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Where Does The Word Hotel Come From?

Where Does The Word Hotel Come From
Etymology – A typical hotel room with a bed, desk, and television The word hotel is derived from the French hôtel (coming from the same origin as hospital ), which referred to a French version of a building seeing frequent visitors, and providing care, rather than a place offering accommodation.

In contemporary French usage, hôtel now has the same meaning as the English term, and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning, as well as “hôtel” in some place names such as Hôtel-Dieu (in Paris), which has been a hospital since the Middle Ages, The French spelling, with the circumflex, was also used in English, but is now rare.

The circumflex replaces the ‘s’ found in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time took on a new, but closely related meaning. Grammatically, hotels usually take the definite article – hence “The Astoria Hotel” or simply “The Astoria”.

What is the full meaning of hotel?

Hotel. noun. ho·​tel hō-ˈtel. : an establishment that provides lodging and usually meals, entertainment, and personal services for its guests.

When was the first use of word hotel?

Hotel (n.) 1640s, ‘public official residence; large private residence,’ from French hôtel ‘a mansion, palace, large house,’ from Old French ostel, hostel ‘a lodging’ (see hostel). Modern sense of ‘an inn of the better sort’ is first recorded 1765.

Is the word hotel derived from French word host?

Hotels – Definition, History, Types, and Organisation Structure or Core Areas The word hotel is derived from the French hôtel, which refers to a French version of the townhouse. The term hotel was used for the first time by the fifth Duke of Devonshire to name a lodging property in London sometime in AD 1760.

  1. Historically, in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and several other countries, a townhouse was the residence of a peer or an aristocrat in the capital of major cities.
  2. The word hotel could have also derived from the hostel, which means ‘ a place to stay for travelers ‘.
  3. A hotel is defined by the British Law as a ‘ place where bonafide travelers can receive food or shelter, provided he/she is in a position to pay for it and is in a fit condition to be received ‘.

Hence, a hotel must provide food (and beverage) and lodging to a traveler on payment, but the hotel has the right to refuse if the traveler is not presentable (either drunk, or disorderly, or unkempt) or is not in a position to pay for the services. Alternatively, a hotel may be defined as ‘ an establishment whose primary business is to provide lodging facilities to a genuine traveler along with food, beverage, and sometimes recreational facilities too on the chargeable basis ‘.

  • Though there are other establishments such as hospitals, college hostels, prisons, and sanatoriums, which offer accommodation, they do not qualify as hotels, since they do not cater to the specific needs of the traveler.
  • A hotel is an establishment that provides paid accommodation, generally for a short duration of stay,

Hotels often provide a number of additional guest services, such as restaurants, bars, swimming pools, healthcare, retail shops; business facilities like conference halls, banquet halls, boardrooms; and space for private parties like birthdays, marriages, kitty parties, etc.

Most of the modern hotels nowadays provide the basic facilities in a room- a bed, a cupboard, a small table, weather control (air conditioner or heater), and a bathroom- along with other feature like a telephone with STD/ISD facilities, a television set with cable channel, broadband internet connectivity.

There might also be a mini-bar containing snacks and drinks (the consumption of the same is added to the guest’s bill), and tea and coffee making unit having an electric kettle, cups, spoons, and sachets containing instant coffee, tea bags, sugar, and creamer.

What does hotel mean in France?

Noun. hotel a usually large house or building where travellers, holidaymakers etc may receive food, lodging etc in return for payment. The new hotel has over five hundred bedrooms. (Translation of hôtel from the PASSWORD French-English Dictionary © 2014 K Dictionaries Ltd)

Why do we say an hotel?

In the word ‘ hotel’ the letter ‘ h’ isn’t silent and since it is a consonant and has a consonant sound it is preceded by ‘A’. If it was a vowel and had a vowel sound it would have been preceded by the word ‘An’.

Why do the British say an hotel?

I also came across this very recently myself when I was listening to a radio programme from the BBC World Service where the presenter (Nick Mason from Pink Floyd) clearly says ‘an ‘otel’. Indeed, I have to agree with you that I’ve heard (and seen this) many times.

  1. Anyway, let’s refer to TEE (and what I said) first: – According to Jeremy Marshall and Fred McDonald, compilers of the excellent book Questions of English (Oxford University Press), writing an historian is regarded as being old-fashioned.
  2. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was very common to drop the ‘h’ when speaking.

The authors argue that these days only a few people actually say ‘an ‘istorian’. Other common words to get this problem are horrific (What an ‘orrific experience!) and hotel (You mean we’re going to stay in an ‘otel?). ​ The book’s successor, oxforddictionaries.com, has tempered this view a little, although it generally makes the same point, saying that we do say ‘an honour’ (/ona/, /ɒnər/), ‘an hour’, or ‘an heir’ (/air/, /eər/), as the initial letter ‘h’ is not pronounced.

But we do say ‘a hair’ or ‘a horse’ with a sounded ‘h’, and it would be correct to use an in front of historian in speech if the speaker does not pronounce ‘h’. But it is fair to say that these days, historian, horrific and hotel are generally pronounced with a spoken ‘h’ at the beginning. ​ Despite these comments from the OUP, there are many who prefer the (supposedly) old-fashioned approach.

For example, the British National Corpus – from its hundreds of thousands of examples of phrases collected from conversation, academic articles, fiction, and news – has many written examples of ‘an historian’, ‘an historic’, ‘an horrific’, and ‘an hotel’.

Many of the Internet forums regard this as a British English phenomenon, and while this appears to be true at first (after checking the Corpus of Contemporary American English) with only one example of ‘an horrific’ in writing, and three examples of ‘an hotel’ (all in fiction), there are several written examples of ‘an historian’ and ‘an historic’, revealing that the latter examples are just as much in popular use on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

So let’s look at a few more style guides and pieces of advice from reliable online sources and see what they’ve got to say’ ​ From the BBC ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/en/articles/art20130702112133548), last updated 19 July 2013, retrieved 20 May 2019: a/an Pronunciation is the key.

Use “an” before any word or abbreviation beginning with a vowel sound, including words beginning with a silent “h” (as far as we know there are only four of these: hour, honour, heir, honest and their derivatives). You use “a” with consonant sounds (eg: unicorn), including words beginning with an “h” which is pronounced (eg: hat, hotel).

​ Good – they agree with me. Next, from https://pronunciationstudio.com/h/, a site that is, well, a pronunciation studio that is based in Bloomsbury Square, London (so they should be good), last updated 28 September 2016, retrieved 20 May 2019: The rule goes that the article ‘a’ is used before a consonant and ‘an’ is used before a vowel, so with silent H we would say “an honest” and with pronounced H we would say “a hotel”.

  1. But some posher speakers tend to treat a pronounced H as if it were not there, so they would say “an historic” and “an hotel”.
  2. H droppers tend to always use ‘an’, so cockneys would say “Give us an (h)and” and “She’s renting an (h)ouse”. I see.
  3. It’s the posh speakers to blame, those who speak Received Pronunciation (RP), or BBC English.
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Now we know the ‘posh’ speakers tend to be more of a grammar pedant, but that’s a discussion for another day. ​ Next, let’s go to Quora, which is a question-and-answer website used and edited by internet users, and they usually have some clever people to answer these kind of questions.

  1. So, through www.quora.com/What-is-the-proper-use-of-A-Historic-vs-An-Historic, let’s see what they (particularly Mark Harrison), have to say.
  2. Apr 10, 2012: The rule is subtly different from that in the question details.
  3. The full rule is (italics are my addition): “A” is supposed to be used anytime the following word starts with an audible consonant.

Yeah yeah, we know that bit,the words used to be spoken ‘otel’ and ‘istoric’ (as if they were French.) The usage ‘an hotel’ is trying to go back to the old grammar, and fail to realise that we have added the first letter as a separate sound when we say ‘Hotel’ and ‘Historic’.

In the 19th Century, it was normal to pronounce hospital, hotel and herb without the h. Nowadays “aitch anxiety” has led to all of them acquiring a new sound, a beautifully articulated ‘aitch’ at the beginning. The BBC state that “Unfortunately there is often some dispute over what constitutes ‘well-written’ or ‘correct’ English.

One person’s hard-and-fast rule is another’s “unintelligent application of unintelligent dogma” – according to one of the greatest writers on the English language, H.W. Fowler. If you are writing for the Economist, ‘a hotel’ is preferred, but ‘an historical’ is kept as an exception.

  • ‘An’ should be used before a word beginning with a vowel sound (an egg, an umbrella, an MP) or an ‘h’ if, and only if, the h is silent (an honorary degree).
  • Historical is an exception: it is preceded by an, the h remaining silent.
  • It seems to me that grammar pedantry is at work here, meaning that we have individuals who are far too concerned with what they believe are ‘the rules’ of the language, even though there are none.

​ So what are the conclusions? I’ll stick with what I said in the book and finish with the same conclusion. My advice is to go for the Oxford University suggestion as it is very possible that, in a written exam, should you decide to use ‘an’ before those words which, as a rule, have a sounded ‘h’, then it would all depend on the point of view or the nationality of whoever is marking your paper.

Who invented the word hotel?

Who first used the term ‘hotel’? The French hotel, borrowed as a hotel, dates from the 17th century for ‘accommodation’ from Franco-Provençal ho (s) tel and Latin hospitale (compare the word hospital). These words are related to french hôte ‘host, host’. The word stem refers to Latin hospes ‘guest’.

Who came up with a hotel?

From caves to skyscrapers –

The Lascaux caves that are part of the Unesco World Cultural Heritage are considered to be the first shelter where both an artistic cultural background as well as the accommodation of people of a different tribe can be proven. The exact dating of the caves is disputed, but they are said to be as old as 38,000 to 15,000 BCE. It gets a little more concrete in classical Pompeii; hard evidence of a Lupanar, a bordello dating back to the year 69 BCE was found. This bordello is considered to be the first proven hospitality establishment that also charged for lodging. The first real guesthouses can be traced back to the early eighth century in Japan. The Nishiyama Onsen and Hoshi Ryokan are the first hotels in human history: 47 generations later, the latter establishment is still owned by the original family. It took another millennium for the first establishment to call itself a hotel. The Grand Hotel opened its doors in London on 25 th January 1774. Today, just 250 years later, there are countless (according to estimates, over 500,000) hotels and gastronomical establishments around the world. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the biggest hotel in the world with 7351 rooms is the First World Hotel in Pahang, Malaysia. The Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong has the distinction of being the highest hotel in the world. The hotel is located on the 102 nd to the 118 th floor of the International Commerce Center and lies at an altitude of 484 meters. The record holder for the all time most expensive hotel to be sold is the Waldorf Astoria New York in Manhattan. It was sold to the Chinese Anbang Insurance Group for 1,95 billion US dollars in 2014.

Why is it called motel?

Early motels – The term “motel” originated with the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, originally called the Milestone Mo-Tel, which was constructed in 1925 by Arthur Heineman. In conceiving of a name for his hotel, Heineman abbreviated motor hotel to mo-tel after he could not fit the words “Milestone Motor Hotel” on his rooftop.

  1. Many other businesses followed in its footsteps and started building their own auto camps.
  2. Combining the individual cabins of the tourist court under a single roof yielded the motor court or motor hotel.
  3. A handful of motor courts were beginning to call themselves motels, a term coined in 1926.
  4. Many of these early motels are still popular and are in operation, as in the case of the 3V Tourist Court in St.

Francisville, Louisiana, built in 1938. During the Great Depression, those still traveling (including business travelers and traveling salespeople) were under pressure to manage travel costs by driving instead of taking trains and staying in the new roadside motels and courts instead of more costly established downtown hotels where bell captains, porters, and other personnel would all expect a tip for service.

  1. In the 1940s, most construction ground to a near-halt as workers, fuel, rubber, and transport were pulled away from civilian use for the war effort.
  2. What little construction did take place was typically near military bases where every habitable cabin was pressed into service to house soldiers and their families.

The post-war 1950s ushered in a building boom on a massive scale. By 1947, approximately 22,000 motor courts were in operation in the U.S. alone; a typical 50-room motel in that era cost $3000 per room in initial construction costs, compared to $12,000 per room for metropolitan city hotel construction.

  1. By 1950 there were 50,000 motels serving half of the 22 million U.S.
  2. Vacationers; a year later motels surpassed hotels in consumer demand.
  3. The industry peaked in 1964 with 61,000 properties and fell to 16,000 properties by 2012.
  4. Many motels began advertising on colorful neon signs that they had “air cooling” (an early term for “air conditioning”) during the hot summers or were “heated by steam” during the cold winters.

A handful used novelty architecture such as wigwams or teepees or used decommissioned rail cars to create a ” Caboose Motel ” or “Caboose Inn” in which each cabin was a rail car.

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What does hotel mean in Paris?

Etymology and meaning – The word hôtel represents the Old French ” hostel ” from the Latin hospitālis “pertaining to guests”, from hospes, a stranger, thus a guest. The adjective particulier means “personal” or “private”. The English word hotel developed a more specific meaning as a commercial building accommodating travellers; modern French also uses hôtel in this sense.

For example, the Hôtel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde was built as an hôtel particulier and is today a public hotel. In French, an hôtel de ville or mairie is a town hall and not a hotel. Other official bodies might give their name to the structure in which they maintained a seat: aside from Paris, several other French cities have an Hôtel de Cluny, maintained by the abbey of Cluny,

The Hôtel de Sens was built as the Paris residence of the archbishop of Sens, The Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris was a theatre, taking its name from the former Paris residence of the Dukes of Burgundy on the site. The Hôtel de la Marine, now a museum, took its name when it was the naval ministry building.

Is hospitality a Latin word?

What’s the meaning of hospitality? If you want to study hotel management, the word “hospitality” is going to be with you for the rest of your life. But let’s get to the point: what do we mean when we talk about hospitailty? What’s exactly the meaning of hospitality?Keep reading! To find out what the word hospitality means, we start with the dictionary.

Hospitality refers, according to the Cambridge dictionary, to the “the act of being friendly and welcoming to guests and visitors”. It comes from the Latin “hospitalitas – hospitalitatis” which means to receive as a guest. If we continue with the etymology, there are words that are closely related to the term hospitality, such as hostel or hospice.

All these establishments have as a common link that the host attends to the needs of the guest who are there temporarily. Needs such as accommodation, food or drinks. And what about the word hotel ? In this case, the word comes from French. Initially, in the 11th century, it was used to refer to a dwelling, and later, already in the 19th century, it was used to refer to places that offered accommodation to travelers and guests.

  • And since then, hotel has become a word used in many languages ​​and with international reach.
  • Beyond the etymology and once we already know what the meaning of the word hospitality, the history of the hotel industry also shows the connection between hospitality and hotels.
  • It all started many years ago, in ancient times, when merchants exchanged merchandise for lodging.

This was when the first roadside inns emerged to house travelers in exchange for money. Later, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the monasteries were the main managers of the hosting service. And later, the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the birth of modern hospitality.

  • It meant the improvement of transport and the consequent increase of trips.
  • And this is when the first hotels and large hotel chains were born,
  • For example, at the end of the 19th century the Ritz hotel chain was inaugurated, extending its business model throughout Europe and the United States.
  • Since then, the hotel industry has been evolving and incorporating improvements based on the changes and needs of society.

In fact, in many countries, the hotel industry is one of the main economic activities. Although the word hospitality was born linked to hotels, today its meaning includes many areas. The hospitality industry – that’s how it is called – refers to everything that encompasses the tourism and hotel industry, in the broadest sense.

Consequently, a professional trained in hospitality management not only has job options in a hotel. In addition to the different types of accommodation in which they can develop their professional career as manager, they are joined by so many different destinations such as cruise ships, embassies, luxury brands, theme parks, consulting, restaurant chains and a thousand more options.

Hotel Vocabulary for IELTS

So, from now on, it is forbidden to think only of hotels when we talk about hospitality, There are many job options beyond the figure of a hotel manager.

What language is the word hotel?

Etymology – From Middle French hostel from Old French ostel ; inherited from Late Latin hospitālis, hospitāle ( ” hospice, shelter, guesthouse ” ), noun use of Latin hospitālis ( ” hospitable; relating to a host or guest ” ), Doublet of hôpital,

What does Hotel Dieu mean in French?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu (English: hostel of God ) was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church, Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest and most renowned, or have been converted into hotels, museums, or general purpose buildings (for instance housing a préfecture, the administrative head office of a French department). The hôtel-Dieu of Beaune, boasting a beautifully preserved courtyard Examples include: Belgium

Notre Dame à la Rose, founded in 1242

France

Hôtel-Dieu d’Angers, founded in 1153 Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune, founded in 1443 Hôtel-Dieu of Carpentras, built in 1754 Hôtel-Dieu of Château-Thierry, founded in 1304 Hôtel-Dieu of Cluny, built in the 17th and 18th century Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon, created in 1478 Hôtel-Dieu of Nantes, completed in 1508 Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, founded in 650 Hôtel-Dieu of Reims Hôtel-Dieu de Tonnerre, founded in 1293

Canada

Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, Quebec City, Quebec Hôtel-Dieu de Sherbrooke (CHUS), Sherbrooke, Quebec Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital, Windsor, Ontario Hotel Dieu Hospital (Kingston, Ontario), Kingston, Ontario Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario

United States

University Hospital, New Orleans, previously known as Hôtel-Dieu Hotel Dieu Hospital, Beaumont, Texas, founded in 1896 and consolidated with Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in 1970 Hotel Dieu Hospital, El Paso, Texas, founded in 1893 and permanently closed in 1987

Lebanon

Hôtel-Dieu de France, Beirut, Lebanon, a private hospital owned by the French state

Do hotels exist in France?

There’s no harm in being surprised when you arrive at your reserved hotel, as long as that surprise is limited to a room upgrade, a free bottle of Champagne in the room or especially kind service. Otherwise it’s best to know what to expect when you select a hotel.

Is the H silent in hotel?

a/an + H – The rule goes that the article ‘a’ is used before a consonant and ‘an’ is used before a vowel, so with silent H we would say “an honest” and with pronounced H we would say “a hotel”. But some posher speakers tend to treat a pronounced H as if it were not there, so they would say “an historic” and “an hotel”.

Why do we say an hour?

A and an are different forms of the indefinite article. Words where the ‘h’ is silent, such as honor or honest, use ‘an’ instead of ‘a.’ Since the ‘h’ in ‘hour’ is silent, it is ‘an hour’ instead of ‘a hour.’

Is the H in historical silent?

an historic vs. a historic – Traditionally, and the word a is used as an article before consonant sounds. For example, we would say an apple and a banana, However, we would also say an hour and a university, The word hour has a silent H and begins with a, so we use the word an,

  1. The word university begins with a consonant “yoo” sound and so we use the word a,
  2. It’s perfectly acceptable and natural sounding to use a before the word as in This is a historic event,
  3. The word historic doesn’t have a silent H and begins with a consonant sound like the word hip, so it makes sense to use the word a,
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Additionally, most style guides recommend using a before historic, history, and historical, However, some people choose to say an historic as in This is an historic event, Why? The simplest explanation is they may just have a personal preference and think that an historic sounds better than a historic,

There may be other reasons, though. Historically, both forms were commonly used until the 1940s, when a historic began to overtake an historic, By the 1990s, a historic was much more common than an historic, It’s possible that the preference for an historic may be generational or a person may have “inherited” it from a parent or teacher of an older generation.

Alternatively, the preference could be due to regional accents or dialects. English speakers didn’t actually pronounce the H in historic until relatively modern times. This is most likely because the English word historic was influenced by the French historique, which has an unpronounced H,

  • Regional English dialects that practice “h-dropping” may still not pronounce the H in historic, and these speakers are more likely to use an historic ( an ‘istoric ) than a historic,
  • All of this tells us that both sides of the an historic and a historic debate have support for their argument.
  • In informal writing, either form would be considered acceptable (and likely to face criticism from the other side.) In formal writing, though, the form a historic is the widely preferred form.

: An Historic vs. A Historic: Which One Is Correct?

What is the American word for hotel?

Hotel in American English SYNONYMS 1. hostelry, hostel, guesthouse, motel. hotel, house, inn, tavern refer to establishments for the lodging or entertainment of travelers and others.

How do Americans say hotel?

Here are 4 tips that should help you perfect your pronunciation of ‘hotel’ : –

Break ‘hotel’ down into sounds : + – say it out loud and exaggerate the sounds until you can consistently produce them. Record yourself saying ‘hotel’ in full sentences, then watch yourself and listen. You’ll be able to mark your mistakes quite easily. Look up tutorials on Youtube on how to pronounce ‘hotel’. Focus on one accent : mixing multiple accents can get really confusing especially for beginners, so pick one accent ( US or UK ) and stick to it.

How do Brits say breakfast?

Below is the UK transcription for ‘breakfast’: Modern IPA: brɛ́kfəsd. Traditional IPA: ˈbrekfəst.2 syllables: ‘BREK’ + ‘fuhst’

What is the original meaning of hotel?

Etymology – A typical hotel room with a bed, desk, and television The word hotel is derived from the French hôtel (coming from the same origin as hospital ), which referred to a French version of a building seeing frequent visitors, and providing care, rather than a place offering accommodation.

In contemporary French usage, hôtel now has the same meaning as the English term, and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning, as well as “hôtel” in some place names such as Hôtel-Dieu (in Paris), which has been a hospital since the Middle Ages, The French spelling, with the circumflex, was also used in English, but is now rare.

The circumflex replaces the ‘s’ found in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time took on a new, but closely related meaning. Grammatically, hotels usually take the definite article – hence “The Astoria Hotel” or simply “The Astoria”.

What is the best description of a hotel?

Where Does The Word Hotel Come From A hotel is a commercial establishment that provides lodging, meals, and other services to guests, travelers, and tourists. Hotels can range from small family-run businesses to large international chains. Most hotels list a variety of services, such as room service, laundry, and concierge.

  • Some hotels also offer meeting and conference facilities, fitness centers, and spas.
  • As a commercial enterprise, hotels are also dependent on advertising and on potential customers becoming aware of their hotel and booking it.
  • Therefore, most hotels are also represented on the Internet.
  • Often with their own website and on hotel search and booking portals as well as on blogs, yellow pages and online industry directories.

Here it is important to present the hotel appealingly and to provide it with good descriptions of hotels. Table of Contents

Hotel Online Web Presence

Learn How To Create Written Description Of Hotels

Hotels Online Blogs

Ten Tips for Writing great Descriptions for Hotels

How To Avoid Writing Confusing Words When Describing A Hotel

Descriptions of Hotels – Conclusion

What is difference between hotel and restaurant?

Difference Between Hotel and Restaurant Hotels and Restaurants are both business establishments that cater to different needs of customers. The basic aim of a hotel is to provide accommodation whereas the basic aim of a restaurant is to provide food and drink. This is the main difference between hotel and restaurant. Sometimes a restaurant can be found inside a hotel as well.

Why is it called hotel motel?

Early motels – The term “motel” originated with the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, originally called the Milestone Mo-Tel, which was constructed in 1925 by Arthur Heineman. In conceiving of a name for his hotel, Heineman abbreviated motor hotel to mo-tel after he could not fit the words “Milestone Motor Hotel” on his rooftop.

  • Many other businesses followed in its footsteps and started building their own auto camps.
  • Combining the individual cabins of the tourist court under a single roof yielded the motor court or motor hotel.
  • A handful of motor courts were beginning to call themselves motels, a term coined in 1926.
  • Many of these early motels are still popular and are in operation, as in the case of the 3V Tourist Court in St.

Francisville, Louisiana, built in 1938. During the Great Depression, those still traveling (including business travelers and traveling salespeople) were under pressure to manage travel costs by driving instead of taking trains and staying in the new roadside motels and courts instead of more costly established downtown hotels where bell captains, porters, and other personnel would all expect a tip for service.

  1. In the 1940s, most construction ground to a near-halt as workers, fuel, rubber, and transport were pulled away from civilian use for the war effort.
  2. What little construction did take place was typically near military bases where every habitable cabin was pressed into service to house soldiers and their families.

The post-war 1950s ushered in a building boom on a massive scale. By 1947, approximately 22,000 motor courts were in operation in the U.S. alone; a typical 50-room motel in that era cost $3000 per room in initial construction costs, compared to $12,000 per room for metropolitan city hotel construction.

By 1950 there were 50,000 motels serving half of the 22 million U.S. vacationers; a year later motels surpassed hotels in consumer demand. The industry peaked in 1964 with 61,000 properties and fell to 16,000 properties by 2012. Many motels began advertising on colorful neon signs that they had “air cooling” (an early term for “air conditioning”) during the hot summers or were “heated by steam” during the cold winters.

A handful used novelty architecture such as wigwams or teepees or used decommissioned rail cars to create a ” Caboose Motel ” or “Caboose Inn” in which each cabin was a rail car.