HotelPedia™ - The Hotel Encyclopedia

Welcome to HotelPedia™ -- The Hotel Encyclopedia

Our Mission:
To create the most complete and definitive source of information about the past and present of Hotels.

Our Goal:
To be your source for Hotel related information. We will supply our visitors with up to date news, stories, and information about the Hotel industry in the Hotel And Lodging Recent News section.

Hotel and Lodging Recent News Links:
Local News
5 Jul 2008 at 1:04pm
LA Local News Your Local News Source For Orange County. Read About it Here. OCRegister.com/localnews L...
Have a Great Skate Vacation
5 Jul 2008 at 12:50pm
Skating while on vacation is easier than you think. Just replace a couple of shoe options with your sk...
Eagle Golf
5 Jul 2008 at 12:36pm
Priceline: Eagles Golf Club Hotels near Eagles Golf Club Pay at check-in. No booking fees.
Nantou concerned over hotel capacity
5 Jul 2008 at 12:05pm
The Nantou County Government is concerned about hotel capacity, as it estimates some 3,000 Chinese tou...
Monarch Holidays Weekend Sale
5 Jul 2008 at 11:38am
Monarch Holidays , Monarch Hotels and Avro Flights , the the UK's leading charter flight-only company,...
Eagle County
5 Jul 2008 at 11:23am
Eagle -Vail-Beaver-Aspen-DIA. Private Escalade Exec-Van 970 376-6284. www.VailBeaverCreekLimo.com Eagl...

Hotels:
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 Hotel:
The word hotel derives 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, not a place offering accommodation (in contemporary usage, hôtel has the meaning of "hotel", and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning). The French spelling (with the circumflex) was once also used in English, but is now rare. The circumflex replaces the 's' once preceding the 't' in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time received 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.

Suites:
A suite in a hotel, mostly denotes a class of luxury rooms. Many large hotels have one or more "honeymoon suites", and sometimes the best room is called the "presidential suite".

Suites offer more space and furniture than a basic hotel room; in addition to the standard bed and bedroom fixtures, a suite will typically add a living room, usually with a couch that folds into a bed. Dining, office and kitchen facilities are also added in some suites. Some hotels now offer only suites. In addition to the luxurious suites mentioned in the first paragraph, regular suites are particularly aimed at business travellers who would both appreciate additional space and may use it to host small meetings or entertain clients.

Hotel 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.

The star classification system is a common one for rating hotels. Higher star ratings indicate more luxury.

The AAA and their affiliated bodies use diamonds instead of stars to express hotel and restaurant ratings levels.

Hotels are independently assessed in traditional systems and rest 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.

Boutique Hotels:
A term originating in North America to describe intimate, usually luxurious or quirky hotel environments. Boutique hotels differentiate themselves from larger chain or branded hotels by providing an exceptional and personalized level of accommodation, services and facilities. Because of their financial successes in the most recent past, there have been attempts to create chains have adopted the "boutique" look and feel. In the US this trend was started by the "W" hotel chain in the 1990's and most recently this trend can be observed in chains as "aloft", "NYLO","Hyatt Place" and others. Through this corporate adaptation of the concept the term "boutique" also changed and more recently hoteliers prefer to use the term "lifestyle hotels" to get away from the above mentioned quirky image.

Boutique hotels are sometimes furnished in a themed, stylish and/or aspirational manner. Although usually considerably smaller than a mainstream hotel (ranging from 3 to 100 guest rooms) boutique hotels are generally fitted with telephone and wi-fi Internet connections, honesty bars and often cable/pay TV. Guest services are attended to by 24 hour hotel staff. Many of the boutique hotels have on site dining facilities, and the majority offer attractive bars as well as lounges which may also be open to the general public.

Of the total travel market a small percentage are discerning travelers, who place a high importance on privacy, luxury and service delivery. This market is typically price insensitive (made up of both high end leisure and corporate travelers), non-seasonal, high-yielding and repeat, and therefore one which boutique hotel and other high-end operators target as their primary source of income.

Motels:
There is no hard and fast rule differentiating motels from other hotels, although the word motel suggests that it is aimed at motorists. This may simply mean that it is a hotel with good access to the road network (on a motorway or ring road) so that a long car journey need not be interrupted for long by town-centre traffic. In other cases the designation is simply an attempt to make the most of a poor location inconvenient for town-centre services and attractions. Classically, though, a motel is a hotel which is made convenient for people who, for whatever personal reason, wish to be able to have quick access from the outside world (especially from their parked car) to the hotel room - without passing the scrutiny of a receptionist or fellow guests. This is usually arranged by having rooms (sometimes in individual chalets or even trailers) arranged around the car park with room doors opening directly to the outside rather than to an internal corridor.

Historic Hotels:
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, USA, 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 even the Hotel de Paris where the crèpe Suzette was invented.

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:

1. Treehouse Hotels - Some hotels, such as the Costa Rica Tree House in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, or Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park, Kenya, are built with living trees as structural elements, making them treehouses.

The Ariau Towers near Manaus, Brazil is in the middle of the Amazon, on the Rio Negro. Bill Gates even invested and had a suite built there with satellite internet/phone.

Another hotel with treehouse units is Bayram's Tree Houses in Olympos, Turkey.

Another ecological treehouse hotel is in the natural reserve at Rio Claro , Antioquia.

2. 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.

3. Capsule Hotels - a type of economical hotels that are quite common in Japan. Recently there has been a gain in popularity of these types of hotels in Europe as well, although more space and luxury have been allocated. Examples are Yotel, citizenM hotels and Qbic Hotels.

4. Ice Hotels - such as the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, melt every spring and are rebuilt out of ice and snow each winter.

5. Snow Hotels - The Mammut Snow Hotel in Finland is located within the walls of the Kemi snow castle, which is the biggest in the world. It includes The Mammut Snow Hotel, The Castle Courtyard, The Snow Restaurant and a chapel for weddings, etc. Its furnishings and decorations, such as sculptures, are all made of snow and ice.

A hotel which offers similar accommodation is the Lainio Snow Hotel in Lapland, near Ylläs, Finland.

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

7. Underwater Hotels - as of 2005, the only hotel with an underwater room that can be reached without Scuba diving is Utter Inn in Lake Mälaren, Sweden. It only has one room, however, and Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, which requires Scuba diving, is not much bigger.

Hydropolis is an ambitious project to build a luxury hotel in Dubai, UAE, with 220 suites, all on the bottom of the Persian Gulf, 20 meters (66 ft) below the surface. Its architecture will feature two domes that break the surface and an underwater train tunnel, all made of transparent materials such as glass and acrylic.

8. 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 Rogers Centre, formerly SkyDome, in Toronto, Canada was the first sports stadium to have a hotel connected to it, with 70 rooms overlooking the field. West Ham United F.C. in the UK now has a hotel with rooms that overlook the pitch and sometimes double as executive boxes for important games, as does Coventry City's Ricoh Arena.
* The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, built on an artificial island, is structured in the shape of a sail of a boat.
* The RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California is the only 1930's ocean liner still in existence.[citation needed] Its elegant first-class staterooms are now used as a hotel.
* The Jailhotel Löwengraben in Lucerne, Switzerland is a converted prison now used as a hotel.

World-Record Setting Hotels:
1. Tallest - The tallest hotel in the world is thought to be the Burj al-Arab in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at 280 metres, which however will soon be surpassed by the nearby Rose Rotana Suites at 333 meters (1,091 ft). The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang was intended to reach 330 meters (1,083 ft), but is unlikely to be completed; it has been under construction since 1987 and was abandoned in 1992. The Baiyoke Sky Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand has a building height of 309 meters, but rooms do not go all the way to the top.

The highest hotel rooms are in the Grand Hyatt in the Jin Mao Building in Shanghai, the highest floor being at around 350 m.

2. Largest - The largest hotel in the world is the MGM Grand Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA with a total of 6,276 rooms as of December 20, 2006. On December 18, 2006 Guinness World Records listed the First World Hotel in Genting Highlands, Malaysia as the world's largest hotel. It has a total of 6,118 rooms and is part of the Genting Highlands Resort and Casino. The First World Plaza which is joined to the two hotel towers boasts 500,000 square feet (50,000 m²) of indoor theme park, shopping centres, casino gaming areas, and eateries. Previously, Guinness had listed the MGM Grand Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA with 5,005 rooms as the largest hotel in the world.

In the past, other hotels have held the title of largest hotel in the world, in terms of the number of rooms. Some of these include the Rossiya Hotel (3,200 rooms) near Moscow's Red Square, and the Ambassador City Jomtien (4,210 rooms) in Pattaya, Thailand. Other large hotels being considered for development that may one day take the title are in Penang, Malaysia and Macau.

On December 20, 2007, with the opening of The Palazzo, The Venetian hotel complex in Las Vegas claimed to be the largest in the world with 7,025 rooms spread over three towers.

3. 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. It opened in 717, and features hot springs.

Hotel Chains:
A hotel chain is a collection or grouping of hotels under one recognizable brand operated by a management company. Best Western International claims to be the largest hotel chain in the world, in terms of the number of properties.

Living in Hotels:
The American billionaire Howard Hughes lived much of his life in hotels. He moved with his entourage from hotel to hotel and from Beverly Hills to Boston before deciding to move to Las Vegas and become a casino baron. Less than a month after his November 27, 1966 arrival, Hughes made a public offer to buy the Desert Inn. The hotel's 8th floor became the nerve center of his empire and the 9th floor penthouse became Hughes' personal residence. Hughes moved to the Bahamas, Vancouver, London and several other locations — always taking up residence in the top floor penthouse of the hotel. Between 1966 and 1968, he also purchased several other hotel-casinos from the Mafia: Castaways, New Frontier, The Landmark Hotel and Casino, Sands and Silver Slipper.

Coco Chanel made the Hôtel Ritz in Paris her home for more than thirty years, until the day of her death, at 87, in a suite now named "Coco Chanel Suite".

King Peter II of Yugoslavia spent much of the Second World War at Claridge's, a hotel in London. His son, Aleksandar Karadordevic, was born in the hotel.

Prince Felix Yusupov lived in the Hotel Melia Vendôme Paris in Paris.

Sultan Said Bin Taimur of Muscat lived at Dorchester Hotel in London after he was deposed by Qaboos of Oman in 1970, he died in the hotel in 1972.

Eleftherios Venizelos, Greek statesman and diplomat, lived in the Hôtel Ritz Paris while he was in exile in France from 1935-1936.

Actress Elaine Stritch lives at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City.

Magician Criss Angel lives at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. As of late 2006 - present in the Presidential suite.

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".

Apartment Hotel:
An Apartment Hotel (also ApartHotel, Apart Hotel and Apart-Hotel) is a type of accommodation, described as "a serviced apartment complex that uses a hotel style booking system". It is similar to renting an apartment, but with no fixed contracts and occupants can 'check-out' whenever they wish.

Apartment hotels are flexible types of accommodation; instead of the rigid format of a hotel room an apartment hotel complex usually offers a complete fully fitted apartment. These complexes are usually custom built, and similar to a hotel complex containing a varied amount of apartments. The length of stay in these apartment hotels is very varied with anywhere from a few days to months or even years. Prices tend to be cheaper than hotels. The people that stay in apartment hotels use them as a home away from home, therefore they are usually fitted with everything the average home would require.

Bed and Breakfast:
Bed & breakfast is a term, originating in the UK, but now also used in North America, for a place that offers bed accommodation, and breakfast in return for payment, but usually does not offer other meals. Typically, especially in the UK, bed and breakfasts are private homes with only one or two bedrooms available for commercial use.

A boarding house is different from and has a longer history than a bed & breakfast. The boarding house was for longer term stays, bed and breakfast was for people travelling through the area on short stays.

Extended Stay Hotel:
An Apartment Hotel (also ApartHotel, Apart Hotel and Apart-Hotel) is a type of accommodation, described as "a serviced apartment complex that uses a hotel style booking system". It is similar to renting an apartment, but with no fixed contracts and occupants can 'check-out' whenever they wish.

R V Park:
A recreational vehicle park (RV park) or caravan park is the equivalent of a hotel for people with recreational vehicles. The park provides a place to leave the vehicle for overnight or longer. They are also referred to as campgrounds, though a true campground also provides facilities for tent camping; many facilities calling themselves "RV parks" also offer tent camping or cabins with limited facilities.

Hostels:
Hostels provide accommodation where guests can rent a bed, sometimes a bunk bed in a dormitory and share a bathroom, kitchen and lounge. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available. Hostels are generally cheaper for both the operator and the occupant; many hostels employ their long-term residents as desk clerks in exchange for free accommodation.

An effort should be made to distinguish between establishments that provide longer term accommodation (often to specific classes of clientèle such as nurses, students, drug addicts, arrested persons subsequently bailed to await trial and homeless people where the hostels are sometimes run by Housing Associations and charities) and those offering short term accommodation to travellers or backpackers.

Within the 'traveller' category another distinction can be drawn between hostels that are members of Hostelling International (HI), a non-profit organization encouraging outdoor activities and cultural exchange for the young, and commercial independent hostels. Hostels for travellers are sometimes called backpackers' hostels, particularly in Australia and New Zealand (often abbreviated to just backpackers).

Hostals:
whatevis a Spanish word for a category of lodging. Hostales tend to be somewhat nicer than youth hostels, but cheaper and more personal than hotels. Hostals normally provide a bar and/or a restaurant/cafeteria where drinks and food is offered, to guest and locals alike. Over all many, but not all, hostales are focusing on not only their temporary guests staying at the hostel, but also on locals living in the area all year around, to a wider extent than most youth hostels and hotels do. Accommodations typically include private bedrooms, sometimes combined with backpacker dormitories and/or apartments with possibility to rent either short or long term, and linens and towels are usually provided, unless it is a long term apartment rental. Then they are considered resident, and can sort themselves out, also meaning no cleaning or other services. Guests may sometimes share a common bathroom, but in contrast to youth hostels many hostales can provide a number of rooms with en suite bathroom. Hostales are common in Spain and may also be found in Mexico, Central and South America. They are often family-run and may provide a friendlier and less formal atmosphere than a hotel.

Hostal-residencias are the same as hostals but in general, but not always, without a cafetería or other place where you can eat.

Resort:
A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company. Such a self-contained resort attempts to provide for most of a vacationer's wants while remaining on the premises, such as food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping. The term "resort" sometimes is misused to identify a hotel that does not provide the other amenities required of a full resort. However, a hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort, such as the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island, Michigan. A resort is not merely a commercial establishment operated by a single company, although in the late twentieth century this sort of facility became more common.

Towns that contain resorts—or where tourism or vacationing is a major part of the local activity—are often called resort towns. Towns such as Sochi in Russia, Newport, Rhode Island or St. Moritz, Switzerland, or larger regions, like the Adirondack Mountains or the Italian Riviera are well known resorts. The Walt Disney World Resort is a prominent example of a modern, self-contained commercial resort. Resorts exist throughout the world, increasingly attracting visitors from around the globe. Thailand, for instance, has become a popular destination. Resorts are especially prevalent in Central America and the Caribbean. Closely related to resorts are convention and large meeting sites. Generally these occur in cities where special meeting halls, together with ample accommodations as well as varied dining and entertainment are provided

Luxury Resorts:
A luxury resort, sometimes referred to as an exclusive resort, is a very expensive vacation facility which is fully staffed and has been rated with five stars. Luxury resorts often boast many visitor activities and attractions such as golf, watersports, spa and beauty facilities, skiing, natural ecology and tranquility. Because of the extent of amenities offered, a luxury resort is also considered a destination resort.

A luxury resort is an elite luxury property which exhibits an exceptionally high degree of customer service and hospitality. A flawless execution of guest services will be the resort staff's and management's main concern. A luxury resort will commonly also feature a superb architectural interior and exterior design as well as an interesting physical location. These resorts are exclusive in terms of price and can cost as much as 46,000 USD per night.

The interior design will normally be elegant with stylish bedroom decor, exceptional dining facilities, and manicured landscaping and meticulous grounds. Luxury resorts will often also be in based in exceptionally desirable and strategic worldwide locations, from beautiful tropical islands, to snow caked mountains, to scenic lakes and rivers, to exhilarating cities. The locations will often be famous for featured activities from skiing to golf, water spots, diving, fishing, sailing and nature walks to glamorous shopping and nightlife entertainment.

A luxury resort may vary greatly in character, style and theme from resort to resort. A luxury resort will, however, normally be characterized by a high level of luxury, sophistication and, of course, price. Accommodations are first class, whether they follow a classic and traditional nature or a more minimalist and modern styling. An unmatched level of comfort will be available at a luxury resort, as well as many personalized services and amenities.

Spa:
The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy, spa towns or spa resorts offering such treatment, or the medication or equipment for such treatment. The term thus has various related meanings.

The term is derived from the name of the town of Spa, Belgium, where since medieval times illnesses caused by iron deficiency were treated by drinking chalybeate (iron bearing) spring water. In 16th century England the old Roman ideas of medicinal bathing were revived at towns like Bath, and in 1571, William Slingsby who had been to the Belgian town (which he called Spaw) discovered a chalybeate spring in Yorkshire. He built an enclosed well at what became known as Harrogate, the first resort in England for drinking medicinal waters, then in 1596, Dr Timothy Bright called the resort The English Spaw, beginning the use of the word Spa as a generic description rather than as the place name of the Belgian town. At first this term referred specifically to resorts for water drinking rather than bathing, but this distinction was gradually lost and many spas offer external remedies.

There are various stories about the origin of the name. A Belgian spring of iron bearing water was called Espa from the Walloon language term for "fountain", and was used in 1326 as a cure by an iron master with such success that he founded a health resort which developed into the town. It is also suggested that the term Espa may be derived from the name of the resort, and that its source could be the Latin word "spagere" meaning to scatter, sprinkle or moisten.

It has been suggested, with no evidence, that the word is an acronym of various Latin phrases such as "Salus Per Aquam” or "Sanitas Per Aquam" meaning "health through water". These are "backronyms" — back-formed acronyms. Acronyms arose in the twentieth century, and were not used in classical times.

If you have information or links that you would like included in HotelPedia™, please email us at: