The Latest in Luxe Hotel Trends: Find a Prison, Vamp It Up

The latest in bizarre theme-hotel news is the opening of a new, French luxury hotel housed in a former prison. Now you can sleep soundly in the same place countless murderers and rapists have laid their troubled head. Well, not exactly. The 13th-century asylum turned 700-cell prison has been shut since 2003. Located in Avignon, the notorious Sainte-Anne prison has since become a tourist attraction in its own right. Too expensive to maintain, the "place of horror is to become now a place for luxury clientele." Certain renovations will have to take place first, as it seems developers aren't exactly going for cell block-chic. Tant pis. Of course, this isn't the first time a former prison has caught the eye of aspiring hoteliers ... or booze hounds, for that matter.

Last September, Boston welcomed the Liberty Hotel -- once a jail filled with Beantown's most notorious prisoners. $150 million later, it's a luxury hotel at the foot of Beacon Hill. Bringing new meaning to the phrase "last meal," it even boasts two cheekily named restaurants (Scampo, Italian for "escape," and Clink). And the trend doesn't stop there. Back across the Atlantic there's the Malmaison Hotel in Oxford, a high-end hotel featuring converted jail cells as guest rooms, apartments, and a bar/restaurant complex with its own celeb connections. The former prison doubled as a set where stars like Gerard Depardieu and Brad Pitt have filmed scenes. And let's not forget Liepaja Prison in Latvia, the Langholmen youth hostel in Stockholm, and the Hostel Celica in Ljubljana. If only Ian Schrager could get his hands on Alcatraz now that the dirty hippies have been fended off. [Tourism Review]