Hotel and Motel

Abstract

The key concepts, proceeding top-down, for market analysis for the hospitality industry are market segmentation, demand, and supply. Location or trade area comes into the analysis as an umbrella over these three concepts. Market niche and segmentation, demand, and supply are primary determinants to establishing the criteria for locating hospitality facilities. Whenever there have been sufficient numbers of travelers in search of food and shelter, some form of hostelry industry has arisen.1 The Code of Hammurabi (1800 B.C.E) referred to innkeeping (Winfree 1996). In the western countries, as the Romans established an extensive roadway system, taverns and inns followed at strategically spaced locations. The Roman roads were used for military travel, trade and commerce, and pilgrimage and tourism. These are the primary reasons we use roads today. The early inns were largely run by religious orders. However, in Europe, as commerce grew in the fifteenth century, lodging as a commercial activity began to replace innkeeping as a charitable activity. In the American colonial period during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, inns and taverns were an important part of commerce and cultural exchange. These facilities were designed after the inns and taverns of England, which were closely integrated into their communities. Inns and taverns did not intrude or disrupt the neighborhood; instead, they were thought of as being an integral part of the culture and activities of the neighborhood. Architecturally, early inns and taverns conformed to the look and feel of the surrounding neighborhood environment. Survivors of these early inns are the contemporary bed-and-breakfasts (B&Bs). The term hotel arose early in the nineteenth century and was used to distinguish a greater level of commercial activity than an inn. Hotels offered food, drink, retail shopping, and lodging. Hotels were also more intrusive in their neighborhoods. Instead of less than 10 rooms that typified many inns of the era, early hotels contained as many as 200 rooms, and rose to 6 floors in height. Many nineteenth-century hotels were the tallest buildings in town. Thus, the hospitality industry began its first cautious attempts at market segmentation and diversification. Inns remained, but hotels offered an alternative experience via amenity differentiation.