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The word “hotel” is derived from the Latin word “hospitale”. It means
a rented place for sleeping. Webster defines a hotel as “a
building or institution providing lodging, meals, and service for
the public .” So a hotel is a building for
public accommodation that furnishes lodging and usually provides meals,
beverages, and many personal service. Hotels often provide entertainment,
rooms for meetings, banquets, or balls; shops of various kinds; commodious
lobbies; and cafes, bars, and restaurants. The hotel industry rebounded
during and immediately after World War II, as the volume of travel
increased. The postwar hospitality industry, however, has been markedly
different from that of the prewar period with the automobile and the
jet plane radically affecting the industry, changing travel patterns
and leading to the development of different types of hotels. Motels,
resort hotels, and convention hotels have been developed to cater
to the varied needs of today’s traveling public. At the same time,
hotel chains have established themselves as the dominant force in
the industry.
Motels really came
of age during the 1950s. Two main factors contributed to the boom
in motel construction. One was the development of the interstate highway
system, beginning in 1956, which encouraged more and more travelers
to take to the roads on long distance journeys. The other was the
entry of motel chains into the market. Motels increased in size and,
for the first time, added a number of services. Restaurants, swimming
pools, and in-room televisions became standard features. Motels began
to attract growing numbers of vacationers in addition to commercial
travelers. A resort hotel is one that people visit for relaxation,
recreation, and entertainment. With the rise in mass tourism, they
have been established in great numbers at destinations throughout
the world. Resorts, as such, have existed since ancient times. Wealthy
Romans used to escape from the cities during the hot summer months
and spend the season at the shore, in the mountains, or at spa resorts.
The idea of the resort hotel was born in the 18th and 19th century
Europe. And the resort hotel in the United States developed with the
expansion of the railroads in the second half of the nineteenth century.
All catered exclusively to the rich and to the upper middle class.
Families stayed for two or three months and returned to the same hotel
year after year.
A convention hotel is one that caters
to large group gatherings  .
The rise of convention hotels has been one of the developments in
the hotel industry, and conventioneers now account for almost 20 percent
of all hotel guests. Many downtown hotels saw occupancy levels drop
during the 1950s and early 1960s as motels captured a larger segment
of the market. In response, some hotels began to add facilities for
conventions and other group gatherings as a means of survival. At
first, conventions were scheduled for off-peak periods, but as the
volume of convention business increased, they began to be scheduled
year-round.
As now it is the golden age of tourism and every year many new
hotels with modem facilities are being built in large cities and resorts
all over the world. |
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a
building or institution providing lodging, meals, and service for
the public