In The Travel Scene Hotels Act As Main Performers

By Adriana Noton


In the travel industry hotels are very significant. Modern sociologists who de-construct them as architectural features see them as being much more significant than mere places to hire a room for the night.

Having come into the English language from French the word carries with it the usual flair that French words bring with them. A hotel is not an 'inn' or 'hostelry' because it owes its existence and its name to the fact that it will offer more than basic accommodation, but other attractions as well.

Accommodation is the primary purpose of hotels. Travellers need places to sleep peacefully and comfortably. The basic tariff will cover this, but may also include a great deal more, including a sense of luxury and prestige. Many establishments go to extreme lengths to compete in terms of finer features.

Although they deal with a passing parade of patrons hotels have their fixed spot which represent a spot of stability. Some have stood in the same place for centuries and can claim to have hosted iconic figures and seen wars and natural disasters come and go. They signify stability where tourists on the move can imbibe a few hours of an aura that does not move.

The English novelist Arnold Bennett did a great deal to establish the hotel as a social feature forming a background against which human affairs are played out. He saw it as an ideal stage on which characters come and go. They are observed closely but discretely by hotel staff who very occasionally become involved with their guests.

In more recent times film directors have found rich veins of drama in the frailty of a door which separates the temporary safety of a private room with an outside threat of danger on the other side of the door. A suspicious pizza delivery boy or gun toting thugs represent one side of the equation, the hero or heroine the other and the ambient hotel space is the sign between the two elements.

Parallel with the hotel trade industry is a burgeoning Bed and Breakfast industry. It might be expected that his would pose a serious threat to the hotel industry, but such does not appear to be the case. New hotel chains seem to profit and expand, yielding good returns for investors even though Bed and Breakfast take their quota of travelling guests.

The capital behind hotels allows them to offer services such as gyms, health spas and theme restaurants that the private residence cannot afford. More importantly, privacy and discretion are valued by people who travel. After a wearying day the business person does not always wish to enter into new acquaintances and private conversations, with a curious host wanting to chat and share mutual acquaintances.




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