What is the difference between a hotel and a motel?

Years ago -- decades, in fact -- some state tourism office down in Florida offered a prize, somewhere in the mid five figures, to anyone who could come up with an answer to that question that would be authoritative enough to generate agreement by all as to a proper definition, and thus written into law whenever a legal distinction had to be made or acknowledged.

The prize remains unclaimed to this day*.

The closest anyone has ever come to a definition that has met with some agreement, is based upon the means of access to the rooms: Hotels - with some exceptions - have interior corridors, and you leave your car in a parking lot, enter through a main lobby, maybe take an elevator, and walk down an interior hallway to your room. Motels (the term 'motel' originated as a portmanteau word for 'motor hotel') have exterior corridors: you can park directly in front of your room (quite often, if you're on the ground floor, you can park directly in front of your door).

Usually.

If a hotel closes, gets sold, but is overtaken by squatters before the new owner has started business, what is the protocol for getting them out?

If I make an offer on a hotel, and it has been closed, I'm going to require that it be delivered at closing completely vacant; and if they cannot or will not deliver that, or the building is occupied by anyone other than people who are there for a reason that I am okay with, the deal's off. I’m also going to demand as part of the deal that it be — other than that which I might agree to in advance — unencumbered by franchise, unencumbered by management, unencumbered by any tenancy or leasehold interest, unencumbered period — free of any liens, free of any claims, nothing to get in the way of my absolute say in who’s allowed to be there, who’s allowed to set foot on the property and who isn’t; or how it is to be managed or what I can or can’t do with it, or who has the right to claim any of my return, revenue or rent from the use of it.

Former Heart of Durham Hotel, Durham, N. C. (Indyweek)

If squatters have so overrun the building that they've, legally, established "residency”, then running them out of there -- if they can be driven away -- is the seller's problem. Or should be. If he's not fully in possession of it, then he can't really claim that he owns it, and therefore has no right to try and sell it to anyone. And your wisdom, intelligence, and business sense is somewhat open to question if you buy it.

What would you do with an historic hotel built in the 1920s that was condemned and is now being given a new life as a boutique hotel?

Bring a large budget and a crowbar. And leave both of them locked up securely in the trunk of the car until you've checked out the neighborhood very thoroughly. 

(Of course, if in checking out the neighborhood, you think you might need to get to that crowbar in a hurry, I'd pass on that hotel. We'll get to that part.)

I love old hotels and old theatres (So much history yet to make... | You don't see this anymore... | Old theatres (Rockin' the Paradise . . .) and I've barely started on those Pinterest boards . . .  ), particularly those having some, at least local, historic significance. (The brand new Microtel on the next exit will be old in about 70 years, but not necessarily historic - 'cheap old' doesn't get it. The life expectancy of any building - like that of a person, and not entirely coincidentally - is seventy-something years. Yes, there are a lot of 80- or 100- or 200-year-old buildings out there, but in order to make that average work the way it does, there have to be an equal number that didn't make it past 40, or 50, or 60 . . .). 

But while a project like this can be rewarding in terms of more than just financial return, you want to be careful with your emotions on something this delicate and potentially tricky . . .

Here are some things you should know before you even begin.

What was the first hotel with a restaurant inside?

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 . . .)

Is the Tipton Hotel real, and where is it located?

That magical hotel in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody on the Disney Channel, that has a candy counter but doesn't have a front desk? 



(Except in a single episode, when the high-strung, video game-addicted general manager needed a surface about that height to be seen playing a computer video game on. So the set designers built one out of plywood with a coat of stain, even though it's supposed to be a luxury hotel? Well . . .  it's a comedy. And a relief from Hannah Montana if, back in the day, you had pre-teenage girls around who had to be be allowed to watch that every time it came on.)

No. This hotel obviously existed only so that two or three kids could live in it and experience adventures in it that can keep a TV series directed at kids stimulating, and for no other reason. Any place that unreal and mythical, any environment that artificial, needs to be shot on an closed set.

Notwithstanding the Boston location of the hotel in the story, they used the Fairmont Vancouver for the exteriors.

Originally appeared on Quora

What does "soft brand" mean in the hotel industry?

A soft brand is a 'chain' or franchise organization affiliation that has a hotel relying primarily on its individual identity rather than that of the 'chain' or organization. The hotel gets to tap into the 'chain's' reservation system, but the formal connection is a little more subtle and discreet.

Perhaps the most famous 'soft brand' - through much of its history, anyway, even if many of their member hotels are not doing a very good job of taking advantage of it nowadays - is Best Western. At one time, they encouraged their member hotels to develop their unique brand identity, with Best Western as part of that identity, rather than operate a "Best Western Inn and Suites", or "Best Western of Podunk" and people I've talked to at Best Western now tell me they're about to try and swing back toward that.