There were inns throughout the ancient civilized world, strategically placed to accommodate merchants, military personnel, government officials and others whose work forced them to travel. Travelling for pleasure was almost unheard of. During the early Middle Ages, travel was infrequent and unsafe.
About the 12th century travelling again became relatively safe, and inns were established along the main routes to accommodate merchants, religious pilgrims and others. Inn standards rose steadily as local economies improved. By the end of the Middle Ages, there were inns throughout Europe and in the Islamic countries, meant primarily for the use of merchants. The Industrial Revolution stimulated inn building, especially in England, whose inns became a standard for the rest of the world.
The first hotels in North America were Atlantic seaport inns and converted farmhouses along stagecoachroutes. When canals and railroads were built in the 19th century, the wayside inn gave way to larger hotels built along the rights-of-way. As cities grew, new hotels were constructed in the business centers and theater districts. By 1,800 the United States already had the largest hotels in the world, and this trend toward large size continued into the 20th century. The Stevens Hotelin Chicago once boasted of being the largest in the world, with 3,000 rooms. It has since been exceeded in size by the Hotel Russia in Moscow, and hotels with several hundred rooms have become common nearly everywhere.
【大学英语六级阅读试题冲刺倒计时23天】相关文章:
最新
2016-10-18
2016-10-11
2016-10-11
2016-10-08
2016-09-30
2016-09-30