The historical preview.

The accommodation industry in USA.

Basically, there are four major categories of public accommodation employment. These are the hotel. motel, resort, and condo-tel.

Hotels are usually large, multi-storied, multi-service structures located in the central part of a city. Primarily, they cater to the needs of their commercial guests and conventioneers who stay for very short periods of time. In some cities which attract tourists, the hotel is also something of a city-resort spa, and it may offer a prestigious name along with comfortable (and expensive) accommodations to the well-off tourist who wants to "see the town" and be, so to speak, "on top of things." Numerous hotels in San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Chicago, New York, and Miami Beach are of this type.

Motels, on the other hand, are often single-storied, but occasionally two or three storied structures, located in town or at the edge of town, where automobiles may freely park in lots or have assigned spaces for each room. The typical motel keeps its services and costs at a minimum.

Resorts generally help the traveler to "get away from it all" even if located in the central city, as suggested in the paragraph on hotels above. More typically, though, a resort is located in a more serene setting close to the area sought, by the traveler; resorts thus typically appear in the mountains, at the seaside, in the desert, and along scenic rivers and lakes. The services at resorts are usually abundant.

Condo-tels are very new on the American scene and, at this writing, it is not certain that the name will "stick." In years to come, another term might well be used, but for the present, condo-tel suffices. This is a combination apartment house, resort, and hotel-motel operation-all in one. Many of these operations are currently springing up in "Sun Belt" areas such as Phoenix, Arizona and Palm Springs, California.

In addition to the foregoing major categories, there are also numerous specialized hospitality operations such as retirement hotels, marina motels (boatels), convalescent hotels, time-share hotels, capsultels, etc. From the vantage point of work in the hospitality field, you can be in a position to "see the world go by" and find the whole work experience at once refreshing and even exhilarating.