Classification of Lodging Places The tourist industry has its own system to classify different types of lodging places. Five

Hello, everybody. First of all, I should thank Mr. Johnson for inviting me to this festival. I am no expert in tourism, but with my experience of more than twenty years in the industry, maybe I can give you a brief introduction to hotel service in order to clarify some common misunderstandings.
   In everyday conversation few of us really classify correctly the types of lodging facilities. The classifications are often hazy, and what one person would call a "hotel" another might term a "motel." Though it is impossible to name categories exactly, some basic classifications have been developed by the industry. Facilities for lodging are generally divided into five categories: hotels, motor inns, motels, resorts, and guest houses.
   The first category is hotels. Hotels are multi-storied lodging facilities which range in size from twenty rooms to hundreds of rooms. They are usually found in large cities, and often large portion of their business is from convention attendees. Most center-city hotels provide parking and car-washing service, and the cars are parked in a parking garage attached to the hotel or in a nearby public garage.
   In a hotel, porters, room service, and parking lot attendants cater to guests. Most hotels offer guests the services of at least restaurant/bar, coffee shop, and retail shop.
   A hotel may or may not be a member of a chain operation Examples of outstanding hotels are the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Plaza Hotel in New York.
   The second category is motor inns. Motor inns are the most commonly seen lodging facility in most sections of the country. Motor inns range in height from two to six stories and often have a restaurant or bar. The distinction between motor inns and hotels is becoming less and less clear as motor inns provide more and more services, such as luggage and room service. Often guests park their own cars in the vicinity rooms.
   Motor inns are most often located near major highways and the interstate highway system. Motor inns located near major airports cater to the small meeting and convention business. Usually a motor inn is part of a chain, such as Holiday Inn or Howard Johnson’s.
   Next comes the third category, motels. Motels are the small one-story buildings that are usually found on smaller highways and roads. They are seen quite frequently along lesser known beaches. A motel provides a parking space for automobiles directly outside the guest’s room door. Most often motels do not have restaurants. Motels usually are individually owned, often with the owner’s family providing all the services.
   The fourth category is often called resorts. Resorts may look like hotels or motor inns. The difference is that resorts most often are located at beaches or near the mountains. Resorts offer the guests recreational activities such as golf, horseback riding, tennis, and skiing, and many more. They may be chain or individually owned. Some resorts may be open only in certain season. But with the advent of indoor pools and attractive entertainment, many "summer" resorts are actually open year round. Besides, resorts may be specialized. For ex- ample, we can find many ski resorts, casino hotels, and health resorts.
   The last category, as the tourist industry sees, is guest houses. It is becoming more common for people across the United States to stay in guest houses, which they can "take in guests." Guest houses are privately owned homes where the owners rent individual bedrooms to visitors. Usually baths are shared with other guests or with the family. This is a recreation of the boarding house of days past.
   In the United Kingdom, guest houses are called bed and breakfasts or B and Bs; on the European continent, they are called pensiones. Guest houses have always been popular in Europe, and they are gaining in popularity here in the U. S.
   In addition to these five-category classification, some people may classify lodging place in some other ways. Here I want to talk about two of them, namely size and clientele.
   Let’s look at size first. Here size refers to the number of rooms the place offers. Generally speaking, a small place has up to 100 rooms, a medium place may have 100 to 200 rooms, a medium-large place may have 200--500 rooms, and a large place should have over 500 rooms.
   The size of a hotel/motel makes no difference as to its quality. The Gritti Palace in Venice, Italy, is often considered one of the finest hotels in the world. It has only 99 rooms. Some lovely New England inns have only six rooms. In comparison, the Hyatt Regency in Chicago has over 2,000 rooms and the granddaddy of them all, the Hotel Rossya in Moscow, has 5,300 rooms.
   Some people also classify hotels according to clientele, which refers to the type of clients it caters to. A hotel may appeal to and cater to either transient or residential clientele or both. The transient clients may be vacation travelers or business travelers. Business travel makes up the largest portion of the hotel business in most large cities. A beach town, on the other hand, would have hotels which appeal to vacation travelers.
   Residential clients lease rooms at hotels with weekly or monthly rates. Many large corporations maintain two or three rooms in a hotel in a large city and pay a monthly or yearly rate. They know that their salespeople stay in these rooms very enough, so it’s economical to rent on a long-term basis.
   OK, I think it’s time to stop now. Let me leave you with a brief summary. In the tourist industry, we usually classify lodging places into five categories. They are hotels, motor inns, motels, resorts, and guest houses. Besides, we can classify lodging places in some other ways, such as their size or the type of guests they serve. I hope what I said here can make you more knowledgable in your future trips. Thank you very much.