Types of Hotels

Before you go any further it is time to get the basics of a hotel, and who’s who in a hotel.

Hotelier: The owner or the chairman of the hotel is called the hotelier. A chairman generally doesn’t look after the day to day running of the hotel. That is left for the general manager to do. A chairman simply invests and looks into larger matters.

Accounting: This is something which is prominent in large hotels. Their accounting department. It looks after the financial matter of the hotel and the salary and discounts offered.

Employees: There are the workers. They implement all that the top brass tell them to. From bell boys to receptionists, all come under the employees category.

You are not required to know any of these when you go to a hotel, but it is better to be aware of such things. So the next time the receptionist tells you that the discount is pending approval from the finance department, you know what she/he exactly means.

Here is a general classification of hotels that you may encounter when searching for the one of your choice.

Hotel Chains: These are hotels with many branches. Each one is generally named the same, with a prefix or a suffix added to match the region from where it operates. They are rarely managed by a sole individual but are real big companies with well written policies and rules.

The other types of hotels have been elaborately explained in previous topics, here are few wackier ones.

Some hotels are designed in such a way that they sound really weird or really crazy, but people love to go there.

Treehouse Hotels: These hotels, as their name suggests, are built in living trees! Many of these are designed to give a real ancient look and feel. They can be fun if you are ready for some climbing. It has been observed that kids love these kinds of hotels, so if you are a family with kids, this is the hotel to go to.

Cave Hotels: If you thought that tree hotels were as primitive as you go, well here is one more. You live in caves! Now isn’t that going back to the Stone Age! We evolved 10,000 years to come out of caves and now there are hotels that are taking us back. Be ready to shell out quite an amount for this step back. De-Evolution, is costly when talking about hotel rooms.

Cube Hotels: These are really cheap hotels found in Europe and a few other parts of the world. They have limited number of facilities and are best suited for a stay not exceeding a couple of days.

Underwater Hotels: Well, down in the deep blue sea. Underwater sea hotels are rare, but underwater lake hotels are becoming common. Many of the rooms are designed so that you have a peak into the private lives of the fishes.

Apartment Hotels: Apartment hotels provide flexible type of lodging. These are custom built and each fully fitted apartment is different from the other. They provide you accommodation for longer duration and it is like a home away from home. Their prices tend to be cheaper than normal hotel rooms but the services are limited too.

There are many such hotels. The list is endless. Exotic hotels are costly, but if you are ready to shell out, then you can have the time of your life.

And for those number freaks, the tallest hotel is the Burj Al Arab, in Dubai. The largest in terms of capacity is the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and Las Vegas has most of the large hotels that are in the United States of America (USA). The oldest hotels happen to be in Japan. Please note that this record keeps changing; but this will give an idea what you are up against.