This is about materialism and excess. California is used as the setting, but it could relate to anywhere in America.
Don Henley: "We were all middle-class kids from the Midwest. Hotel California was our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles.
"Colitas," in the line "Warm smell of colitas," is often interpreted as a flower or a sexual reference. It is a Spanish word translated to Henley by The Eagles Mexican-American road manager meaning "Little Buds," and is a reference to marijuana.
The line "They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast" is a reference to Steely Dan. They shared the same manager and had a friendly rivalry. The year before, Steely Dan included the line "Turn up The Eagles, the neighbors are listening" on the song "Everything You Did."
The lyrics for this came with the album. Some people thought the line "She's got the Mercedes Bends" was a misspelling of "Mercedes Benz," and wrote Henley to complain. The line was a play on words.
Although it is well known that Hotel California is actually a metaphor, there are several strange internet theories and urban legends about the "real" Hotel California. Some include suggestions that it was an old church taken over by devil worshippers, a psychiatric hospital, an inn run by cannibals or Aleister Crowley's mansion in Scotland.
more on songfacts