The History of
Accommodations or
Lodging Industry
The Sumerians
• The recorded history of the hospitality industry
begins with the Sumerians, a group of people who
inhabited an area known as Mesopotamia, near the
Persian Gulf, by about 4000 BC.
• Much of this area, covering part of the modern
state of Iraq, was particularly fertile, allowing
many of the Sumerians to become skilled farmers
and cattle breeders.
• The Sumerians’ skill at farming enabled
them to raise and harvest sufficient grain
to support artisans and craftsmen who
could devote their time and talent to
other activities.
• The Sumerian farmers were eventually
able to produce so much grain that they
had a surplus available to trade.
• Sumerians are often credited with
inventing money and writing, both critical
elements in the evolution of business.
• In addition to growing and trading grain,
the Sumerians became skilled at
converting it to alcoholic beverages,
primarily beer. The Sumerian grain
beverages were probably safer to drink
than their water.
• Local Sumerian taverns were probably
among the first hospitality business.
• These were drinking establishments that
catered to people who lived in the
immediate neighborhood.
• The taverns served various beers and
provided a gathering place for local
residents to discuss the issues of the day.
• The lodging industry developed
because of the need to provide
accommodations for travelers.
• Trading between two cultures created the
need for groups of people to travel often
great distances.
• Along these trade routes, certain stopping
points became favored out of necessity.
Old Spice Trade Route
• These stopping points became known as
junction points that grew into trading centers
and eventually evolved into cities.
• Journey segment is the maximum
reasonable distance traveled in one day
along trade and caravan routes without
junction points.
• At these journey segments, lodging
facilities became a need. They were called
relay houses in China, khans in Persia, and
tabernas in Rome.
Classic Greek and Roman
• In ancient Greece, hospitality was provided by
certain elements of religion: missionaries, priests
and pilgrims formed a very large part of the
traveling public.
• The accommodations were meager, providing only
shelter and the barest of sustenance.
• In the earliest times, they were operated by
slaves who belonged to the temples or holy places.
• Gradually, freemen replaced the slaves,
but even they were considered to be of
low social prestige.
• In ancient Rome, the inns were large mansions.
Owners of these inns would not allow guests to
stay unless they carried a “letter of eviction.”
Which was permission to travel from government
officials.
• Inns and taverns were well established
throughout the empire. Their taverns were called
“tabernas,” and the attached inn was called a
“caponas.” but the general quality of the taverns
and inns available to the public was poor.
• In early days in the Near East, caravans crossing
vast desserts, stopped at caravansaries. These
were accommodations that surrounded large
courtyards.
• These were simple structures consisting of four
walls that provided protection against marauding
enemies who attacked under cover of darkness.
• Within the walls, platforms were constructed
upon which the traveler’s slept.
• The high point of this era in terms of
hospitality was the development of the
post houses along caravan routes.
• In his writings, Marco Polo described post
houses known as yams as apartments
suitable for a king
• In the last years of the Roman Empire,
taverns and inns provided shelter for
traveling merchants, actors, and scholars.
• Accommodations were still primitive.
There were rooms for people but no
stables for the horses, more often there
were stables but no rooms.
• At some point, innkeepers began to
incorporate food and beverage service in
their operations.
• Another development was the Roman
network of roads that crisscrossed Europe
and parts of Asia and Africa. These roads
provided fast and safe routes for travelers.
• The history of the hotel in its present
form goes back to the Middle Ages. In the
13th and 14th centuries, German and English
literature made frequent reference to the
“inn”.
• The development of the inn in the late
medieval period was due to the
improvements in security in many European
societies.
Industrial Revolution
• During the height of the Industrial
Revolution in the 1700’s and early 1500’s
there was a great demand for
accommodation as people migrated to the
cities to work.
• The emerging middle class
could afford accommodations
when traveling away from
home.
• The Industrial Revolution and the development of
spas helped the growth of the hotel industry.
• By 1750, Brighton, Blackpool, Southern and other
English seaside resorts were attracting bathers.
• America’s first hotels were seaport
inns.
• An example of an American inn is
Manhattan’s Fraunces Tavern.
• By the middle of the 17th century the
public stage coach system had
appeared. Coach service was
established by innkeepers to attract
business.
• Public coach service was put into effect
around 1650. The coaches ran between
major cities and stopped wherever
passengers wanted, similar to the way bus
lines operate today.
• Coach inns were built along the routes
primarily at points where teams of horses
were changed. The British use the term
ordinary to describe such inns.
• The United States Postal Service,
established in 1710, called its primary
routes between major towns along the
Atlantic Coast Post roads.
• With the establishment of these post
roads, entrepreneurial farmers converted
their farm houses into inns. Passengers
from the coaches slept in the hostel’s long
room with their feet towards the fire.
• With the rapid development of the railways in
the 1820’s and 1830’s a different kind of hotel
developed.
• In Europe, large hotels were built next to or
across the downtown railroad station.
• In the United States, hotels were constructed
along the railroad network.
• The introduction and development of the
automobile industry led to the establishment of
the roadside hotel.
• With the construction of
highways and expressways the
lodging industry responded to
the needs of the motorist. Thus,
the motor hotel or motel
emerged.
• The automobile led the hotel industry into a
booming business in the 1920s.
• The term motel, coined from “motor hotel.” goes
back to the time when a farmer owning land along
the major routes would build wooded 10 foot by 10
foot cabins along the road in front of his
property.
• A car would pulled right of the cabin,
where a traveler could spend the
evening.
• The owners of these motels soon
expanded to perhaps, 15 cabins. These
were called tourist courts.
• These businesses proved profitable
during the free economy of the 1920s.
• At the end of World War II, a new mode of
transportation had matured. Air travel was now
available to the masses, and business was booming.
• Conventions and conferences became an integral
part of successful commerce. Companies opened
regional and branch offices. Thus business
travelers, in their vast numbers, became the most
important lodging guests.
• The advent of air travel prompted
resort hotels to spring up around the
world.
• Many resorts offered package plans,
some in conjunction with the airlines
where one price pays for airfare and
accommodations.
The End