BIBLE REFERENCES

“And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped

him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger;
because there was no room for them in the inn”.
The most famous inn is one in Bethlehem. The great
crowds reporting there to pay taxes had overburdened the
lodging industry of the small town.
Jacob and his brother traveling to Judea, going to an inn,
and foddering their mounts. Travelers would bring their
own supplies. They are similar to Khans, or rest houses,
found in the Middle East today.
ANCIENT HISTORY
CLASSIC GREEK & ROMAN DAYS
 The concept of Hospitality is extremely old; people were
hospitable because of their superstitious fears that a
stranger was either God or a representative of evil spirits,
perhaps even the devil himself.
 Through the myth, the travels of Odysseus, as recorded by
Homer in the Odyssey and the Illiad give insights into
lodgings .
 In ancient Greece, Hospitality was provided by certain
elements of religion; missionaries, priests and pilgrims
formed a very large part of the traveling public.
 The accommodations were meager, providing only shelter
and the barest of sustenance.
 In the earliest times, they were operated by slaves who
belonged to the temples or holy places. Gradually,
freemen replaced the slaves, but even they were
considered to be of low social prestige.
 MIDDLE AGES
 It was considered duty of Christians to offer hospitality to
travelers and pilgrims.
 Monasteries functioned as inns, providing accommodations
and food for the weary travelers.
 Charlemagne enacted a law setting out the duty of Christian
to provide free resting place for a traveler as well as food.
 In 1282 in Florence, Italy, the great innkeepers of the city
incorporated a guild or association for the purpose of turning
hospitality into a business.
 The famous storyteller Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales
speaks of the Tabard, a fine hostelry of the 1300s in
London.
 Chaucer tells of eating table d’hote (a menu which one
may order a complete meal at a set price) and settling
their reckoning (hotel bill).
 The term hostelers, meaning inn holders was not used
until 1473. gradually hostelers shifted in meaning from
owner of the inn to inn servant. The h is sometimes
dropped to ‘ostler’. The term hostel meaning inn was not
used until the 1800s.
 In modern usage hostels are accommodations of lesser
quality and hostelers are guests who stay at hostels.
 During the Crusades the industry grew, the design was
fairly standard. The enclosed courtyard was surrounded
by the kitchen, tavern, and public rooms on the front
façade. On each side, winging out from the front, were
sleeping rooms. And at back are stables.
 COLONIAL PERIOD
(16TH TO 18TH CENTURY
 Public coach service was put into effect around 1650. It
ran between major cities and stopped wherever passengers
wanted.
 Coach inns were built along the routes primarily at points
where team of horses were changed.
 The British use the term “ordinary” to describe such inns.

 The inns were built in relatively standard design. It

provided sleeping accommodations, food and drink was
served, a shelter for both drivers and horses.
 United States Postal Service, established in 1710, called its
primary routes between major towns along the Atlantic
Coast post roads.

 In 1788 in Nantes, Hotel de Henri IV was built and was

considered as one of the first finest European hotels at that
time. Built at cost of £ 17,500, it had 60 beds.

 During 18th century, Coffeehouses became extremely

popular in Europe and were incorporated into many of the
inns.
 19TH CENTURY
 In the early 1800s as train tracks were laid through out the
Western world, depot hotels began to rise. The hotel was
connected directly to the train station.
 Transportation and lodging industries could not be
separated.
 Spas, which are mineral springs or pools that are believed
to be medicinal or healthful, have been tourist sites since
Roman days.
 Throughout the world the advent of trains caused beautiful
resorts to be built at these sites;
 In 1830, Pennsylvania boasted that it was he first states to
have railway travel to its spas.
 Saratoga Springs in New York was the most famous spa in
those days. Advertised and quite popular , were Saratoga
trunks that would accommodate all the clothes one needed
to spend a “season” at a resort.
OTHER FAMOUS SPAS FOR CENTURIES AND
ACCESSIBLE VIA RAIL;
 Spas at Baden, Germany

 Marienbad, Bohemia

 Vichy, France
FAMOUS RESORTS
 French Riviera

 Homestead in Hot Springs- a premier luxury resort

located in the picturesque Allegheny Mountains of
Southwestern Virginia.
 Niagara Falls, the Canadian Horsehoe Falls

 Greenbrier at White Sulfur Springs Resort in West

Virginia
 In 1841, Englishman Thomas Cook arranged his first
tour. It was a 1 day train excursion; shortly thereafter he
organized overnight trips, booking multiple rooms at
hotels for his client. Considered the first travel agent, by
1856 he was taking groups of North Americans to his
“Cook’s Tour of Europe”.

 Another benchmark in the industry was the opening of the

Tremont Hotel in Boston, the first luxury hotel that
boasted the first indoor toilets and the first private
bedrooms with locks on the doors. They also had a
version of today’s bellhop, then called a ‘rotunda man’.
 In 1889 the famous Swiss hotelier Cesar Ritz became
manager at the Savoy in London. Then opened his own
London Ritz and subsequently opened famed luxury hotels
in Paris, New York and other cities.
 20TH CENTURY
A bed with a bath for a dollar and a half”. This was the motto that
led the hotel industry in 20th century.

Ellsworth Milton Statler, opened his first hotel in Buffalo, New

York in 1907. Individual rooms with private baths and Statler’s
ability to cater to business travelers set to this hotel apart. His name
is legendary in the industry today.
OTHER NOTEWORTHY INNKEEPERS
 Conrad Hilton, “King of the Innkeepers”, opened his
hotel, in Mobley in Texas in 1919. from there the Dallas
Hilton opened in 1925. today the familiar Hilton is seen in
almost every major city.

 In 1954, Hilton bought the Statler chain. Statler-Hilton

are located in New York, Dallas, Washington and other
cities.

 John Willard Marriott Sr. is the founder of the Marriott

Hotel Chain.
 Kemmon Wilson, founder of Holiday Inns. He opened
the first Holiday Inn motel in Memphis in 1952, and
quickly added others to create an empire hotel chain. It
went international in 1960.
TOURIST COURTS
 The automobile led the hotel industry into a booming
business in the 1920s.
 The term motel, coined from “motor hotel” goes back to
the time when a farmer owning land along the major
routes would build wooden 10 foot by 10 foot cabins long
the road in front of his property. A car could pull right up
the cabin, where a traveler could spend the evening.
 The owners soon expanded to 15 cabins and were called
tourist courts.
 These businesses proved profitable during the free
economy of the 1920s.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND WORLD
WAR II
 1930s sat the great depression and a setback for the
lodging industry.
 Many smaller motels went bankrupt. The industry did not
recover until the war years.
 During World War II, thousands of people, both military
and civilian traveled. There were troops being transported,
workers going to various war factories, and families
reuniting. New hotels were built near all major military
bases and industrial areas.
ADVENT OF AIR TRAVEL
 Air travel was now available to the masses, and business
was booming while conventions and conferences became
an integral part of successful commerce.
 Companies opened regional and branch offices. Thus
business travelers. In their vast numbers became the most
important lodging guests.
 The advent of air travel prompted resort hotels to spring up
around the world.
 Many resorts offered package plans. Some in conjunction
with the airlines, where one price pays for the airfare and
accommodations. The convenience and comfort of
knowing exactly what your expenses will be ahead of time,
and having them paid in advance, are prominent features of
a package plan. These plans are still popular among
vacation travelers today.
THE INDUSTRY TODAY
 Alternative Lodging
Since some travelers seek accommodations
different from the traditional hotel/motel room, the lodging
industry today offers alternatives;
 Campgrounds – appeal to travelers who prefer to
commune with nature while on vacation.
 In the Middle East, renovated harems that once
accommodated a man’s 60 wives, now served as hotels.
 In Africa, a hotel called “Treetops” features rooms in a
huge tree from which guests can watch wild animals feed
at night.
 In Japan, there are Ryokans which exhibit typical, simple
Japanese décor, and inexpensive lodgings with four to six
built in bunk beds.
 Capsule Hotel – is a hotel system of extremely dense
occupancy. Guest space is reduced in size providing room
to sleep, facilities include TV and other electronic
entertainment. Privacy is maintained by a curtained but
noise pollution can be high. The first was the Capsule
Hotel in Osaka.
TALLEST HOTEL
LARGEST HOTEL
ICE HOTEL
 A hotel and art exhibition made of ice from the river
Torne, each year reincarnated in a brand new design. A
place to discover silence, northern lights, glistening snow
clad forests, reindeer, cloudberries, kettle coffee and much.