Hotel

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This article is about lodging establishments. For shared-room lodging, see Hostel. For hotels
designed for motorists, see Motel. For other uses, see Hotel (disambiguation).
"Hotel room" redirects here. For the 1993 HBO television series, see Hotel Room.


The Burj Al Arab in Dubai


The historic Plaza Hotel in New York


The Hilton San Diego Bayfront


Lobby on 103rd floor at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong


Atrium Lobby of the Grand Hyatt Shanghai
A hotel is an establishment that provides lodging paid on a short-term basis. Facilities provided
may range from a basic bed and storage for clothing, to luxury features like en-suite bathrooms.
Larger hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, business center,
childcare, conference facilities and social function services.
Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs) to allow guests
to identify their room. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In the
United Kingdom, a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all guests within certain
stated hours. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a minimized amount of room space and shared
facilities.
Contents
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1 Etymology
2 History
3 International scale
4 Types
o 4.1 Upscale luxury
o 4.2 Full service
o 4.3 Historic inns and boutique hotels
o 4.4 Focused or select service
o 4.5 Economy and limited service
o 4.6 Extended stay
o 4.7 Timeshare and destination clubs
o 4.8 Motel
5 Management
6 Unique and Specialty hotels
o 6.1 Historic Inns and boutique hotels
o 6.2 Resort hotels
o 6.3 Other speciality hotels
o 6.4 Bunker hotels
o 6.5 Cave hotels
o 6.6 Cliff hotels
o 6.7 Capsule hotels
o 6.8 Ice, snow and igloo hotels
o 6.9 Garden hotels
o 6.10 Referral hotel
o 6.11 Railway hotels
o 6.12 Straw bale hotels
o 6.13 Transit hotels
o 6.14 Treehouse hotels
o 6.15 Underwater hotels
7 Records
o 7.1 Largest
o 7.2 Oldest
o 7.3 Highest
8 Living in hotels
9 Hotel Search
10 See also
o 10.1 Industry and careers
o 10.2 Human habitation types
11 References
12 Further reading
Etymology[edit]
The word hotel is derived from the French htel (coming from the same origin as hospital),
which referred to a French version of a building seeing frequent visitors, and providing care,
rather than a place offering accommodation. In contemporary French usage, htel now has the
same meaning as the English term, and htel particulier is used for the old meaning, as well as
"htel" in some place names such as Htel-Dieu (in Paris), which has been a hospital since the
Middle Ages. The French spelling, with the circumflex, was also used in English, but is now
rare. The circumflex replaces the 's' found in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time took on
a new, but closely related meaning. Grammatically, hotels usually take the definite article
hence "The Astoria Hotel" or simply "The Astoria."
History[edit]


The Tabard Inn, Southwark, London
Facilities offering hospitality to travellers have been a feature of the earliest civilizations. In
Greco-Roman culture hospitals for recuperation and rest were built at thermal baths. During the
Middle Ages various religious orders at monasteries and abbeys would offer accommodation for
travellers on the road.
The precursor to the modern hotel was the inn of medieval Europe, possibly dating back to the
rule of Ancient Rome. These would provide for the needs of travelers, including food and
lodging, stabling and fodder for the traveler's horse(s) and fresh horses for the mail coach.
Famous London examples of inns include the George and the Tabard. A typical layout of an inn
had an inner court with bedrooms on the two sides, with the kitchen and parlour at the front and
the stables at the back.
[1]

For a period of about 200 years from the mid-17th century, coaching inns served as a place for
lodging for coach travelers (in other words, a roadhouse). Coaching inns stabled teams of horses
for stagecoaches and mail coaches and replaced tired teams with fresh teams. Traditionally they
were seven miles apart but this depended very much on the terrain.