Marina je blizu našeg hotela.

Je is the 3rd person singular present tense of biti (to be).

So in this sentence, je means is.

• Marina je ... = Marina is ...
• Hotel je ... = The hotel is ...

It is a very common little word in Croatian.

Because blizu normally goes with the genitive case.

So after blizu (near), the noun phrase changes form:

• naš hotel = nominative
• našeg hotela = genitive

That is why Croatian says:

• blizu našeg hotela

not

• blizu naš hotel

English does not show this kind of case change, but Croatian does.

It is the genitive singular.

Breakdown:

• hotel → masculine singular noun
• hotela → genitive singular
• naš → our
• našeg → genitive singular form matching hotela

So both words are in the same case because they belong together as one noun phrase.

For learners, the safest way to think about blizu is:

• it means near / close to
• it is used with the genitive

In grammar descriptions, blizu is often treated as an adverb, but in sentences like this it behaves very much like a preposition-like word because it takes a complement in the genitive:

• blizu hotela
• blizu škole
• blizu mora

So the practical rule is: after blizu, use the genitive.

Yes. In Croatian, words like naš (our) must agree with the noun they describe.

That means they match in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• hotel is masculine singular
• after blizu, it becomes genitive singular hotela
• therefore naš also becomes genitive singular našeg

So našeg hotela is a matching pair.

Yes, Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral order here is:

• Marina je blizu našeg hotela.

But other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Blizu našeg hotela je Marina.

That can sound more like It is Marina who is near our hotel or put more focus on the location.

One important thing: je is a clitic, so it usually appears in the second position of the sentence or clause.

Yes, this form is potentially ambiguous.

At the start of a sentence, both of these look the same:

• Marina = the woman’s name Marina
• marina = marina / small harbor

Because the first word of a sentence is capitalized anyway, you need context or the given meaning to know which one is intended.

Grammatically, the sentence shape is the same in both cases.

Because Croatian does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So Croatian usually just says the noun without an article:

• hotel
• hotela
• našeg hotela

The meaning is understood from context.

In this sentence, našeg (our) already makes the noun specific, so there is no need for an article.

Yes. That is another very common way to express a similar idea.

• blizu našeg hotela = near our hotel
• u blizini našeg hotela = in the vicinity of our hotel / near our hotel

Both are natural.
U blizini can sound a little more formal or slightly more descriptive, but in many situations they are very close in meaning.

In a normal full sentence, no.

Croatian needs je here because this is a present-tense sentence with to be:

• Marina je blizu našeg hotela.

Without je, you would usually get an incomplete phrase rather than a proper standard sentence:

• Marina blizu našeg hotela → sounds unfinished or nonstandard in this context

So for a full sentence, keep je.