The word hotel is derived from the French hôtel, which comes from hôte meaning host, which referred to a townhouse or any other building seeing frequent visitors, rather than a place offering accommodation.
In the 21st century, hotels are no longer just a temporary place for accommodation. They include modern facilities such as en-suite bathrooms and air conditioning/climate control. Other features in hotel rooms may include Internet connectivity, a mini-bar, and facilities for making hot drinks. Larger hotels provide a number of additional facilities such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare, and have business conference and even IPTV services, sometimes.
The cost and quality of hotels are usually indicative of the range and type of services available. Due to the enormous increase in tourism worldwide during the last few years, standards, especially those of smaller hotels, have improved considerably. For the sake of greater comparability, rating systems are used, with the one to five stars classification being most common and with higher star ratings indicating more luxury.
Many hotels can be considered destinations in themselves, by dint of unusual features of the lodging, such as ice hotels, which as the name suggests are built entirely of ice.
We have several categories as well as their related sub-categories where we provide a number of links. You can also submit resourceful links in each related category.
See also:
- Amsterdam American Hotel- Hotels.nl is dedicated to providing the best prices and the easiest and most accurate online bookings for hotels in Amsterdam and Holland.
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