Types of Hotels

Hotels are classified according to the hotel size, location, target markets, levels of service, facilities provided, number of rooms, ownership and affiliation, etc.

Luxury Hotels
A luxury hotel promises something all travelers dream of: a lavish break from daily life and a sumptuous journey into an opulent otherworld. Luxury hotels promise the best service in the best settings, from room to restaurant.
At most luxury hotels, travelers should be able to count on several amenities, such as a 24-hour fitness center, round-the-clock room service, or referrals to trusted childcare, pet sitting, dog walking, or personal training personnel. Some hotels even offer butler service, which allows visitors to ‘outsource’ their packing and unpacking.
Many luxury hotel chains provide standardized services across their properties, so guests can expect the same amenities at every one of their locations.

Target Markets Hotels
This type of hotels targets many markets and can be classified according to the markets they attempt to attract their guests. Common type of markets include business, airport, suites, residential, resort, timeshare, casino, convention and conference hotels.
Business Hotels
This type is the largest group of hotel types and primarily caters to business travelers and is usually located in downtown or business districts. Although Business hotels primarily serve business travelers, many tour groups, individual tourists and small conference groups find these hotels attractive. Guest amenities at business hotels may include complimentary newspapers, morning coffee, free local telephone calls, breakfast etc.
Airport Hotels
This type of hotels typically targets business clientele, airline passengers with overnight travel layovers or cancelled flights and airline crews or staff. Some hotels might give free transport between hotel and airport. Some Airport hotels also charge guests by hour instead of normal daily night charges.
Suite Hotels This kind of hotels is the latest trend and the fastest growing segment in the hotel industry. Such hotels have a living room and a separate bedroom. Professionals such as accountants, lawyers, businessmen and executives find suite hotels particularly attractive as they can work and also entertain in an area beside the bedroom.
Extended Stay Hotels
Extended stay hotels are somewhat similar to suite hotels, but usually offer kitchen amenities in the room. This kind of hotels is for longstayers who want to stay more than a week and do not want to spend on hotel facilities.
Serviced Apartments
Serviced Apartment / Residential hotels provide long-term or permanent accommodation for guests. Usually guests make a lease agreement with the hotel for minimum of one month up to a year. Rooms generally include aliving room, bedroom, kitchen, private balcony, washing machine, kitchen utensils etc. Unlike normal hotels Serviced apartments only provide housekeeping service once a week.
Resort Hotels
Resort hotels are usually located in the mountains, on an island, or in some other exotic locations away from the city/city center. These hotels have recreational facilities, scenery, golf, tennis, sailing, skiing, swimming options. Resort hotels provide enjoyable and memorable guest experiences that encourage guests to return to the resort.
Bed and Breakfast / Homestays
These are houses with rooms converted into overnight facilities; this can size up from1 to 10 guest rooms. They are also known as ‘Home Stay’s’. The owner of the B&B usually stays on the premises and is responsible for serving breakfast to guests .
Timeshare / Vacation Rentals
Another new type or segment of hospitality industry is timeshare hotels. These are sometimes referred to as ” Vacation-interval” hotels. Timeshare hotels are where the guests purchase the ownership of accommodations for a specific period.Theseowners may also have the unit rented out by the management company that operates the hotel.
Casino Hotels
Hotels with gambling facilities are called Casino Hotels.Although the food and beverage operations in casino are luxurious their function is secondary to and supportive of casino operations.
Conference and Convention Centers
This type of hotels focuses on meeting and conferences and overnight accommodation for meeting attendees. They also provide video conferencing facilities, audiovisual equipment, business services, flexible seating arrangements, flipcharts, etc. These hotels are mostly located outside the metropolitan areas and have a wide variety of facilities -golf, swimming pools, tennis courts, fitness centers, spas etc.
Hostels
Hostels provide budget-oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, and private rooms may also be available. Hostels are often cheaper for both the operator and occupants; many hostels have long-term residents whom they employ as desk agents or housekeeping staff in exchange for experience or discounted accommodation.
Guest Houses
A guest house (also guesthouse) is a kind of lodging. In some parts of the world (for example, the Caribbean), guest houses are a type of inexpensive hotel-like lodging. In others, it is a private home which has been converted for the exclusive use of guest accommodation. The owner usually lives in an entirely separate area within the property and the guest house may serve as a form of lodging business. This type of accommodation presents some major benefits [1] such as:
• Personalized attention
• Healthy and homemade food
• Quietness
• Inexpensiveness
• Modern design

Boutique Hotels
A boutique hotel is a small hotel which typically has between 10 and 100 rooms in unique settings with upscale accommodations. Many boutique hotels are furnished in a themed, stylish and/or aspirational manner. The popularity of the boutique concept has prompted some multi-national hotel companies to try to capture a market share.
Eco Hotels
Eco hotel is a hotel or accommodation that has made important environmental improvements to its structure in order to minimize its impact on the environment. The basic definition of a hotel is an environmentally responsible lodging that follows the practices of green living. These hotels have to be certified “Green” by an independent third-party or by the state they are located in. Traditionally, these hotels were mostly presented as Eco Lodges because of their location, often in jungles, and their design inspired by the use of traditional building methods applied by skilled local craftsmen in areas, such as Costa Rica and Indonesia.
Ecology is a very strong trend, either a conviction or a fashion, caring for the earth to become an ideal place for many. As a result, eco hotels have become an increasingly popular alternative in the tourism industry, therefore the increase in demand has led to a large range of hotels with planet-friendly options for all requirements.
Today, eco hotels also include properties in less “natural” locations that have invested in improving their “green” credentials.

Hotel Room Types

In hotels the rooms are categorized and priced according to the type of bed, number of occupants, number of beds, decor, specific furnishings or features and nowadays even a special theme available in the room.
Later when assigning the guest room before the arrival of the guest the front desk agent must be aware of guest room characteristics for each room type available in the hotel.
Following room type definitions are common in the hotel industry:
• Single: A room assigned to one person. May have one or more beds.
• Double: A room assigned to two people. May have one or more beds.
• Triple: A room that can accommodate three persons and has been fitted with three twin beds, one double bed and one twin bed or two double beds.
• Quad: A room assigned to four people. May have two or more beds.
• Queen: A room with a queen-sized bed. May be occupied by one or more people.
• King: A room with a king-sized bed. May be occupied by one or more people.
• Twin: A room with two twin beds. May be occupied by one or more people.
• Hollywood Twin Room: A room that can accommodate two persons with two twin beds joined together by a common headboard. Most of the budget hotels tend to provide many of these room settings which cater both couples and parties in two.
• Double-double: A Room with two double (or perhaps queen) beds. They can accommodate two to four persons with two twin, double or queen-size beds.
• Studio: A room with a studio bed- a couch which can be converted into a bed. May also have an additional bed.
• Suite: A parlor or living room connected to one or more bedrooms. (A room with one or more bedrooms and a separate living space.)
• Mini-Suite or junior suite: A single room with a bed and sitting area. Sometimes the sleeping area is in a bedroom separate from the parlor or living room.
• President Suite: The most expensive room provided by a hotel. Usually, only one president suite is available in one single hotel property. Similar to the normal suites, a president suite always has one or more bedrooms and a living space with a strong emphasis on grand in-room decoration, high-quality amenities and supplies, and tailor-made services (e.g. personal butler during the stay).
• Apartments / Room for Extended Stay: This room type can be found in service apartments and hotels which target for long stay guests. Open kitchens, cooking equipment, dryer, washer etc. are usually available in the room. Housekeeping services are only provided once a week or two times a week.
• Connecting rooms: Rooms with individual entrance doors from the outside and a connecting door between. Guests can move between rooms without going through the hallway.
• Studio / Murphy Room: A room that is fitted with a sofa bed or a Murphy bed (i.e. a bed that folds out of a wall or closet) which can be transformed from a bedroom in the night time to a living room in daytime.
• Accessible Room: This room type is mainly designed for disabled guests and it is required by law that hotels must provide a certain number of accessible rooms to avoid discrimination.
• Cabana: Thistypeofroomisalwaysadjoiningtotheswimmingpoolorhavea private pool attached to theroom.
• Adjoining rooms: Rooms with a common wall but no connecting door.
• Adjacent rooms: Rooms close to each other, perhaps across the hall.
• Villa: A special form of accommodation which can be found in some resort hotels. It is a kind of stand-alone house which gives extra privacy and space to hotel guests. A fully equipped villa contains not only bedrooms and a living room but a private swimming pool, Jacuzziandbalcony. It issuitableforcouples, families and large groups.
• Executive-Floored Room: A room located at the ‘executive floor’ which enables convenient access to the executive lounge. Besides, some hotels also provide ‘female executive floors’ with their rooms assigned to female guests only due to safety and security reasons.
• Smoking / Non-Smoking Room: Many hotels provide both smoking and non-smoking rooms for their guests. In order to minimize the effects of secondhand smoke exposure on non-smoking guests.