Evil Genius FAQ

Hotel:
  You've built your base on a beautiful, deserted tropical island.  Now it 
  seems that tourists want to visit, and you have no good reason for turning 
  them away.

  If you can't keep them away, you don't want them wandering around your base 
  and then running home to tell the authorities about all those dead bodies...

  The sole purpose of the hotel and anything in it is to keep the tourists
  occupied.  You'd think it might generate income, but it doesn't seem to.

  Hotels are hugely expensive and can suck up a lot of power and Valets to run.
  You don't need to build one right as soon as it becomes available.  

  It looks like hotels work like this; tourists land on your island and wander
  around.  If they see a hotel or evil base entrance, they'll want to go in.

  Once inside a hotel, they'll walk through it.  If there's things inside to
  occupy them, there's a chance they'll use them, using up some of their time
  on the island.  When all their time is up, they leave.  

  Since they'll stop using the benches, roulette tables, hotel rooms, etc...
  after a short time and wander off, the only way to keep them occupied is to
  build a BUNCH of hotels placed strategically around the island in places
  they are likely to walk past.  This way, they'll just get sucked into the
  next hotel instead of wandering past your base.

  A single hotel, no matter how well stocked it is, is nearly useless.  It will
  keep them occupied for a bit, but when they leave they'll wander around the
  island and run into your base.

  Hotels don't have to be big, there's not much reason to build one with all
  three wings.  Build smaller hotels, and make liberal use of the tourist traps
  that don't require staff; lobby benches, dance floors and hotel rooms are 
  great.  

  Three hotels on your starting island, each with 1 wing (you can make one 
  without a wing), will keep tourists pretty well tied up.  Once you get 
  casinos, don't make them too big.  Each casino table requires one social
  minion to run.  Making a hub, or half a wing into a casino should be good.

  Lone hubs are good to make entirely a lobby filled with benches, a casino
  or lounge + dance floor.  A hub + half a wing can be stocked with lobby 
  desks, a piano and a few hotel rooms.  Half a wing is also good for making
  into a lounge or casino.  You don't need to have a lobby in every building,
  and certainly not a lobby desk & hotel rooms.
    
  One note about the Pinball Machine (A researchable item for the casino) --
  it REGENERATES ATTENTION.  You probably don't want to put this in the casino,
  since agents & tourists not paying attention are a GOOD thing.  The only good
  thing I can say about it in there is it doesn't need any staff to run.  If 
  you don't use confusing pop-up traps, a hub with a bunch of these makes a
  handy tourist trap.