Minecraft hotel travel is moving beyond themed rooms and attractions, with a new 69-room property planned near London in 2027 as part of a major expansion at Chessington World of Adventures.
The Minecraft World Hotel will form part of a new Minecraft-themed area at the Surrey theme park, giving visitors the chance to stay overnight in surroundings inspired by one of the world’s best-selling video games. The development will combine accommodation with rides, dining and interactive experiences built around the distinctive block-based world of Minecraft.
The hotel is expected to open on a date that has not yet been announced. It will have 69 themed rooms, including 20 upscale rooms and 49 standard rooms, designed around the game’s familiar blocks, creatures, colours and environments.
The project reflects a wider shift in gaming-themed travel. Hotels and resorts are increasingly using well-known game franchises to create experiences that extend beyond traditional entertainment venues. Instead of simply playing a game or visiting a convention, fans can increasingly enter carefully designed physical versions of the worlds they know from a screen.
Japan has already developed this approach around Pokemon. MIMARU operates Pokemon-themed rooms across 10 hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, with rooms incorporating characters and game-inspired details into spaces including bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens.
The concept has also moved into more unusual forms of accommodation. A three-metre-wide pod shaped like a Poke Ball has opened in Hokkaido as part of a Pokemon Sleep collaboration. Located beside a lake, the accommodation is designed to give guests the feeling of sleeping inside a real Poke Ball.
Europe has also begun experimenting with gaming-focused accommodation. Spain’s Magic World Resort in Oropesa del Mar has a dedicated Magic Games Hotel, where guests can find gaming-themed rooms alongside consoles, virtual and augmented reality areas, gaming tournaments and a video game museum.
The new Minecraft hotel near London will take the idea in a different direction by making the wider theme park environment part of the experience. Inside the hotel, the reception area will feature cube-shaped trees and animals inspired by Minecraft’s Overworld. Lifts will draw on the game’s Nether portals, while corridors will be designed to resemble mine shafts.
The rooms will continue the same visual language, incorporating the blocks, objects, creatures, textures and colours associated with Minecraft. The hotel will also include an immersive restaurant and potion bar, along with interactive features intended to make the accommodation feel like part of the game rather than simply a hotel carrying its name.
Guests will also have direct access to the new Minecraft World area at Chessington World of Adventures. One of its main attractions will be Escape the Nether, described as the world’s first Minecraft roller coaster. The ride will combine indoor and outdoor sections and will be built around the game’s Nether environment.
Minecraft World will also include family attractions, dining areas, themed shops and other immersive experiences, creating a wider destination around the franchise rather than a standalone hotel.
For Mojang Studios, the company behind Minecraft, the challenge is to translate a digital world built from simple blocks into a physical environment without losing the details that make it recognisable to players.
“We’ve thought about every detail, from the scale of the blocks to how to bring the creatures and biomes to life in the real world,” said Filip Keatly Thoms, Creative Director of Minecraft Parks and Experiences at Mojang Studios. “Our goal is to create an authentic Minecraft experience and allow visitors to experience the game in a completely new way.”
The development is part of a broader change in how entertainment brands are being used within travel. For major game franchises, accommodation can extend the relationship with fans from a few hours at an attraction to an overnight experience, while hotels and theme parks can build entire visitor experiences around intellectual properties with established global audiences.
For Minecraft fans visiting the UK in 2027, that experience will soon include something that was previously impossible: spending the night inside a world that until now existed primarily on a screen.
