Yeah, I do play some lots as pretend hotels. Usually it's a bar-type lot, or a restaurant, with bedrooms. You can't lock the doors anymore, tho, so there's always the potential of someone trying to barge in and watch TV, haha. I do have one residential lot that I play like a pretend BnB using Clubs with the interactions. But of course you're right about all the features being missing.
If they are going to do this, which I feel there is a good chance, they'd really be doing it justice if the option to own it was there, along with a career. If they added some specialty items along with this, such as a tennis court, or a driving range/putting green, mini bars, pet friendly rooms, staffed spa items, and a kick butt scenic world, it would push it into Expansion Pack territory. If it was a beach world, they could do snorkeling, or a snowy world, cross country skiing might be similar enough to jogging to work, I dunno. However, if they do a beach world without swimming in the ocean, I feel there will be an uprising... :p