How this is put together
This page sets out the method. It covers how the eighteen houses were chosen, which sources stand behind each entry, what has been deliberately left out, and how to report an error. Nothing here is a recommendation, and no house paid for its place in this record.
How the houses were chosen
Each house had to be open and had to be describable from a source. Beyond that, the four sections set the shape: interior work made for the building, structures of ice and packed snow, four Canadian resorts, and compact houses. Within a section the order is fixed and carries no meaning of any sort.
Which sources are used
Hotel and operator sites come first, then mapping data for position and surroundings, then published material for the age and earlier use of a building. Where a claim could not be confirmed in one of those, the sentence was rewritten so that it stayed true without it, or it was dropped.
What is not here
No prices, no stars, no room counts, no reviews, no reservation buttons and no partner links. Houses are never compared with one another and no order of merit is drawn. Descriptions avoid promises about weather, availability or how a stay will feel, because none of those can be checked from a source.
Reporting an error
If something on the site is wrong or out of date, write and say which page and which sentence. Corrections are made to the page itself, and the checked date is moved forward when the whole entry has been read again. The address is on the contact page.
Reading the winter section
Buildings of ice and packed snow stand for one winter season and are raised again the following year from new material, so nothing carries over. Some operators also keep cooled or warm structures that stay open longer, and glass igloos are a different thing again: heated rooms under glazing, not carved ice. Season dates depend on the weather and belong to the operator, so they are not printed here.
The three groups in the index
In cities means the house stands in built-up streets. By water means a confirmed river, lake, canal or shore at the site. In the mountains and the north means a mountain platform or a northern one. Where two could apply, the group is the one a source states directly. Compact houses outside Japan are described as small standardised rooms rather than sleeping berths, and each entry says so in its opening lines.