'Hobbit' hotels offer more than a hole in the ground

Who says a hole in the ground can't make delightful digs?

Certainly not the proprietors of lodgings that take design inspiration from The Hobbit. With the blockbuster success of the newly released film, a number of lodgings are inviting guests to unleash their inner Bilbo Baggins.

Among them: the Inn at Honey Run, whose new $259 Hobbit Getaway Package includes a stay in an earth-sheltered Honeycomb Suite, breakfast, biscuits and jam in the room and a four-book, box set of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series. (Or watch the movies in the inn's lower-level Hearth Room.)

The inn, located in Ohio's Amish country roughly midway between Columbus

and Cleveland, wasn't purposely built to mimic the earth-berm style of Tolkien's Shire, but the likeness nevertheless presents a not-to-be-missed marketing opportunity.

Related:New Zealand draws new interest with 'Hobbit'

In northwest Montana, the resemblance of the Hobbit House to Tolkien's Middle-earth creation also was a chance occurrence — at first. Owner Steve Michaels set out to build a 1,000-square-foot guesthouse for friends and family, but part way through construction his contractor's son commented that it looked like a Hobbit House.

"I wasn't a Hobbit fan at all," Michaels says. "But I thought, 'Gee, that sounds like a good idea.' "

Gradually, a mini Shire took shape around the guesthouse. It now sports multiple hobbit-sized houses, an elf village and a troll house fashioned from a 700-year-old sequoia on 20 acres in Trout Creek about 2½ hours from Missoula. The guesthouse was booked about 85 nights this year (it's open May to November), but thousands stopped by for a tour, Michaels says.

The release of The Hobbit movie has brought an uptick in interest, he adds, though a letter last March from The Hobbit's copyright holders will spark a name change in the coming year. Hobbit House will become The Shire of Montana and Michaels is considering adding a tree house and a gift shop.

"Now that we're going to call it The Shire, we're going to have a lot more fun," he says.

The $245-a-night lodging can be booked direct or on the HomeAway vacation rentals website.