Sorry, let me clarify.
If you would usually pronounce the “h” - e.g. hotel - you should write “a hotel”.
However, if you are trying to render a particular accent where the “h” is often dropped, you’d write “an 'otel” to indicate the non-aspirated “h”.
Standard english would not include saying “I went to a lovely 'otel”. I think the point SharkB8 made re. the way you pronounce “a” is important - maybe this is a transatlantic thing?
I guess with grammar there’s never a GQ answer. I’ve had several years experience wtih academic publishing, and (as Colophon indicated) the overwhelming majority of editors I have known would go with “a hotel”, “a historic” or “a heraldic”.
Using “an hotel” or “an historic” etc in the UK is (IMO) a shorthand way of marking yourself out as
- older (1950s) generation
- conservative and middle-england (think Hyacinth Bucket)
YMMV, obviously, but the use of “an heraldic” would make me assume either sloppy editing, or pretentious authoriship. However, I am happy to concede that a minority do not share this view.