Much of the novella takes place at grand hotels in Vevey, Switzerland, and Rome, Italy. The narrator describes them as luxurious, ornate, and full of the amenities that upper-class Americans are used to. These hotels are a symbolic embodiment of the wealth the main characters all have in order to spend days, weeks, and even months at a time in them. Though the inhabitants all have a lot of money, they aren’t all aware of the unspoken social contract of behavior for Americans when traveling abroad. The Millers, while rich enough to afford to stay at the same hotels as Winterbourne, quickly show through their loud and vulgar behavior that they have not been in this upper-class milieu for very long. Whenever Daisy brings an Italian gentleman into the hotel, the other guests and hotel employees whisper about her distasteful conduct.

The hotels seem to be almost exclusively occupied by Americans and are located in central, more tourist-laden areas of the cities. As such, hotels act as a buffer or shield between the wealthy Americans in the story and the culture and people of the country that they are actually visiting. Daisy disrupts this way of life by bringing Mr.