hotel

Hotel

This article is about lodging. For other uses, see Hotel (disambiguation).

"Hotel room" redirects here. For 1993 HBO television series, see Hotel Room.

Not to be confused with Hostel.

"Hotel Woerthersee" in Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria

"Hotel Woerthersee" in Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria

Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal, Budapest, Hungary

Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal, Budapest, Hungary

St. Regis Hotel & Residences, Mexico City

St. Regis Hotel & Residences, Mexico City

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis. Hotels often provide a number of additional guest services such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare. Some hotels have conference services and meeting rooms and encourage groups to hold conventions and meetings at their location.

In Australia or Canada, the word may also refer to a pub or bar. In India, the word may also refer to a restaurant since the best restaurants were always situated next to a good hotel.
Origins of the term

The word hotel is derived from the French hôtel (coming from hôte meaning guest), which referred to a French version of a townhouse or any other building seeing frequent visitors, rather than a place offering accommodation. In contemporary French usage, hôtel now has the same meaning as the English term, and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning. 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.
Services and facilities

Basic accommodation of a room with only a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with en-suite bathrooms and, more commonly in the United States than elsewhere, climate control.

Other features found may be a telephone, an alarm clock, a TV, and broadband Internet connectivity. Food and drink may be supplied by a mini-bar (which often includes a small refrigerator) containing snacks and drinks (to be paid for on departure), and tea and coffee making facilities (cups, spoons, an electric kettle and sachets containing instant coffee, tea bags, sugar, and creamer or milk).

Some hotels offer various combinations of 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 comers within certain stated hours; to avoid this requirement it is not uncommon to come across "private hotels" which are not subject to this requirement]

However, in Japan, capsule hotels offer minimal facilities and room space.
Classification

The cost and quality of hotels are usually indicative of the range and type of services available. Due to the enormous increase in tourism worldwide during the last decades of the 20th century, standards, especially those of smaller establishments, have improved considerably. For the sake of greater comparability, rating systems have been introduced, with the one to five stars classification being most common and with higher star ratings indicating more luxury. Hotels are independently assessed in traditional systems and these rely heavily on the facilities provided Some consider this disadvantageous to smaller hotels whose quality of accommodation could fall into one class but the lack of an item such as an elevator would prevent it from reaching a higher categorization In some countries, there is an official body with standard criteria for classifying hotels, but in many others there is none. There have been attempts at unifying the classification system so that it becomes an internationally recognized and reliable standard but large differences exist in the quality of the accommodation and the food within one category of hotel, sometimes even in the same country. The American Automobile Association (AAA) and their affiliated bodies use diamonds instead of stars to express hotel and restaurant ratings levels.
Motels

Main article: Motel

A motel is a hotel which is made convenient for people who wish to be able to have quick access from their parked car to a hotel room
Historic hotels

Hotel Astoria and a statue of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in front, in Saint Petersburg

Hotel Astoria and a statue of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in front, in Saint Petersburg

Some hotels have gained their renown through tradition, by hosting significant events or persons, such as Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany, which derives its fame from the so-called Potsdam Conference of the World War II allies Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin in 1945. The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai is one of India's most famous and historic hotels because of its association with the Indian independence movement. Other establishments have given name to a particular meal or beverage, as is the case with the Waldorf Astoria in New York City known for its Waldorf Salad or the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, where the drink Singapore Sling was invented. Another example is the Hotel Sacher in Vienna Austria, home of the Sachertorte or the Hotel de Paris where the crèpe Suzette was invented.

Hôtel Ritz in Paris

Hôtel Ritz in Paris

There are also hotels which became much more popular through films like the Grand Hotel Europe in Saint Petersburg, Russia when James Bond stayed there in the blockbuster Goldeneye. Cannes hotels such as the Carlton or the Martinez become the center of the world during Cannes Film Festival (France).

A number of hotels have entered the public consciousness through popular culture, such as the Ritz Hotel in London, UK ('Putting on The Ritz'), the Algonquin Hotel in New York City with its famed Algonquin Round Table and Hotel Chelsea, also in New York City, subject of a number of songs and also the scene of the stabbing of Nancy Spungen (allegedly by her boyfriend Sid Vicious). Hotels that enter folklore like these two are also often frequented by celebrities, as is the case both with the Ritz and the Chelsea.
Unusual hotels

Many hotels can be considered destinations in themselves, by dint of unusual features of the lodging and/or its immediate environment:
Treehouse hotels

Some hotels are built with living trees as structural elements, for example the Costa Rica Tree House in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica; the Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park, Kenya; the Ariau Towers near Manaus, Brazil, on the Rio Negro in the Amazon; and Bayram's Tree Houses in Olympus, Turkey.
Cave hotels

Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy, South Australia and the Cuevas Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (named after the author) in Guadix, Spain, as well as several hotels in Cappadocia, Turkey, are notable for being built into natural cave formations, some with rooms underground.
Capsule hotels

Capsule hotels are a type of economical hotel that are quite commonin Japan. Similar hotels are now also found in Europe
Cube hotels

Cube hotels are trendy hotel with small rooms that are common in Europe. Similar hotels are now also found in Malaysia and elsewhere
Ice and snow hotels

Main article: Ice hotel

The Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, melts every spring and is rebuilt each winter; the Mammut Snow Hotel in Finland is located within the walls of the Kemi snow castle; and the Lainio Snow Hotel is part of a snow village near Ylläs, Finland.
Garden hotels

Garden hotels, famous for their gardens before they became hotels, include Gravetye Manor, the home of garden designer William Robinson, and Cliveden, designed by Charles Barry with a rose garden by Geoffrey Jellicoe.
Underwater hotels

Some hotels have accommodation underwater, such as Utter Inn in Lake Mälaren, Sweden. Hydropolis, under construction in Dubai, will have suites on the bottom of the Persian Gulf, and Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida requires scuba diving to access its rooms.
Other unusual hotels

* The Library Hotel in New York City is unique in that each of its ten floors are assigned one category from the Dewey Decimal System.
* The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, built on an artificial island, is structured in the shape of a boat's sail.
* The former ocean liner RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California uses its first-class staterooms as a hotel.
* The Jailhotel Löwengraben in Lucerne, Switzerland is a converted prison now used as a hotel.
* The Sheraton Doha Resort & Convention Hotel in Doha, Qatar is known to be the Pyramid of the Gulf for its pyramidal structure.

World record setting hotels
Tallest

The tallest hotel in the world, at 321 metres, is the Burj al-Arab in Dubai at 321 metres, which however will soon be surpassed by the nearby Rose Rotana Suites at 333 metres (1,091 feet).
Largest

The hotel with the greatest number of rooms is the MGM Grand Las Vegas in Las Vegas, USA, with a total of 6,276 rooms. In 2006, Guinness World Records listed the First World Hotel in Genting Highlands, Malaysia as the world's largest hotel with a total of 6,118 rooms.
Oldest

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest hotel still in operation is the Hoshi Ryokan, in the Awazu Onsen area of Komatsu, Japan which opened in
Living in hotels

A number of public figures have notably chosen to take up semi-permanent or permanent residence in hotels.

* Actor Richard Harris lived at the Savoy Hotel while in London. Hotel archivist Susan Scott recounts an anecdote that when he was being taken out of the building on a stretcher shortly before his death he raised his hand and told the diners "it was the food".

See also

Hotel

* Apartment hotel
* Hospitality services
* RevPAR (measurement of hotel performance)
* Vacation rental
* Bed and breakfast
* Hostel
* Hostal
* Luxury resort
* Motel
* Serviced apartment

The Oberoi Udaivillas in Udaipur, India


Dariush Grand Hotel, Kish Island, Iran


A hotel in Adams, New York which has preserved its 1890s exterior and interior


The Manor House Hotel at Castle Combe, UK, originally built in the 14th century

H.Top Calella Palace in Spain


A state hotel in Cienfuegos, Cuba


Hotel Leningradskaya in Moscow



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