Used to live there - don't I know it!

My office at the uni was in a concrete building. No AC, no fans, no ventilation. And my office window was fully facing the sun most of the day. To say I was cooking in summer would be understating it. Sometimes I worked in our break area to escape the heat.
Of course, that was my first (and only) Swiss summer and the first one in a while for Switzerland where we had temperatures comparable to an Australian humid summer, sans AC and buildings/dwellings built to promote airflow. Who knew heat blown from North Africa could be so fierce? (pretty much all of continental Europe was suffering)
But this gets back to my base point: it all would be more comfortable if the air moves, more than merely chilling a space.
A decent number of non-chain European hotels (though some chain hotels, too!) are as you describe, particularly in Germanic countries/regions. Some of them only have an AC (not reverse cycle), so they enable in summer but disable in winter (viz forced airflow for "half" the year). At least most can allow you to open the windows.