MODEL RELEASED. Ice hotel interior. Ice hotels are built entirely from snow and ice in cold polar regions. They are built during the winter, usually by spraying snow into moulds and using ice to form sculptures. Thousands of tons of snow and ice are used. Although the temperature inside the hotel is below freezing, it is usually warmer than outside due to the insulating properties of the snow and ice. Such hotels melt in the spring, to be reconstructed the following year. This hotel is in the Lainio Snow Village, Finnish Lapland.