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INTERNATIONAL HOTELS
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a
short-term basis. Hotels often provide a number of additional guest
services such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare. Some hotels
have conference services and meeting rooms and encourage groups to hold
conventions and meetings at their location.
There is no hard and fast rule differentiating motels from other hotels,
although a "Motel" is clearly suggesting that it is aimed at motorists.
This may simply mean that it is a hotel with good access to the road
network (on a motorway or ring road) so that a long car journey need not
be interrupted for long by town-centre traffic. In other cases the
designation is simply an attempt to make the most of a poor location
inconvenient for town-centre services and attractions. Classically,
though, a Motel is a hotel which is made convenient for people who, for
whatever personal reason, wish to be able to have quick access from the
outside world (especially from their parked car) to the hotel room -
without passing the scutiny of a receptionist or fellow guests. This is
usually arranged by having rooms (sometimes in individual chalets or
even trailers) arranged around the car park with room doors opening
directly to the outside rather than to an internal corridors.
In Australia, the word may also refer to a pub or bar. In the UK
similarly, many pubs with "hotel" in their name do not offer
accommodation or even food.
In India, the word may also refer to a restaurant since the best
restaurants were always situated next to a good hotel.
The word hotel derives from the
French hôtel, which referred to a French version of a townhouse or any
other building seeing frequent visitors, not a place offering
accommodation (in contemporary usage, hôtel has the meaning of "hotel",
and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning). The French spelling
(with the circumflex) was once also used in English, but is now rare.
The circumflex replaces the 's' once preceding the 't' in the earlier
hostel spelling, which over time received a new, but closely related
meaning.
Services and facilities
Basic accommodation of a room with only a bed, a cupboard, a small
table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with en-suite
bathrooms and, more commonly in the United States than elsewhere,
climate control. Other features found may be a telephone, an alarm
clock, a TV, and broadband Internet connectivity. Food and drink may be
supplied by a mini-bar (which often includes a small refrigerator)
containing snacks and drinks (to be paid for on departure), and tea and
coffee making facilities (cups, spoons, an electric kettle and sachets
containing instant coffee, tea bags, sugar, and creamer or milk).
Some hotels offer various combinations of meals as part of a room and
board arrangement. These are often advertised as:
European Plan no meals are included, or only a minimal breakfast
American Plan all meals included (full board)
Modified American Plan option of breakfasts and dinners
In the United Kingdom a hotel is required by law to serve food and
drinks to all comers within certain stated hours; to avoid this
requirement it is not uncommon to come across "private hotels" which are
not subject to this requirement.
However, in Japan the capsule hotel supplies minimal facilities and room
space.
Rating
The five categories can be described
(loosely) as follows:
(Economy: one star) — A one-star establishment is expected to offer
clean, no-frills accommodations with minimal on-site facilities for the
budget traveler for whom cost is the primary concern. Guestrooms
generally are small, functionally decorated, and may not have a private
bathroom, in-room telephone, or amenities. On-site dining is usually not
available. Public access and guest reception may not be available at all
hours.
(Value: two stars) — These
limited-service establishments are expected to offer clean, basic
accommodations. These properties may offer some business services but
generally lack meeting rooms, baggage assistance, and full fitness and
recreation facilities. On-site dining is usually limited to coffee or
Continental breakfast service. Guestrooms generally offer private
bathroom, telephone, TV, and limited amenities.
(Quality: three stars) — Three-star
establishments place a greater emphasis on style, comfort, and
personalized service. They generally feature on-site dining room
service, a pool and/or fitness center, a gift shop, and may provide
baggage assistance. Conference rooms for meetings and extended services
for business travelers are usually offered. Guestrooms offer more
extensive amenities and more careful attention to decor and comfort.
(Superior: four stars) — These
upscale establishments usually offer a fine-dining restaurant, lounge,
and room service with extended hours. Service features usually include
baggage assistance, concierge service, and valet parking. A conference
center with up-to-date technology and full business services are usually
offered. Public spaces and guestrooms are thoughtfully designed and
constructed with high-quality materials. Guestrooms generally offer
stylish furnishings, high-quality bedding and bath products, and a wide
array of amenities.
(Exceptional: five stars) — The
finest hotels in the world. Five-star lodging is characterized by luxury
appointments, superlative service, and the highest standards of comfort.
Five-star hotels offer originality in architecture and interior design,
high-grade materials in construction and décor, and such special touches
as fresh flowers and plants in abundance. These properties also maintain
a high staff-to-guest ratio, gourmet dining, and 24-hour room service.
Guestrooms offer ample space, the finest furnishings and decor, premium
bedding, and luxury bath products. Room amenities generally include
high-speed Internet access and CD and/or DVD players. Five-star resorts
may offer additional recreation facilities such as tennis courts and
golf-course access. On-site spa services, a top-notch fitness center,
and a pool are generally available, as well.
Classification
The cost and quality of hotels are
usually indicative of the range and type of services available. Due to
the enormous increase in tourism worldwide during the last decades of
the 20th century, standards, especially those of smaller establishments,
have improved considerably. For the sake of greater comparability,
rating systems have been introduced, with the one to five stars
classification being most common.
Boutique hotels
"Boutique Hotel" is a term
originating in North America to describe intimate, usually luxurious or
quirky hotel environments. Boutique hotels differentiate themselves from
larger chain or branded hotels by providing an exceptional and
personalized level of accommodation, services and facilities.
Boutique hotels are furnished in a themed, stylish and/or aspirational
manner. Although usually considerably smaller than a mainstream hotel
(ranging from 3 to 100 guest rooms) boutique hotels are generally fitted
with telephone and wi-fi Internet connections, honesty bars and often
cable/pay TV. Guest services are attended to by 24 hour hotel staff.
Many boutique hotels have on site dining facilities, and the majority
offer bars and lounges which may also be open to the general public.
Of the total travel market a small percentage are discerning travelers,
who place a high importance on privacy, luxury and service delivery. As
this market is typically corporate travelers, the market segment is
non-seasonal, high-yielding and repeat, and therefore one which boutique
hotel operators target as their primary source of income.
Famous hotels
Some hotels have gained their renown
through tradition, by hosting significant events or persons, such as
Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany, which derives its fame from the
so-called Potsdam Conference of the World War II allies Winston
Churchill, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin in 1945. Other establishments
have given name to a particular meal or beverage, as is the case with
the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, USA, known for its Waldorf Salad
or the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, where the drink Singapore Sling was
invented. Another example is the Hotel Sacher in Vienna Austria, home of
the Sachertorte.
There are also hotels which became much more popular through films like
the Grand Hotel Europe in Saint Petersburg, Russia when James Bond
stayed there in the Blockbuster, Goldeneye. Cannes hotels such as the
Carlton or the Martinez become the center of the world during Cannes
Film Festival (France).
A number of hotels have entered the public consciousness through popular
culture, such as the Ritz Hotel in London, UK ('Putting on The Ritz')
and Hotel Chelsea in New York City, subject of a number of songs and
also the scene of the stabbing of Nancy Spungen (allegedly by her
boyfriend Sid Vicious). Hotels that enter folklore like these two are
also often frequented by celebrities, as is the case both with the Ritz
and the Chelsea. Other famous hotels include the Beverly Hills Hotel,
the Hotel Bel-Air and the Chateau Marmont, in California, Watergate
complex in Washington DC, the Hotel Astoria in Saint Petersburg, Russia,
the Hotel George V and Hôtel Ritz in Paris, Palazzo Versace hotel on the
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Hotel Hermitage and Hotel de Paris in
Monaco (in the French Riviera), Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong and Hotel
Leningradskaya in Moscow.
Unusual hotels
Many hotels can be considered
destinations in themselves, by dint of unusual features of the lodging
and/or its immediate environment:
Treehouse hotels
Some hotels, such as the Costa Rica Tree House in the
Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, or Treetops Hotel in
Aberdare National Park, Kenya, are built with living trees as structural
elements, making them treehouses.
The Ariau Towers near Manaus, Brazil is in the middle of the Amazon, on
the Rio Negro. Bill Gates even invested and had a suite built there with
satellite internet/phone.
Another hotel with treehouse units is Bayram's Tree Houses in Olympos,
Turkey
Cave hotels
A state hotel in Cienfuegos, CubaDesert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy,
South Australia and the Cuevas Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (named after the
author) in Guadix, Spain, as well as several hotels in Cappadocia,
Turkey, are notable for being built into natural cave formations, some
with rooms underground.
Capsule hotels
Capsule hotels are a type of economical hotels that are quite common
in Japan.
Ice hotels
Ice hotels, such as the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, melt every
spring and are rebuilt out of ice and snow each winter.
Snow hotels
The Mammut Snow Hotel in Finland is located within the walls of the
Kemi snow castle, which is the biggest in the world. It includes The
Mammut Snow Hotel, The Castle Courtyard, The Snow Restaurant and a
chapel for weddings, etc. Its furnishings and its decorations, such as
sculptures, are made of snow and ice.
There is snow accommodation also in Lainio Snow Hotel in Lapland (near
Ylläs), Finland.
Garden hotels
Garden hotels, famous for their gardens before they became hotels,
includes Gravetye Manor, the home of William Robinson and Cliveden,
designed by Charles Barry with a rose garden by Geoffrey Jellicoe.
Underwater hotels
As of 2005, the only hotel with an underwater room that can be
reached without Scuba diving is Utter Inn in Lake Mälaren, Sweden. It
only has one room, however, and Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo,
Florida, which requires Scuba diving, is not much bigger.
Hydropolis is an ambitious project to build a luxury hotel in Dubai, UAE,
with 220 suites, all on the bottom of the Persian Gulf, 20 meters (66
feet) below the surface. Its architecture will feature two domes that
break the surface and an underwater train tunnel, all made of
transparent materials such as glass and acrylic.
Other unusual hotels
The Library Hotel in New York City is unique in that its ten floors
are arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System.
The Rogers Centre, formerly SkyDome, in Toronto, Canada is the only
stadium to have a hotel connected to it, with 70 rooms overlooking the
field. West Ham United F.C.in the UK now has a hotel with rooms that
overlook the pitch and sometimes double as executive boxes for important
games.
The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, built on an
artificial island, is structured in the shape of a sail of a boat.
The RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California is the only 1930s ocean
liner still in existence. Its elegant first-class staterooms are now
used as a hotel.
The Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai houses an extremely expensive hotel
with only 20 rooms.
World-record setting hotels
Tallest
The tallest hotel in the world is the Burj al-Arab in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates, at 321 metres, which however will soon be surpassed by
the nearby Rose Rotana Suites at 333 meters (1,091 feet). The Ryugyong
Hotel in Pyongyang was intended to reach 330 meters (1,083 feet), but is
unlikely to be completed; it has been under construction since 1987 and
was abandoned in 1992.
The highest hotel rooms are in the Grand Hyatt in the Jin Mao Building
in Shanghai, the highest floor being at around 350 m.
Largest
The largest hotel in the world is the MGM Grand Las Vegas in Las
Vegas, Nevada, USA with a total of 6,276 rooms[2] as of December 20,
2006. On December 18, 2006 Guinness World Records listed the First World
Hotel in Genting Highlands, Malaysia[6] as the worlds largest hotel. It
has a total of 6,118 rooms and is part of the Genting Highlands Resort
and Casino. The First World Plaza which is joined to the two hotel
towers boasts 500,000 square feet of indoor theme park, shopping centres,
casino gaming areas, and eateries. Previously, Guinness had listed the
MGM Grand Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA with 5,005 rooms as the
largest hotel in the world.[7]
Oldest
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest hotel
still in operation is the Hoshi Ryokan, in Awazu, Japan. It opened in
717, and features hot springs.
Hotel chains
A hotel chain is a collection or grouping of hotels under one
recognizable brand operated by a management company.
Living in hotels
The American billionaire Howard Hughes lived much of his life in
hotels. He moved with his entourage from hotel to hotel and from Beverly
Hills to Boston before deciding to move to Las Vegas and become a casino
baron. Less than a month after his November 27, 1966 arrival, Hughes
made a public offer to buy the Desert Inn. The hotel's 8th floor became
the nerve center of his empire and the 9th floor penthouse became
Hughes's personal residence. Hughes moved to the Bahamas, Vancouver,
London and several other locations — always taking up residence in the
top floor penthouse of the hotel. Between 1966 and 1968, he also
purchased several other hotel-casinos from the Mafia: Castaways, New
Frontier, The Landmark Hotel and Casino, Sands and Silver Slipper.
Coco Chanel made the Hôtel Ritz in Paris her home for more than thirty
years, until the day of her death, at 87, in a suite now named "Coco
Chanel Suite".
King Peter II of Yugoslavia spent much of the Second World War at
Claridge's, a hotel in London. His son, Aleksandar Karađorđević, was
born in the hotel.
Prince Felix Yusupov lived in the Hotel Vendôme in Paris.
Alois Brunner, Austrian Nazi war criminal, is believed to have lived in
the Meridian Hotel in Damascus, Syria, under the name Georg Fischer.
Sultan Said Bin Taimur of Muscat lived at Dorchester Hotel in London
after he was deposed by Qaboos of Oman in 1970, He died in the hotel in
1972.
Eleftherios Venizelos, Greek statesman and diplomat, lived in the Hôtel
Ritz Paris while he was in exile in France from 1935-1936.
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TRAVEL AGENCIES WORLDWIDE
Travel is the transport of people on a trip/journey or the process or
time involved in a person or object moving from one location to another.
Reasons for travel include:
Tourism - travel for recreation. This may apply to the travel itself, or
the travel may just be the necessary investment to arrive at a desired
location.
Visiting friends and family
Trade Commuting - going to various routine activities, such as work or
meetings.
Migration - travel to begin life somewhere else; nomadic people do this
Pilgrimages - travel for religious reasons
The word originates from the Middle
English word travailen ("to toil"), which comes from the French word
travailler ("travail").
A travel agency is a business that
sells travel related products and services, particularly package tours,
to end-user customers on behalf of third party travel suppliers, such as
airlines, hotels, tour companies, and cruise lines. In addition to
dealing with ordinary tourists, most travel agents have a special
department devoted to travel arrangements for business travellers.
Indeed, some agencies specialise in that work. Some agencies also serve
as general service agents for foreign travel companies in different
countries.
Origins
The British company, Cox & Kings is
sometimes said to be the oldest travel agent in the world, but this
rests upon services that the original bank (established in 1758)
supplied to its wealthy clients. However, the modern travel agent first
appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century. Thomas Cook, in
addition to developing the package tour, established a chain of agencies
in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, in association with the
Midland Railway. These not only sold their own tours to the public, but
represented other tour companies. Other British pioneer agencies were
Dean and Dawson, the Polytechnic Touring Association, and the
Co-operative Wholesale Society.
Travel agencies became more common place since the development of
commercial aviation from the 1920s. Originally, the agencies largely
catered to middle-class customers, but the post-war boom in mass-market
package holidays resulted in travel agencies on the main streets of most
British towns, catering for a working class clientèle looking for a
cheap overseas beach holiday.
Operations
As the name implies, their main
function is to act as an agent, that is to say selling travel products
and services on behalf of a supplier. Consequently, unlike other retail
businesses, they do not keep a stock in hand. A package holiday or a
ticket is not purchased from a supplier unless a customer requests that
purchase. The holiday or ticket is supplied to them at a discount. Thus,
the agent's profit is the difference between the supplier's price and
the price at which the product is advertised or sold to the customer.
This profit is called the agency commission, and varies a great deal. In
Britain, 12% would be considered a good commission.
Other commercial operations are undertaken, especially by the larger
chains. These can include the sale of in-house insurance, travel guides
and timetables, car rental, and the services of an on-site bureau de
change dealing in the most popular holiday currencies.
The majority of travel agents have felt the need to protect themselves
and their clients against the possibilities of commercial failure,
either their own or a supplier. They will advertise the fact that they
are bonded (posting a financial bond with an organisation). In the case
of a failure, the customers are guaranteed either an equivalent holiday
to that which they have lost, or (if they prefer) a refund. Many British
agencies (and tour companies too) are bonded with IATA for those who
issue their own tickets, ATOL for those who order tickets in, or ABTA
for those who sell package holidays on behalf of a tour company.
Of course, a travel agent is supposed to offer impartial travel advice
to the customer. This function almost disappeared with the mass-market
package holiday, and some agency chains seemed to develop a 'holiday
supermarket' concept, in which customers chose their holiday from
brochures on racks and then booked it from a counter. However, a variety
of social and economic changes have now contrived to bring this aspect
to the fore once more, particularly the advent of multiple no-frills
airlines.
Types of Agency
There are three different types of agencies: these are Multiples,
Miniples and Independent Agencies. The former comprise a number of
national chains, often owned by international conglomerates (Thomson
Holidays is now a subsidiary of TUI, the German multinational). It is
now quite common for the large mass-market tour companies to purchase a
controlling interest in a chain of travel agencies, in order to control
the distribution of their product. (This is an example of vertical
integration.)
The smaller chains are often based in particular regions or districts.
Independent Agencies usually cater for a special or niche market. Some
cater to the needs of residents in an upmarket commuter town or suburb,
or concentrate upon a particular area or group (catering to the travel
needs of Polish expatriates, perhaps), or an activity (servicing the
needs of football supporters).
Criticisms
Travel agencies have been accused of employing a number of restrictive
practices, the chief of which is known as 'racking'. This is the
practice of only displaying the brochures of those travel companies
whose holidays they wish to sell, the ones that pay them the most
commission. Of course, the average customer tends to think that these
are the only holidays on offer, and are unaware of possible
alternatives.
Generally speaking, small or specialist tour companies do not sell their
product through travel agents, since they could not afford to pay the
rates of commission that would be demanded. There are a few exceptions
to this rule. Independent agents might sell or take bookings for local
tour companies (such as coach companies) or tour companies offering
specialist holidays that fit into their target market.
Consequently, even before the advent of the internet, small niche tour
companies ignored travel agents and sold direct to their customers.
The Internet threat
With the advent of general public access to the internet, many airlines
and other travel companies began to sell directly to passengers. As a
consequence, airlines no longer needed to pay the commissions to travel
agents on each ticket sold. Since 1997, travel agencies gradually became
victims of disintermediation, the reduction in costs caused by removing
layers from the package holiday distribution network.[1][2]
Many travel agencies have developed an internet presence by posting a
website, with detailed travel information. Full travel booking sites are
often complex, and require the assistance of outside travel technology
solutions providers such as Travelocity, Patheo and Open Fares. These
companies use travel service distribution companies who operate Global
Distribution Systems (GDS), such as Sabre Holdings, Amadeus and
Worldspan, to provide up to the minute, detailed data on tens of
thousands of flight, hotel, and car rental vacancies.
Some online travel sites allow visitors to compare hotel and flight
rates with multiple companies for free. They often allow visitors to
sort the travel packages by amenities, price, and or proximity to a city
or landmark.
Travel agents have applied dynamic packaging tools to provide fully
bonded (full financial protection) travel at prices equal to or lower
than a member of the public can book online. As such, the agencies'
financial assets are protected in addition to professional travel agency
advice.
All travel sites that sell hotels online work together with numerous
outside travel agents. Once the travel site sells a hotel, one of the
supplying travel agents is contacted and will try to get a confirmation
for this hotel. Once confirmed or not, the customer is contacted with
the result. This means, that booking a hotel on a travel website will
not get you an instant answer. Only some of the hotels on a travel
website can be confirmed instantly (which is normally marked as such on
each site). As different travel websites work with different suppliers
together, each site has different hotels that it can confirm instantly.
Some examples of such online travel websites that sell hotel rooms are
Expedia, Travelocity, Tripadvisor, Excelloz and Venere.
Careers
With the many people switching to self service internet websites, the
number of available jobs as travel agents is decreasing. Most jobs that
become available are from older travel agents retiring. Counteracting
the decrease in jobs due to internet services is the increase in the
number of people traveling. Since 1995, many travel agents have exited
the industry, and relatively few young people have entered the field due
to less competitive salaries.[3] However, others have abandoned the
"brick and mortar" agency for a home-based business to reduce overheads,
and those who remain have managed to survive by promoting other travel
products such as cruise lines and train excursions, or by promoting
their ability to aggressively research and assemble complex travel
packages on a moment's notice (essentially acting as a very advanced
concierge).
Cargo
A small number of companies work with cargo airlines and ships which are
connected to cargo business.
INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES
American Airlines
Delta Air Lines
United Airlines
Northwest Airlines
Japan Airlines
Lufthansa
All Nippon Airways
Air France
China Southern Airlines
Continental Airlines
Lufthansa
British Airways
Air France
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
American Airlines
Singapore Airlines
Cathay Pacific Airways
Emirates
Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS)
Alitalia
American Airlines
United Airlines
Delta Air Lines
Lufthansa
Northwest Airlines
Air France
British Airways
Continental Airlines
Japan Airlines
Singapore Airlines
FedEx
United Parcel Service
Korean Air Lines
Lufthansa
Singapore Airlines
Cathay Pacific Airways
China Airlines
Air France
EVA Air
Cargolux
American Airlines
FedEx
Lufthansa
Northwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Delta Air Lines
United Air Lines
SkyWest Inc.
Air France-KLM
Continental Airlines
US Airways
Air Canada
SAS Group
United Parcel Service
British Airways
China Southern Airlines
Japan Airlines
Air China
Alitalia Group
All Nippon Airways
Air France-KLM
Lufthansa
Ryanair
British Airways
SAS Group
easyJet
Iberia
TUI Group
Alitalia
Turkish Airlines
Air Berlin
Swiss International Air Lines
bmi
Austrian Airlines Group
Finnair Group
Aer Lingus
Aeroflot
TAP Portugal
Air One
flybe
Czech Airlines
Virgin Atlantic Airways
LOT
Norwegian Air Shuttle
SN Brussels Airlines
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise
Malev
Sterling Airlines
Wizz Air
Croatia Airlines
Cyprus Airways
Icelandair
Adria Airways
JAT Airways
Skyways Express
SkyEurope
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