Hotel History. Inn

Found in Europe, they possibly first sprang up when the Romans built their system of Roman roads two millennia ago. Some inns in Europe are several centuries old. In addition to providing for the needs of travelers, inns traditionally acted as community gathering places.

The earliest inns were established about 3000 B.C. Most of them were private homes whose owners provided rooms for travelers. Many early innkeepers did not keep the rooms clean, and they provided only crude meals for their guests. Several travelers usually had to share the same room and sometimes even the same bed. The quality of inns, especially of those in England, improved during the A.D. 1700’s, when more people began to travel for pleasure.

The first building in the United States constructed specifically as a hotel was the City Hotel, which opened in New York City in 1794. During the 1800’s, American innkeepers became the leaders in hotel development. At that time, only the wealthy could afford to stay at European hotels. In the United States, however, many hotels offered comfortable, inexpensive lodgings.

Early hotels had many beds, no locks on room doors, and no lobbies. Guests usually entered a hotel through a bar. In 1829, the Tremont House in Boston became the first hotel to provide private rooms with locks. The Tremont also was the first hotel to have a lobby and to offer indoor plumbing.

Hotels expanded their services in the early 1900’s. During that period, Ellsworth M. Statler, an American hotel operator, opened hotels that included many new features. For example, Statler’s hotels provided private baths and full-length mirrors in each room.

Hotels have long been built near transportation centers. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s when most people traveled by train, many hotels stood near railway stations. A great increase in automobile travel during the 1940’s and 1950’s led to the development of motels, many of which stand near major highways. Today, with many business people traveling by airplane, a lot of new hotels are built in city centers and near airports.

During the mid-1900’s, numerous hotels owned by one person or company were built in cities throughout the United States. These hotels make up hotel chains, which can operate more efficiently and are less expensive than most independent ones. All hotels in a chain function and are called the same.

Some of them use the franchise system. In this system, a person or company buys the right to own and operate a hotel. The owner also pays the chain part of the hotel’s income in return for use of the chain’s famous name and reputation.

2. What would you say in these situations?

1. You want to stay in a hotel for two nights next week with your husband / wife. You phone the hotel. What do you ask or say?
2. You are at the hotel reception and you are planning to leave in about 15 minutes. What could you ask the receptionist?
3. You want to wake up at 7 a.m. but you don’t have an alarm clock. What do you ask at reception?
4. You are having a drink in the hotel bar. The barman asks how you want to pay. What’s your reply?
5. When you turn on the shower in your room, the water comes out very slowly. What could you say at reception?
6. You want to go to the nearest bank but you don’t know where it is. What do you ask at reception?

Дата добавления: 2015-10-24