Portal:Hotels
![]() | Portal maintenance status: (July 2022)
|
The Hotels Portal


A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator, and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a television, and en-suite bathrooms. Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs) to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities.
Hotel operations vary in size, function, complexity, and cost. Most hotels and major hospitality companies have set industry standards to classify hotel types. An upscale full-service hotel facility offers luxury amenities, full-service accommodations, an on-site restaurant, and the highest level of personalized service, such as a concierge, room service, and clothes-ironing staff. Full-service hotels often contain upscale full-service facilities with many full-service accommodations, an on-site full-service restaurant, and a variety of on-site amenities. Boutique hotels are smaller independent, non-branded hotels that often contain upscale facilities. Small to medium-sized hotel establishments offer a limited amount of on-site amenities. Economy hotels are small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer basic accommodations with little to no services. Extended stay hotels are small to medium-sized hotels that offer longer-term full-service accommodations compared to a traditional hotel. (Full article...)
Recognized articles - load new batch
-
Image 1
The Sands Hotel and Casino was a historic hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States, that operated from 1952 to 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, with a prominent 56-foot (17 m) high sign, the Sands was the seventh resort to open on the Strip. During its heyday, it hosted many famous entertainers of the day, most notably the Rat Pack and Jerry Lewis.
The hotel was established in 1952 by Mack Kufferman, who bought the LaRue Restaurant which had opened a year earlier. The hotel was opened on December 15, 1952, as a casino and hotel with 200 rooms. The hotel rooms were divided into four two-story motel wings, each with fifty rooms, and named after famous race tracks. Crime bosses such as Doc Stacher and Meyer Lansky acquired shares in the hotel and attracted Frank Sinatra, who made his performing debut at Sands in October 1953. Sinatra later bought a share in the hotel himself. In 1960, the classic caper film Ocean's 11 was shot at the hotel, and it subsequently attained iconic status, with regular performances by Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr., Red Skelton and others in the hotel's world-renowned Copa Room. (Full article...) -
Image 2
The W New York Union Square is a 270-room, 21-story boutique hotel operated by W Hotels at the northeast corner of Park Avenue South and 17th Street, across from Union Square in Manhattan, New York. Originally known as the Germania Life Insurance Company Building, it was designed by Albert D'Oench and Joseph W. Yost and built in 1911 in the Beaux-Arts style.
The W New York Union Square building was initially the headquarters of the Germania Life Insurance Company. In 1917, when the company became the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, the building was renamed the Guardian Life Insurance Company Building. A four-story annex to the east was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and was completed in 1961. Guardian Life moved its offices out of the building in 1999, and the W New York Union Square opened the following year. (Full article...) -
Image 3
The Millennium Times Square New York (formerly the Hotel Macklowe and the Millennium Broadway) is a hotel at 133 and 145 West 44th Street, between Times Square and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Operated by Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, the hotel has 750 guest units, as well as a conference center with 33 conference rooms. The hotel incorporates a Broadway theater called the Hudson Theatre into its base.
The hotel is composed of two guestroom towers flanking the Hudson Theatre. The original 48-story tower west of the theater was designed by William Derman and Perkins & Will, while the 22-story annex east of the theater was designed by Stonehill & Taylor. The original hotel tower contains a lobby with a passageway connecting two entrances on 44th and 45th Streets. In addition, there is a bar, restaurant, and fitness center in the original tower. The conference center in the lower stories extended into the Hudson Theatre, which in 2017 became a Broadway theater. The 22-story annex is branded as the Millennium Premier New York Times Square. (Full article...) -
Image 4
The Knickerbocker Hotel is a hotel at Times Square, on the southeastern corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Built by John Jacob Astor IV, the hostelry was designed in 1901 and opened in 1906. Its location near the Theater District around Times Square was intended to attract not only residential guests but also theater visitors.
The Knickerbocker Hotel is largely designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Marvin & Davis, with Bruce Price as consultant. Its primary frontages are on Broadway and 42nd Street. These facades are constructed of red brick with terracotta details and a prominent mansard roof. The Knickerbocker Hotel also incorporates an annex on 41st Street, built in 1894 as part of the St. Cloud Hotel, which formerly occupied the site. The 41st Street facade contains a Romanesque Revival design by Philip C. Brown. Inside, the hotel contains 300 rooms, a restaurant, a coffee shop, and a roof bar. The original interior design was devised in 1905 by Trowbridge & Livingston. There are scattered remnants of the original interior design, including an entrance that formerly led from the New York City Subway's Times Square station to the hotel's basement. (Full article...) -
Image 5Hotelito Desconocido (Spanish: [oteˈlito ðeskonoˈsiðo], "Little Unknown Hotel") was a Mexican boutique hotel and ecotourism resort in the municipality of Tomatlán, Jalisco. Formed in 1995 by an Italian architect, Hotelito Desconocido used an architectural style of that combined both rustic and luxurious designs. It was built on an UNESCO-designated natural reserve that was home to a number of endangered bird and turtle species. The hotel won international and domestic awards for its unique architecture and sustainable energy model, and it was a famous getaway spot for international tourists and celebrities. Its construction, however, created tensions with a local group of fishermen that protested against the alleged ecological violations caused by Hotelito Desconocido's construction and expansions.
In 2007, Hotelito Desconocido was acquired by W&G Arquitectos, a company headed by Wendy Dalaithy Amaral Arévalo. She is the wife of Gerardo González Valencia, a former suspected drug lord of Los Cuinis and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, two allied criminal groups based in Jalisco. After years of resistance from the local fishermen, three members of their group went missing in Guadalajara, Jalisco in 2011 after attending an ecological preservation meeting. They had reportedly previously received death threats from the hotel's management and local farmers who were also opposed to their protests. (Full article...) -
Image 6
The Ritz Paris is a hotel in central Paris, overlooking the Place Vendôme in the city's 1st arrondissement. A member of The Leading Hotels of the World marketing group, the Ritz Paris is ranked among the most luxurious hotels in the world.
The hotel was founded in 1898 by the Swiss hotelier César Ritz in collaboration with the French chef Auguste Escoffier. The hotel was constructed behind the façade of an eighteenth-century townhouse. It was among the first hotels in Europe to provide an en suite bathroom, electricity, and a telephone for each room. It quickly established a reputation for luxury and attracted a clientele that included royalty, politicians, writers, film stars, and singers. Several of its suites are named in honour of famous guests of the hotel including Coco Chanel, and the cocktail lounge Bar Hemingway pays tribute to writer Ernest Hemingway. (Full article...) -
Image 7
The Paramount Hotel (formerly the Century-Paramount Hotel) is a hotel in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, the hotel is at 235 West 46th Street, between Eighth Avenue and Broadway. The Paramount Hotel is owned by RFR Realty and contains 597 rooms. The hotel building, designed in a Renaissance style, is a New York City designated landmark.
The hotel is 19 stories tall and is H-shaped in arrangement, with light courts to the west and east. The north and south faces of the hotel contain numerous setbacks. The facade is made of brick, stone, and terracotta; most of the decorative detail is concentrated on the south facade, along 46th Street. The hotel building contains a double-height colonnade at street level, as well as several terraces above each of the setbacks. The building has a double-height hip roof flanked by mansard roofs. The basement contains an event venue named Sony Hall, which has historically been used as a nightclub and theater. The double-height lobby's design dates to a 1990 renovation by Philippe Starck. (Full article...) -
Image 8
The Hôtel d'Alluye is an hôtel particulier in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, France. Built for Florimond Robertet when he was secretary and notary to Louis XII, the residence bears the name of his barony of Alluyes. On Rue Saint-Honoré near Blois Cathedral and the Château de Blois, it is now significantly smaller than it was originally as the north and west wings were destroyed between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.
Built between 1498 (or 1500) and 1508, the hôtel particulier is one of the first examples of Renaissance architecture in Blois. Its façades consist of Gothic, French Renaissance and Italian Renaissance architecture. The Hôtel d'Alluye was owned by the Robertet family from 1508 until 1606 before undergoing frequent changes in ownership; since 2007, it has been divided into ten apartments and a large office. (Full article...) -
Image 9The tower, with the Columbus Circle globe in front
The Trump International Hotel and Tower, originally the Gulf and Western Building, is a high-rise building at 15 Columbus Circle and 1 Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. It was originally designed by Thomas E. Stanley as an office building and completed in 1970 as the headquarters of Gulf and Western Industries. In the mid-1990s, a joint venture composed of the General Electric Pension Fund, Galbreath Company, and developer Donald Trump renovated the building into a hotel and residential tower. The renovation was designed by Philip Johnson and Costas Kondylis.
The Trump International Hotel and Tower is 583 ft (178 m) tall and has contained 44 physical stories since it was built. The building originally had an aluminum-and-marble facade and was surrounded by a public plaza on Broadway and Central Park West. There was a movie theater and shops in the basement as well as a restaurant on the top floor. After the building was renovated, a glass facade was installed. The lower portion of the tower is used as a hotel, while the upper floors house residential condominiums. (Full article...) -
Image 10
The Hyatt Regency Times Square (formerly the Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan) is a hotel at 1605 Broadway, between 48th and 49th Streets, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The hotel is operated by third-party franchisee Highgate.
The 795-room hotel was designed by Alan Lapidus and is 480 feet (150 m) tall with 46 floors. The facade was designed in glass and pink granite, with a 100-foot-tall (30 m) arch facing Broadway. The hotel was designed to comply with city regulations that required deep setbacks at the base, as well as large illuminated signs. In addition to the hotel rooms themselves, the hotel contains ground-story retail space, nine stories of office space, and a 159-space parking garage. The hotel's tenants include the American Management Association, and Learning Tree International; in addition, New York Sports Club was a former tenant. (Full article...) -
Image 11
The Brinks Hotel in Saigon, also known as the Brink Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ), was bombed by the Vietcong on the evening of 24 December 1964, during the Vietnam War. Two Vietcong operatives detonated a car bomb underneath the hotel, which housed United States Army officers. The explosion killed two Americans, an officer and an NCO, and injured approximately 60, including military personnel and Vietnamese civilians.
The Vietcong commanders had planned the venture with two objectives in mind. Firstly, by attacking an American installation in the center of the heavily guarded capital, the Vietcong intended to demonstrate their ability to strike in South Vietnam should the United States decide to launch air raids against North Vietnam. Secondly, the bombing would demonstrate to the South Vietnamese that the Americans were vulnerable and could not be relied upon for protection. (Full article...) -
Image 12
The Ritz London is a 5-star luxury hotel at 150 Piccadilly in London, England. A symbol of high society and luxury, the hotel is one of the world's most prestigious and best known. The Ritz has become so associated with luxury and elegance that the word "ritzy" has entered the English language to denote something that is ostentatiously stylish, fancy, or fashionable.
The hotel was opened by Swiss hotelier César Ritz in 1906, eight years after he established the Hôtel Ritz Paris. It began to gain popularity towards the end of World War I, with politicians, socialites, writers and actors in particular. David Lloyd George held a number of secret meetings at the Ritz during the latter half of the war, and it was at the Ritz that he made the decision to intervene on behalf of Greece against the Ottoman Empire. Noël Coward was a notable diner at the Ritz in the 1920s and 1930s. (Full article...) -
Image 13The Briarcliff Lodge was a luxury resort in the village of Briarcliff Manor, New York. It was a notable example of Tudor Revival architecture, and was one of the largest wooden structures in the United States. It was also the first hotel in Westchester County. Walter William Law had it built on his estate, and the Law family owned it until 1937. When the lodge opened in 1902, it was one of the largest resort hotels in the world. The lodge hosted presidents, royalty, and celebrities, and was the scene of numerous memorable occasions for visitors and local residents who attended weddings, receptions, and dances in the ballroom and dining room. For a long time, the lodge was situated among other businesses of Walter Law, including the Briarcliff Farms and Briarcliff Table Water Company.
In 1933, the lodge ended year-round service and housed a "health-diet sanitarium" until the Edgewood Park School for Girls began operation there from 1937 to 1954. From 1936 to 1939, the lodge was run again as a hotel in the summer months while the school was closed. From 1955 to 1994, The King's College used the lodge building and built dormitories and academic buildings. Abandoned and unmaintained after 1994, the Briarcliff Lodge was destroyed between 2003 and 2004. (Full article...) -
Image 14
The George Hotel, Crawley
The George Hotel, also known as the George Inn and now marketed as the Ramada Crawley Gatwick, is a hotel and former coaching inn on the High Street in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. The George was one of the country's most famous and successful coaching inns, and the most important in Sussex, because of its location halfway between the capital city, London, and the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton. Cited as "Crawley's most celebrated building", it has Grade II* listed status.
It is known that a building called the George has existed on the site since the 16th century or earlier, and many sources date the core of the existing inn to 1615. The George Hotel has three principal sections, facing east and running from south to north parallel with Crawley High Street. Nothing of the exterior is original, except perhaps for parts of the tiled roof. The hotel contains 84 rooms and 6 meeting rooms with a capacity of up to 150, regularly used for conferences, weddings, exhibitions, seminars and training sessions. The present structure is made up of disparate parts of various dates: the inn expanded to take in adjacent buildings as its success grew in the 18th and 19th centuries. Major changes took place in the 1930s, and the annex was knocked down in 1933. (Full article...) -
Image 15
The Manila Hotel is a 550-room, historic five-star hotel located along Manila Bay in Manila, Philippines. The hotel is the oldest premiere hotel in the Philippines built in 1909 to rival Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines. It was opened on the commemoration of American Independence on July 4, 1912. The hotel complex was built on a reclaimed area of 35,000 square metres (380,000 sq ft) at the northwestern end of Rizal Park along Bonifacio Drive in Ermita. Its penthouse served as the residence of General Douglas MacArthur during his tenure as the Military Advisor of the Philippine Commonwealth from 1935 to 1941.
The hotel used to host the offices of several foreign news organizations, including The New York Times. It has hosted world leaders and celebrities, including authors Ernest Hemingway and James A. Michener; actors Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and John Wayne; publisher Henry Luce; entertainers Sammy Davis Jr., Michael Jackson and The Beatles; Charles, Prince of Wales (now King Charles III); and U.S. President Bill Clinton. (Full article...)
General images - show new batch
-
Image 1The Waldorf Astoria New York, the most expensive hotel ever sold, cost US$1.95 billion in 2014. (from Hotel)
-
Image 3The Boody House Hotel in Toledo, Ohio (from Hotel)
-
Image 5Motels frequently have large pools, such as the Thunderbird Motel on the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon (1973). (from Motel)
-
Image 9Ithaa, the first undersea restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island resort (from Hotel)
-
Image 11Dutchmaid Motel, 10 miles north of Lancaster, Pennsylvania (from Motel)
-
Image 14The 4 Seasons Motel sign in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin is an excellent example of googie architecture. (from Motel)
-
Image 15The Star Lite Motel in Dilworth, Minnesota is a typical American 1950s L-shaped motel. (from Motel)
-
Image 16The Peninsula New York hotel, located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan (from Hotel)
-
Image 17Sign on Chicago motel (from Motel)
-
Image 18On top of the cliff, the Riosol Hotel in Mogán (from Hotel)
-
Image 19Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden (from Hotel)
-
Image 21Abandoned Grand West Courts in Chicago, demolished in September 2013 (from Motel)
-
Image 23Wigwam Motel No. 6, a unique motel/motor court on historic Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona (from Motel)
-
Image 24An apartment hotel in Hammond, Indiana (from Apartment hotel)
-
Image 26Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island from Jumeirah Beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge (from Hotel)
-
Image 30The Harrison Hotel, an SRO hotel in Oakland, California. (from Apartment hotel)
-
Image 33Tremont House in Boston, United States, a luxury hotel, the first to provide indoor plumbing (from Hotel)
-
Image 35A typical hotel room with a bed, desk, and television (from Hotel)
In the news
- 29 April 2025 – 2025 Liaoning Liaoyang Hotel Fire
- Twenty-two people are killed and three others are injured after a fire breaks out in a restaurant in Liaoyang, Liaoning, China. (CNA)
- 29 April 2025 –
- Fifteen people are killed, including two children, and thirteen others are injured in a fire at a hotel in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. (Business Standard) (The Telegraph)
Selected articles - load new batch
-
Image 1The General Walker Hotel was a hotel for US troops after World War II in the mountain (Alpine) retreat of Obersalzberg, Germany. The former Pension Moritz boarding house, boasting opulent accommodations and sweeping views of the Bavarian countryside and Alpine scenery, had been opened in 1878 and renamed Platterhof in 1928. After the Nazi seizure of power, it became a "people's" hostel for visitors to the extended containment area around Hitler's headquarters at the nearby Berghof residence. It was subsequently rebuilt into a luxury hotel for visiting dignitaries and in 1943 was converted into a military hospital.
Following World War II, the damaged building was restored as a United States Armed Forces Recreation Center (AFRC), and again renamed after US Army General Walton Walker (1889–1950), killed in action in the Korean War. The complex was demolished in 2001. (Full article...) -
Image 2
The JW Marriott Marquis Dubai Hotel is the 87th tallest hotel, a 72-storey, 355 m (1,165 ft) twin-tower skyscraper complex in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The AED1.8 billion complex features a 1,608-room hotel run by Marriott International. (Full article...) -
Image 3The Traymore Hotel, c. 1930. The Madison Hotel, which remains standing, is visible to the left.
The Traymore Hotel was a resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Begun as a small boarding house in 1879, the hotel expanded and became one of the city's premier resorts. As Atlantic City began to decline in its popularity as a resort town, during the 1950s and 1960s, the Traymore diminished in popularity. By the early 1970s the hotel was abandoned and severely run down. It was imploded and demolished between April and May 1972, a full four years before the New Jersey Legislature passed the referendum that legalized gambling in Atlantic City. (Full article...) -
Image 4
The Midland Grand Hotel was the result of an architectural design competition. The winning design was a grandiose gothic revival style by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
Hotel design involves the planning, drafting, design and development of hotels. The concept of hotel design is rooted in traditions of hospitality to travellers dating back to ancient times, and the development of many diverse types of hotels has occurred in many cultures. For example, the advent of rail travel in the early 1900s led to the planning, design and development of hotels near railroad stations that catered to rail travelers. Hotels around Grand Central Terminal in New York City are an example of this phenomenon. Hotel interior design and styles are very diverse, with numerous variations existent. (Full article...) -
Image 5Hotel Hell is an American reality television series created, hosted and narrated by Gordon Ramsay, which ran on the Fox network for three seasons from 2012 to 2016. It aired on Monday nights at 8 pm ET/PT. It was Ramsay's fourth series for the Fox network.
The series features Ramsay visiting various struggling lodging establishments throughout the United States in an attempt to reverse their misfortunes, following a similar concept established in Ramsay's other programs Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and its American counterpart Kitchen Nightmares. (Full article...) -
Image 6
Tschirky in 1885
Oscar Tschirky (1866 – November 6, 1950) was a Swiss-American restaurateur who was maître d'hôtel of Delmonico's Restaurant and subsequently the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, New York, United States. He was widely known as "Oscar of the Waldorf" and published a large cookbook. (Full article...) -
Image 7
Hotels.com, L.P. is a global website for booking hotel rooms online and by telephone. The company has 85 websites in 34 languages, and lists over 325,000 hotels in approximately 19,000 locations. Its inventory includes hotels and B&Bs, and some condos and other types of commercial lodging. Hotels.com was established in 1991 as the Hotel Reservations Network (HRN). In 2001, it became part of Expedia, Inc. and in 2002, changed its name to Hotels.com. The company is operated by Hotels.com LP, a limited partnership subsidiary located in Dallas, Texas, in the United States. (Full article...) -
Image 8
La Mamounia (French: [la mamunja]; Arabic: مامونية) is a five-star hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco, opposite the Kutubiyya Mosque. Widely regarded as one of the best hotels globally, La Mamounia has been named the best hotel in the world by Condé Nast Traveler. It is marketed by The Leading Hotels of the World. "Mamounia" means "safe haven" or "reservoir" in the Arabic language.
The hotel has 135 rooms (with each room covering 30 to 45 square meters), 71 suites (with each suite covering 55 to 212 square meters), and 3 riads (with each covering 700 square meters) for rent.
Notable guests have included politicians such as Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan, and Helmut Kohl; entertainment industry stars include Kirk Douglas, Paul McCartney, Charlie Chaplin, and Omar Sharif; athletes such as Zinedine Zidane; fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper and artist Andy Warhol. (Full article...) -
Image 9
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an American international hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean, in addition to 84 hotels with 23,092 rooms in the pipeline. (Full article...) -
Image 10
The Grand Rapids Hotel also known as The Grand Rapids Resort, was a hotel that existed outside of Mount Carmel, Illinois, in Wabash County, Illinois, United States in Southern Illinois from 1922 to 1929. The hotel was located on the Wabash River next to the Grand Rapids Dam on land that was originally purchased by Thomas S. Hinde. Before the hotel was built, the property where the hotel was located was a site of a former homestead, and was used by Frederick Hinde Zimmerman for multiple small shops that sold goods to fisherman and tourists.
Frederick Hinde Zimmerman was the founder and owner of the hotel, and he completed construction and opened the hotel to the public on August 7, 1922. The hotel had 36 rooms and one large assembly room that served as a dining room, meeting hall, and was used for weddings, exhibitions, anniversaries, and other important occasions. The hotel was one of the first major resorts on the southern portion of the Wabash River and quickly was able to attract tourist from across the country because of its location on the river and ease of access provided by the railroad. During its nine-year existence the hotel established a reputation for luxury and high quality.
In later years, after manager Glenn Goodart took over operation of the hotel, it gradually began to lose patronage due to incompetent business planning and flooding of the Wabash River in the summers of 1927, 1928, and 1929. On July 29, 1929, Glenn Goodart burned the Grand Rapids Hotel to the ground by dropping a blowtorch in the basement shop. Three months before Goodart burned the hotel down, the United States Senate Committee on Commerce had decided to remove the Grand Rapids Dam by revoking funding. Due to the onset of the Great Depression shortly after the hotel was burned down, it was not rebuilt. The same year Goodart burned the hotel down he was elected as Finance Commissioner for Wabash County, Illinois. (Full article...) -
Image 11
Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan (Japanese: 西山温泉慶雲館, lit. 'Keiun-era Nishiyama Hot Spring') is an onsen ryokan (Japanese hot spring inn) in Yamanashi Prefecture. Founded in 705 by Fujiwara no Mahito, it is a prime example of shinise ("long-established business") and perhaps the oldest independent company in operation following the acquisition of construction company Kongō Gumi in 2006.
In 2011, the Keiunkan was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest hotel in the world despite the hotel facilities on site being only a few decades old. (Full article...) -
Image 12
The Old Cataract Aswan Hotel, commonly known as the Old Cataract Hotel, is a historic British colonial-era hotel located on the banks of the River Nile in Aswan, Egypt. It was built in 1899 by Thomas Cook and opened under the name Cataract Hotel. In 1961 the hotel was expanded with the addition of a new tower wing, operating as the budget wing of the hotel. From 2008 to 2011 the hotel was closed and underwent a complete restoration, reopening in October 2011 as the Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Aswan Hotel. (Full article...) -
Image 13
The Hotel Carter is a defunct hotel at 250 West 43rd Street, near Times Square, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in June 1930 as the Dixie Hotel, the 25-story structure originally extended from 43rd Street to 42nd Street, although the wing abutting 42nd Street has since been demolished. The hotel originally contained a bus terminal at its ground level, which was closed in 1957, as well as a bar and restaurant immediately above it. The upper stories originally contained 1,000 rooms but were later downsized to 700 rooms.
The hotel was developed by the Uris Buildings Corporation, which announced plans for the site in September 1928. The Bowery Savings Bank foreclosed on the hotel in 1931 and acquired it in March 1932, operating it for the next decade. In 1942, the Dixie became part of the Carter Hotels chain, which rehabilitated the hotel several times. The hotel was renamed the Carter in October 1976 in an attempt to rehabilitate its image. The businessman Tran Dinh Truong operated the Carter from 1977 until his death in 2012, after which GF Management took over. The Carter closed in 2014 and was sold to Joseph Chetrit, who planned to renovate the hotel as of 2022[update].
While it was operating, the Hotel Carter gained a negative reputation due to the crimes that took place there, as well as its general uncleanliness. At least four murders have occurred in the hotel. In addition, the Hotel Carter was cited as being among America's dirtiest hotels for several years in the late 2000s and early 2010s. (Full article...) -
Image 14
John Willard Marriott Sr. (September 17, 1900 – August 13, 1985) was an American entrepreneur and businessman. He was the founder of the Marriott Corporation (which became Marriott International in 1993), the parent company of the world's largest hospitality, hotel chains, and food services companies. The Marriott company rose from a small root beer stand in Washington, D.C., in 1927 to a chain of family restaurants by 1932, to its first motel in 1957. By the time he died in 1985, the Marriott company operated 1,400 restaurants and 143 hotels and resorts worldwide, including two theme parks, earned US$4.5 billion in revenue annually with 154,600 employees. The company's interests also extended to a line of cruise ships. (Full article...) -
Image 15
Waldorf-Astoria Dance Orchestra in 1924. Will Rogers (standing right), Art Gillham, Wendell Hall, Carson Robison, the Eveready Quartet, Graham McNamee.
The Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra was an orchestra that played primarily at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, both the old and new locations. In addition to providing dinner music at the famous hotel, the orchestra made over 300 recordings and many radio broadcasts. It was established in the 1890s, and was directed by Carlo Curti in early 1900s, Joseph Knecht at least from 1908 to 1925, later by Jack Denny and others, and then Xavier Cugat from approximately 1933 to 1949.
Denny and the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra appeared in the movie Moonlight and Pretzels in 1933. Both Denny and Cugat had their own orchestras when they began playing at the Waldorf-Astoria, so the term "Waldorf-Astoria orchestras" might be an appropriate description. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated)

- ... that a staff member at the Carlyle Hotel once lent his own bow tie to Laurence Olivier?
- ... that the Royal Manhattan Hotel, sold for $10 million in 1969, attracted no buyers when it was placed for sale at $1.8 million just six years later?
- ... that the Hotel Normandie supported the Leaders of the World?
- ... that several murals from New York City's Hotel McAlpin were reinstalled in the subway after being found in a dumpster?
- ... that in 1945 the US Army confiscated the Hotel Rose in Wiesbaden, which is now the Hessian State Chancellery?
- ... that in the 1970s, the Shelton Hotel avoided demolition after seven elderly residents and a secretary refused to move out?
- ... that former US president Theodore Roosevelt was shot in front of the Gilpatrick Hotel in 1912?
- ... that when the former Clarence Hotel in Brighton began to collapse in 1990, the resulting closure of North Street diverted 120 buses per hour in each direction for a week?
Related portals
WikiProjects
List articles

- Historic Hotels of America
- List of largest hotels
- List of largest hotels in Europe
- List of tallest hotels
- List of casino hotels
- List of chained-brand hotels
- List of defunct hotel chains
- List of hotels in the Caribbean
- List of caravanserais
- Lists of hotels
- List of motels
- Lists of hotels by country (category page)
- Lists of hotels by city (category page)
Topics
|
|
Categories
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
More portals
- Pages with Spanish IPA
- Pages with French IPA
- All manually maintained portal pages
- Portals with triaged subpages from July 2022
- All portals with triaged subpages
- Portals with named maintainer
- Automated article-slideshow portals with 41–50 articles in article list
- Automated article-slideshow portals with 201–500 articles in article list
- Portals needing placement of incoming links