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The Accommodation Industry
A hotel is a temporary home for people who are traveling. In a hotel the travelers can rest and have access to food and drink. A hotel may also offer facilities for recreation, such as a swimming pool, a golf course or a beach. In many cases a hotel also provides free space for the travelers’ means of transportation. All of these services are designed to accommodate a traveler, so the hotel business is often referred to as the accommodation industry.
Travel and hotels have always been closely related. In Europe and America inns and taverns were spaced along the roads at the distance a horse could travel in a day. Inns were primitive by modern standards. A traveler usually had to share his bed with at least one other person and as many as four other persons in some remote areas. Old-fashioned inns, however, did provide food and shelter for both men and horses and therefore became a symbol of hospitality. Indeed, the word “inn” has been used recently by many modern hotels and motels.
Modern mass transportation, i. e. the movement of large numbers of people at relatively low prices, began with the development of the railroads in the 19th century. Up to that time, accommodation had been provided by country inns or by family-owned and -operated hotels in the cities. As the railroads carried larger numbers of people further and more rapidly, large hotels were constructed near the train stations. The cluster of hotels around Grand Central terminal in New York is a good surviving example of this stage of development of the hotel industry.
The other means of transportation – the automobile and the airline – resulted in the growth of corresponding accommodation facilities. In the case of automobile, motels that serve people traveling by car have sprung up along highways all over the world.
The word “motel” was created by combining “motor” and “hotel”. When automobiles were first used, flimsy and inexpensive tourist cabins were built beside the highways. Then, as people demanded greater comfort, the cabins were replaced by tourist courts and then by the modern hotels. Motels or motor hotels providing parking facilities for cars were also constructed in many large cities where they now compete with the other commercial hotels.
The air travel extended the distances that people could cross in a short period. For the accommodation industry it was a boom in the construction of resort hotels. A resort is a place to which people travel for recreation. It may offer mountain scenery, the combination of sun and sea or features that are entirely man-made such as Disneyland in California.
All hotels do not serve the same clientele, i. e. the same kind of guests. In fact, it is possible to place hotels in four broad categories. The first is the commercial hotel which provides services essential for transients, many of whom travel on business. A lot of city hotels and diversely located motels fall into this group. The second category is resort hotels. Located in vacation areas, they often provide recreational facilities of their own as well. A third type of hotels aims its services largely at the convention trade. Conventions are meetings, usually held yearly, of various business or professional groups. Not so long ago most conventions were held in large urban centers such as New York and Washington D. C. The forth category is resident hotels. People who do not wish to keep house themselves can rent accommodation on a seasonal basis or even permanently in many hotels.
No firm distinction exists between different kinds of hotels. In large cities that are also tourist centers, such as New York, Paris, Tokyo, London and Rome, one hotel may offer all types of service. And even a small hotel may have banquet rooms and meeting rooms in addition to its accommodation for transients.
Another way of categorizing hotels by is the quality of service they offer. At the top are the luxury hotels which generally offer their guests the greatest comfort and convenience possible. At the bottom are those that provide merely a place to sleep. A system of rating hotels according to quality is widely used in France and a number of other countries. This system puts the top hotels in a special deluxe category, with other receiving from five stars to one star or “A’s”. The standard features include private bathrooms, room telephones, recreational facilities and so on.
The difference in quality between hotels is not entirely a matter of equipment or furnishings. The proportion of employees to guests and guest rooms is also a matter of prime importance. In general, the accommodation industry is labour-intensive, i. e. it employs a large number of people to perform its services. In a luxury hotel there may be three employees for every guest room. In a large commercial hotel in a big city the ratio is usually closer to one employee per guest room. Obviously, the services offered by a small hotel will be far more restricted than those provided by a luxury hotel.
The larger and more luxurious the hotel, the greater the variety of jobs that it offers. Nevertheless, the administration and organization of a small hotel is similar to a large one. Engineering and maintenance of a small establishment may be done by contract with local firms, whereas a large hotel will hire its own staff for these functions.
Generally, the problems and opportunities in all hotels are comparable, since all provide shelter, food and other services for the traveling public.