Firm's diverse interests range from orange juice processing to Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.

FORBES: Europe

Just two streets away is the restored and ritzy Kempinski Hotel, where German celebrities drink burnt orange brandy and philosophize, just as journalist Hannah Arendt and her lover did before the Second World War.

BBC: A tale of two Berlins

One of her sons recently returned to Towa to work in a new resort hotel, one of the few jobs other than fishing, tending orange orchards and taking care of the old.

CNN: WHERE IT'S GOOD TO BE OLD

The Capsule Hotel, also in the Netherlands, has its guests sleep within bright-orange, 133-square-foot oil-rig survivor pods moored in the Hague.

FORBES: The World's Tiniest Hotel Rooms

Hotel World is Smith's second novel, and has already featured on the Orange Prize shortlist.

BBC: Ali Smith's split world