You got the question wrong, it's "What came first, the egg or the chicken?" Really. More likely, the question should be, what was the first Inn or "tavern" to include a hotel room?
And the answer -- dating back from Bible times -- is probably lost to history.
(We do have a time frame, if you consider the Bible a fairly accurate recorder of history. Christians, and those familiar with the life of Jesus and the Christmas story, know the story of how Jesus was born in a manger because Mary and Joseph were traveling to Bethlehem at the time of his birth, and there was no room at the inn. It is the first mention in the Bible of an inn as a lodging place and by then, they were commonplace enough that people who read the Gospel of Luke would know what one was: Jesus tells the story of The Good Samaritan [Bible Gateway passage: Luke 10:25-37 - Lexham English Bible] - who is the first known customer to have a direct bill account [Bible Gateway passage: Luke 10:35 - Lexham English Bible ]. Sometime around 920 to 930 B. C., king Jeroboam invited a traveling prophet to stay at his home, as did another prophet on the way back [Bible Gateway passage: 1 Kings 13 - Lexham English Bible ] Prior to this - Lot and the visitors to Sodom, a traveler through the area of the tribe of Benjamin in the book of Judges - every instance you see of a traveler lodging somewhere for the night was either by invitation in a private home [sometimes that of a total stranger], or in a town square. So, it was in the near-millennium, between 930 B. C. and 4 B. C., that the inn as a commercial lodging establishment developed . . .)
But that's how hotels started: as restaurants or taverns, as "inns" whose primary business was serving meals and beverages to their guests; not as hotels. (Even today, the term "inn" can describe either a tavern that might serve food [e.g. the Dew Drop Inn], a restaurant that serves beer [e.g. Pizza Inn], or a limited/select service hotel [e.g., Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, Days Inn]) They offered food and drink to guests for a price and served as a gathering place for the local village or town people, much as a neighborhood restaurant or bar would today. People traveling through town, or visitors to town, were natural customers for such an establishment: they'd want a meal right away, without taking time to find a campsite and build a campfire and cook something; and they might be invited to stay at the home of a local patron of the establishment overnight if needed.
It would be a matter of time until one enterprising "inn" owner noticed that particular phenomenon and set aside one or more extra rooms with beds and washbasins to put people up overnight, if needed, for a fee. (You still see such an establishment, presided over by Miss Kitty, on Gunsmoke reruns. Go to some of these scroungy older motels in the Poconos, especially right around Stroudsburg, that run out of a bar - really, where they have maybe twelve rooms and the bartender checks you in -- and you can see them in real life.)
Initially, a night's lodging meant you shared a common hall with however other guests. Over time, this gave way to semi-private shared rooms, then private rooms with shared comman baths down the hall, then private rooms with private baths.
I'm sure that from time to time, there were boardinghouses in some towns where the old lady who ran the house -- unlike Forrest Gump's "Mama" -- didn't provide dinner with a night's lodging, but I don't think separation of hotels from food and beverage really began until the day of the roadside motel in the thirties.
"Limited service" hotels - where the only food was a complimentary continental breakfast - are pretty much an '80's invention.
Originally appeared on Quora
And the answer -- dating back from Bible times -- is probably lost to history.
(We do have a time frame, if you consider the Bible a fairly accurate recorder of history. Christians, and those familiar with the life of Jesus and the Christmas story, know the story of how Jesus was born in a manger because Mary and Joseph were traveling to Bethlehem at the time of his birth, and there was no room at the inn. It is the first mention in the Bible of an inn as a lodging place and by then, they were commonplace enough that people who read the Gospel of Luke would know what one was: Jesus tells the story of The Good Samaritan [Bible Gateway passage: Luke 10:25-37 - Lexham English Bible] - who is the first known customer to have a direct bill account [Bible Gateway passage: Luke 10:35 - Lexham English Bible ]. Sometime around 920 to 930 B. C., king Jeroboam invited a traveling prophet to stay at his home, as did another prophet on the way back [Bible Gateway passage: 1 Kings 13 - Lexham English Bible ] Prior to this - Lot and the visitors to Sodom, a traveler through the area of the tribe of Benjamin in the book of Judges - every instance you see of a traveler lodging somewhere for the night was either by invitation in a private home [sometimes that of a total stranger], or in a town square. So, it was in the near-millennium, between 930 B. C. and 4 B. C., that the inn as a commercial lodging establishment developed . . .)
But that's how hotels started: as restaurants or taverns, as "inns" whose primary business was serving meals and beverages to their guests; not as hotels. (Even today, the term "inn" can describe either a tavern that might serve food [e.g. the Dew Drop Inn], a restaurant that serves beer [e.g. Pizza Inn], or a limited/select service hotel [e.g., Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, Days Inn]) They offered food and drink to guests for a price and served as a gathering place for the local village or town people, much as a neighborhood restaurant or bar would today. People traveling through town, or visitors to town, were natural customers for such an establishment: they'd want a meal right away, without taking time to find a campsite and build a campfire and cook something; and they might be invited to stay at the home of a local patron of the establishment overnight if needed.
It would be a matter of time until one enterprising "inn" owner noticed that particular phenomenon and set aside one or more extra rooms with beds and washbasins to put people up overnight, if needed, for a fee. (You still see such an establishment, presided over by Miss Kitty, on Gunsmoke reruns. Go to some of these scroungy older motels in the Poconos, especially right around Stroudsburg, that run out of a bar - really, where they have maybe twelve rooms and the bartender checks you in -- and you can see them in real life.)
Initially, a night's lodging meant you shared a common hall with however other guests. Over time, this gave way to semi-private shared rooms, then private rooms with shared comman baths down the hall, then private rooms with private baths.
I'm sure that from time to time, there were boardinghouses in some towns where the old lady who ran the house -- unlike Forrest Gump's "Mama" -- didn't provide dinner with a night's lodging, but I don't think separation of hotels from food and beverage really began until the day of the roadside motel in the thirties.
"Limited service" hotels - where the only food was a complimentary continental breakfast - are pretty much an '80's invention.
Originally appeared on Quora
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