Whether you are a traveling businessman, family on vacation, or a group of friends who want to spend time together, hotels offer a place for you to rest your head and get the most out of your trip. Most hotels are designed to be comfortable and convenient, offering amenities such as beds, baths, linens, and basic features like televisions and telephones.
In addition to providing guests with lodging facilities, hotels also often provide additional guest services. These can include restaurants, bars, swimming pools, health clubs, retail shops, business centers, and even space for private parties.
Hotels are usually run by proprietors, but may also be managed by management companies or corporations. Typically, these organizations have their own organizational structure, consisting of a general manager, department heads, middle managers, and administrative staff.
The history of hotel development in America dates from the mid-nineteenth century, when elite urban merchants replaced taverns with capacious, luxurious establishments. During this period, the American transportation revolution and the coming of the canal age led to a significant increase in long-distance travel, increasing the need for accommodations along river routes and at coastal trade centers.
At the same time, hotels became major centers of local community life. Well-appointed hotel parlors and ballrooms were favored meeting places for card parties, cotillions, and other sociable events that required refined public settings.
They were also the sites of many political gatherings, including conventions and parliamentary meetings. In fact, it is estimated that as many as 60 percent of all political gatherings in the United States took place in hotels during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In this era of rapid social and economic change, American cities and towns emerged as crucial arenas of struggle between competing national and local interests. These conflicts, often inflamed by partisan politics, shaped the way that people lived and the manner in which they worked and played.
During this period, the American hotel industry grew rapidly and became a vital part of the country’s economy, contributing to its prosperity as well as to the social and cultural fabric of the nation. The industry’s expansion mirrored the growth of the nation itself, facilitated by an unprecedented period of industrialization and technological advance that made it possible for Americans to travel more widely than ever before.
As a result, the earliest American hotels were huge, imposing structures that easily distinguished themselves from earlier public accommodations. They were often commissioned by powerful urban merchants as an expression of their own commercial and social ambitions.
These hotels quickly evolved to meet the needs of increasingly diverse traveler populations. They were categorized into luxury variants, commercial hotels, and resorts, each with its own characteristic character.
In the nineteenth century, as cities and towns in the New World emerged as major mercantilist centers of commerce and trade, the nascent hotel form was further expanded to include large commercial and railroad hotels, along with hotel-like establishments for voluntary associations, including ethnic brotherhoods and charitable societies.