoining “nanny” suite.
A White Lotus package, sure to be more TV-MA than TV-G, could be pulled off with some creativity. Worship at the chapel where an aspiring singer had sex with a pianist so she could advance her career? Take a boat ride to Palermo, where Tanya found her new friend having sex with his “nephew”? Or stay in the executive plunge pool suite where—you guessed it—Cameron had sex with two hookers while his wife enjoyed an impromptu night in Noto?
There aren’t any current plans to bring The White Lotus’s on-screen camp and high drama to the San Domenico Palace for such an experience, but Maraviglia, the hotel’s manager, says the fact that new audiences are learning about his home is enough for now.
“It’s music to my ears to hear so much talk about Sicily!”
