To be competitive nowadays, hotels have to offer more than accommodation; they have to provide additional services including childcare, restaurants, gyms and swimming pools as well.
Hotels are often the accommodation of choice for people traveling on business, as they are usually equipped to hold conferences, thereby giving delegates the convenience of working and staying on site.
Most hotels nowadays also offer meeting rooms and business centers so guests traveling on business can stay in touch with the office and meet with clients in a professional setting.
The price and quality of any hotel is generally an indication of the amount of services it
offers. To avoid confusion, many properties offer a star rating system, an unbiased rating system that allows consumers to easily compare hotels.
The star rating system is used worldwide so, whether you are visiting a major
capitol city or a remote village, you will be able to identify the level of service and accommodation offered by any particular local establishment.
Within this rating system five (5) star hotels are generally the highest ranking and would be expected to offer the most luxurious services. Although, new six (6) and seven (7) star hotels are now emerging. At the other end of the spectrum, one (1) star hotels are the lowest ranked and usually consist of very basic rooms with no additional facilities.
While the star rating system is helpful for prospective travelers, one must be mindful – that smaller boutique-style hotels may offer luxury style accommodation on par with that of a five (5) star hotel but they may have a lower rank based simply on the fact they do not offer as many additional services as a their larger-named counterparts.
Even within the one hotel you will find a variety of different rooms types and standards available, from suites and penthouses – often the most luxurious – to single rooms, being the most basic.
Most hotels also offer smoking and non-smoking rooms and, the choice of a balcony room or room with a view. This is generally more expensive than your standard room.
Nowadays, where bigger is better, numerous hotels considered to be destinations in themselves. Dubai, a country known for its wealth, is home to the worlds first seven (7) star hotel. South America, is famous for its Tree House hotels, in which accommodation is built using living trees as a primary structure.
In Australia, a town called Coober Pedy is famous for cave hotels, as are certain areas in Spain and Turkey, in which hotels are built within natural cave formations and many rooms are actually located underground.
In Sweden, Finland and Canada Ice Hotels are a major tourist attraction. Certain parts of their structure actually melt each spring and are rebuilt each autumn.
Whether you are a backpacker wandering the globe nomadically or a business person traveling to a strictly structured itinerary, there are many different ways in which to choose and book hotels. While the amount of money you have available to you will greatly affect the type of hotel you will be able to stay in – there are a number of excellent hotels available nationwide that offer quality accommodation at an affordable cost. With tourism being such a booming industry, you will be hard pressed to find a major city that doesn’t offer a plethora of hotels to choose from. Due to the amount of hotels available you can generally find quite competitive deals for most hotels. While booking last minute doesn’t work for everyone, and can sometimes lead to disappointment, it can also have its advantages, namely significant reduction in the cost of rooms. Special last-minute deals can often be found online.
While five-star hotels are magnificent – realistically not everyone can afford to stay in them. There are a number of quality hotels around that offer great accommodation at an affordable cost. With the emergence of various discount airlines worldwide it is meaning that interstate and, more significantly, international travel is no longer something restricted to only the wealthy. With this realisation has come the creation of numerous budget stay, cheaper hotels.