Ubiquitous Bristols Before the spread of international hotel chains began in the 1950s, the name "Bristol" appeared on probably more hotel façades around the world than any other. Even today, there are supposedly more than 200 Hotel Bristols (or similarly named properties). The first opened in Paris in 1816, in honour of the widely travelled and eccentric Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol. The name quickly caught on across the continent, mainly, it seems, to cash in on the earl's celebrity and reputation as a man of fine taste, at a time when affluent British travellers were still blazing the first trails of European tourism. Quite why it spread worldwide is less clear, but it seems likely that "Bristol" simply came to be synonymous with fine hotels. Apparently, it is an easy name to pronounce in most tongues. During the 20th century, Hotel Bristols appeared as far afield as Cairo, Buenos Aires, Havana, New York, St Petersburg and Melbourne. One man, Roger Williams, became so intrigued with the Bristol phenomenon that he wrote a book containing 20 true stories about various Hotel Bristols and their famous guests, linked by a fictional narrative and titled High Times at the Hotel Bristol. Reissued in a new edition in 2010, it's still available at Amazon.co.uk The original Hotel Bristol, mentioned above, closed in 1916, but an unrelated hotel with a similar name opened nearby, on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1925. By then there were already at least two other Hotel Bristols in Paris, so it was named Le Bristol. At the time of writing, Le Bristol Paris ranks second of almost 1,800 Parisian hotels on TripAdvisor, one place ahead of the Royal Monceau, which (claims Williams on thefirsthotelbristol.blogspot.hk) would also have been called the Hotel Bristol if its owner had got his way, back in 1925.