Taking a cue from ancient developments

[MARTE11]

Till the downfall of the Roman Empire, i.e., by about 500 AD, the inns and taverns were found well developed. The churches, monasteries and cathedrals made suitable arrangements for devout traveling undertaken by the pilgrims. But the downfall of Roman Empire generated problems and for several hundred years, the travelers’ inns were lost to the then civilization. Inn-keeping could not flourish as travel was infrequent and trade largely came to a standstill.

The crusades in Europe which started in 1095 AD lasted for over two hundred years. This provided for elbow rooms for laying the foundation of a social revolution resulting in the emergence of a new class of people, i.e., the middle class. The impact of Renaissance was initially visible in Italy and gradually in several countries of Europe. Inn-keeping thus became a remunerative business.

The first tavern was opened in the USA in 1634. Hotels emerged from the tavern. By 1920, a hotel became the accepted term to describe a place where people stayed for the night and took their meals on payment basis. Since then, there have been multi-faceted developments in the socio-economic parlance which has made possible the emergence of hotels as a profit generating service industry. In places like Plymouth Cheap Hotels became another concept and a better option to meet the needs of travelers with any budget. Taking a leaf out of the management practices of the inns of earlier centuries, these cheap hotels could offer a better deal to a visitor.

Significant developments in the transportation facilities, inventions and innovations in the field of communication, the laying of a strong foundation for industrialization and urbanization and further development of tourism as an industry paved the way for the development of hotels and motels. Besides, the growing significance of foreign trade, internationalization of culture and civilization and the need for keeping the balance of payments in foreign exchange became instrumental in the organized development of classified and unclassified hotels.