A hotel can be described as an establishment that provides lodging with the additional services of a restaurant, swimming pool and in some cases childcare. Some hotels also offer the option of a conference centre; this is in the hope of attracting people to hold meeting and conferences at their hotels.
Other features that are often found to be readily available within your hotel room are aspects such as a telephone, alarm clock, TV and in some instances even broadband Internet connectivity. You also sometimes, depending on the type of hotel you are staying in, have a mini bar containing both alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages as well as light snacks. Everything that is consumed from within the mini bar is paid for with the rest of your bill on your departure from the hotel. You may also find tea and coffee making facilities, which include a kettle, coffee, tea, sugar and milk. These are found within most hotels.
There are many different reasons why we need the use of hotels, the main reason being tourism. Due to the ever growing and vast increase in tourism worldwide the standards of hotels, especially in smaller establishments have improved considerably. When we visit another country we rely on the service of a hotel to act as our home while we are based there. Other reasons as to why we use hotels include for business trips or if we are too tired or incapable of getting home and so use the facility of a hotel until the next day.
The cost of quality of hotels can vary and the phrase pay more get more often comes to mind. The cost and quality of hotels are indicated by the range and type of services that are available and to help you decide which hotels are the best, most luxurious or the most cost affective there is a rating system in place. Hotels are rated using stars; the most stars a hotel can usually have is five and a five star hotel is a hotel that will be high in price but the most luxurious that you can get. You can then get four, three, two and one star hotels; one being the cheapest but not offering you very much as a guest.
Over the years there have been a number of hotels that have entered the public consciousness through popular culture; two examples of these being The Ritz in London, which is known for its high class appeal and the Hotel Chelsea in New York, which is the subject of a number of songs and also the scene of the stabbing of Nancy Spungen, which was allegedly carried out by her boyfriend and famous punk rocker Sid Vicious. Both of these hotels are now frequently visited by celebrities.
There are some hotels that exist to be different. They are in fact the main attraction of a holiday not the location. Some examples of these are Treehouse hotels such as the Costa Rica Tree House in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge. Hotels such as these are built with living trees as structural elements.
Another example of a hotel that is unusual is what are known as capsule hotels. These are economical and highly popular in Japan, where they are mostly seen. They are capsules that are stacked side by side and on top of each other. The space is reduced in size to a modular plastic or fibreglass block roughly 2 m by 1 m by 1.25 m, providing room to sleep. Your luggage is stored in a locker and the washrooms are communal. These hotels are mainly used by businessmen to tired to make their trip home or by people who cannot currently get home. They are only ever really used for one or a few nights. The benefit of these capsule hotels are that they are convenient and low in price.
The largest hotel as of December 2007 is the Venetian in Las Vegas, which has 7,025 rooms spread over three towers. The oldest hotel that is still in operation is Hoshi Ryokan, which is based in Komatso Japan. It opened in 717 and is still going strong today.