What Were the Earliest Hotels Like?
Whether we’re checking into a five-star resort or a shack with a roof and cable TV off the interstate, we all expect a base level of service for a stay at a hotel. Of course, this is a luxury that comes with 21st-century lodging. Amenities such as running water, clean sheets, and free coffee are taken for granted nowadays, but they certainly weren’t the industry standard in the early days of hospitality.
Given that it’s easier to enjoy the view from our comfy modern chairs, let’s take a look at the rise of this form of transitory housing in various parts of the world, and revisit what it was like for guests to experience the earliest hotels.
Caravanserai of the Middle East
As ancient civilizations flourished in the modern-day Middle East, it ignited the spread of trade routes into Asia and Europe, and with that development came the need for lodging to shelter travelers who were on the road for weeks to months at a time.
As described in Elaine Denby’s Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion, these early shelters populated the regular paths at frequent enough intervals to accommodate travelers, who often covered 15 to 20 miles in a single day. Known by such names as caravanserai, khan, or han, these mud-brick buildings typically provided guests with beds, stables, and a well or cistern for drinking water, although food was not necessarily part of the arrangement.
A more elaborate and still-standing example of caravanserai is the Ribat-i Sharaf in modern-day Iran. Built in the 12th century, this fortified complex boasted an inner and outer courtyard, a mosque, and detailed stucco decoration, rendering it suitable for royals and government officials.
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Roman Mansiones and Tabernae
With their extensive network of roads that blanketed much of Europe, the ancient Romans also produced a system of lodging at regular intervals for travelers. High-ranking officials and well-connected merchants with official government documentation could enjoy a comfortable night's sleep, a full meal, and fresh horses to take for the next leg of the journey at a stone-built inn known as a mansio.
Those who were less fortunate often had to take their chances with the lower-scale tabernae, which presented an array of hazards that included uncomfortable reed-stuffed mattresses, unsanitary kitchens, poor drinking water, and vermin.
Travelers in rural areas, meanwhile, often found themselves bedding down in what were essentially glorified stables. Such remote lodging, with its poorly fastened doors, could leave customers at the mercy of other ill-intentioned guests or an unscrupulous innkeeper.
Asian Post Houses and Ryokan
The caravanserai that dotted the western sections of the Silk Road took on similar forms in the lodgings found nearer to the east end of the trade route, in China. Those in the employ of the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan enjoyed what tended to be luxurious stays in these dwellings, as documented by Venetian explorer Marco Polo: "Every 25 miles there is a beautiful, palatial post house where the messengers can stay in magnificent beds with silk sheets and every other luxury suitable for a king," he wrote. "There are always 400 well-kept horses ready, which are supplied and fed by nearby towns. There are more than 10,000 such palaces, all beautifully furnished, and more than 200,000 horses in all."
Elsewhere in Asia, a different form of lodging took root. When pilgrimages to Buddhist temples in Japan became popular among the eighth-century aristocracy, the temples were arranged to accommodate guests; this hospitality was said to mark the beginnings of the ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn often built in the vicinity of natural hot spring baths.
Some of the ryokan that emerged from this early period remain popular with modern travelers seeking a respite from their busy urban lives. Dating back to 705 CE, Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest continuously running hotel in the world. The second-oldest, Houshi Ryokan, has been operated by the same family since opening in 718 CE.
Inns of Medieval Europe
Along with the traffic of traveling tradesmen, the paths carved out by religious pilgrims prompted the need for places of shelter in medieval Europe. Although many of the hostels and hospices were overseen by benevolent monks, lodgers still had to deal with such discomforts as flea-infested floors and a log in lieu of a pillow.
Other long-standing inns of the region offered accommodations that were literally fit for a king. The Angel and Royal in Grantham, England, was said to have hosted King John in 1213, while its current restaurant was the site of Richard III receiving the Great Seal in 1483. Similarly, the historic Maids Head Hotel in Norwich provided lodging for Cardinal Wolsey in 1519 and for members of Queen Elizabeth I's entourage in 1587.
By the Late Middle Ages, England's larger cities had somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 20 inns. A typical inn featured a kitchen, stable, storage rooms, and varying degrees of private and communal sleeping quarters. Their proprietors stood out as prominent figures about town, with many innkeepers also serving in local government posts and as banking agents.
As it became increasingly common for vacationers to travel for pleasure, many older European coaching inns, so named for the coach travelers they received, began adding private sitting rooms and entertainment venues geared toward the longer-staying guests. One such example is the U.K.'s Lion Hotel Shrewsbury, which unveiled an elegant ballroom in the late 18th century.
United States: From Taverns to Modern Luxury
Spawned from the inns that populated Britain, the taverns of North American metropolitan centers took on their own distinct character by the early years of the new republic. Typically featuring six to 10 rooms in nondistinct buildings, these taverns were notorious for filthy conditions and indifferent service, with lodgers often forced to share rooms and even beds with strangers.
However, it wasn't long before the modern hotel emerged from these settings. From its opening in 1794, the City Hotel in New York came equipped with a ballroom, a bar, public parlors, and the largest circulating library in the country. Most important, the 137-room hotel offered its guests a luxury that was largely nonexistent in the downscale taverns: private sleeping rooms.
Boston's Exchange Coffee House upped the ante for extravagance: A seven-story behemoth with more than 200 rooms, the hotel featured a glass-paneled atrium, a ballroom, retail stores, a coffee house, and an exchange floor. Its mammoth dimensions led to its downfall, though, as firemen were unable to reach the 1818 blaze that began on its top floors and spread until the structure was incinerated less than 10 years after it was completed.
The quest to further refine the guest experience continued with the 1829 debut of Boston's 170-room Tremont House, which offered such amenities as indoor plumbing, individually keyed locks, and a bell communication system. While this sort of luxury accommodation was the exception instead of the norm, the widespread acceptance of the term “hotel” over “tavern” by this time demonstrated that there was no going back to the lax standards of the previous century.
