Comparison

Hotel Story vs LanternKeep

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Hotel Story

Design and manage your ultimate resort in this engaging strategy and simulation game. Build from scratch, upgrade facilities, and attract diverse tourists to become the top hotelier. Enjoy offline play and connect with a global community.

Highlights
  • Build a dream hotel resort from scratch
  • Over 400 unique facilities with upgrades
  • 20+ unique tourist types
  • Fun investment quests
  • Connect with players worldwide
  • Play offline
Features
Read full description

Design your dream resort to richness! Hotel Story is an epic strategy and simulation game for the hotel and resorts genre. Expand your resort, upgrade your facilities and see who can be the best hotelier! “If you are looking for a hotel simulation game thats fun and strategic to play, this is better than any other out there” "Gotta love the cute tourists” Features: - FREE TO PLAY - Creativity is your limit, build a dream hotel resort from scratch - 400+ unique facilities with multiple upgrades - 20+ unique tourist types with multiple levels of progression - Fun investment quests to help grow your resort! - Retro art - Connect with thousands of players worldwide, conduct tours with your friends, and send tips to them! - Play offline! Manage your resort anytime without having to connect to the internet. PLEASE NOTE: Hotel Story is free to play. You can choose to spend real money for additional in-app content. You may lock the ability to purchase in-app content by adjusting your device’s settings.

About

LanternKeep

Features
Read full description

Build a defense along a moonlit shrine path and keep the yokai from reaching the shrine. Choose between the Lantern, Ofuda, Bell, and Kagami towers, each with a distinct range and role. Adapt to armored, flying, splitting, and regenerating enemies by changing your placement and targeting priority. Call the next wave early for a larger reward, or take the time to prepare. Your ward can turn the tide once per wave. Each UTC day brings one deterministic Daily Omamori rule: yokai speed, enemy HP, kill gold, ward damage, or lantern damage changes. Hold all 15 waves for the daily reward; leak nothing to earn a perfect-clear record that can be reported to Game Center. Survive the story, then continue into endless defense to chase a higher record. Five maps offer one-route and forked layouts. An interactive tutorial teaches placement, wave starts, upgrades, and the ward; a checkpoint is saved after every cleared wave so you can resume. Read the yokai and tower codex, then choose a specialization branch after bringing a tower to 2/3 damage and rate. Calm Japanese-inspired audio, haptic feedback, and focused controls make each short session easy to start. Features: - Four tower types and four targeting modes - Armored, flying, splitting, and regenerating yokai - Risk-and-reward early wave calling - One full-field ward per wave - A 15-wave campaign plus endless mode - Daily Omamori: UTC rotation, five rules, clear rewards, and perfect clears - Game Center leaderboards for daily/endless waves plus six achievements - Five maps, a yokai/tower codex, interactive tutorial, and wave checkpoints - Two specialization branches for each tower after 2/3 upgrades - Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and English - Local save data; no account required Optional in-app purchases: - Saisen: a consumable item that grants in-game gold for a defense - Omamori: a non-consumable item that grants starting-life and starting-gold bonuses Payments are processed by Apple through the App Store. Consumables cannot be restored. The non-consumable Omamori can be checked with Restore Purchases. Prices are shown by the App Store. https://lantern-keep.pages.dev/privacy/

Screenshots

Hotel Story4 screens
LanternKeep2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: LanternKeep at every 3 days against Hotel Story's every 2 months. Hotel Story's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Hotel Story sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and LanternKeep sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hotel Story ships an update every 2 months, LanternKeep every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Hotel Story versus LanternKeep: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHotel StoryLanternKeep
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (18K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews91.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings18K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHappy Labs Pte Ltd凯 邵

Bugs and requests

Hotel Story

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Tour requests not registering properly
  • Connectivity issues when visiting other hotels
  • Occasional crashes or freezes

Requested features

5 requests
  • More ways to earn diamonds/coins
  • Ability to customize character and hotel rooms
  • Addition of mini-games or interactive elements
  • Faster building and upgrade times
  • Improved tutorial and guidance for new players

LanternKeep

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Hotel Story

One-time5
  • 200 Diamonds$1.99
  • 500 Diamonds$4.99
  • 1200 Diamonds$9.99
Show 2 more
  • 3600 Diamonds$29.99
  • 6500 Diamonds$49.99
4 purchases

LanternKeep

One-time4
  • Small Saisen$0.99
  • Middle Saisen$3.99
  • Omamori$4.99
Show 1 more
  • Large Saisen$6.99

Questions

Is Hotel Story free?
Hotel Story is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is LanternKeep free?
LanternKeep is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Hotel Story or LanternKeep have ads?
Neither Hotel Story nor LanternKeep shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hotel Story or LanternKeep?
Hotel Story ships an update every 2 months, and LanternKeep every 3 days. Most recently, Hotel Story was updated on October 25, 2026 and LanternKeep on October 16, 2026.

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