Historical development of

the hospitality industry

 Hospitality industry first appeared in ancient times.

The concept of hospitality is extremely old; it is
mentioned in writings dating back to Ancient Greece,
ancient Rome and Biblical Times.
The first documentary evidence of the existence of the
hospitality industry is from the era of Ancient Greece
and Ancient Rome.
One of the documents proving the existence of the
hospitality industry in ancient states, is the Code of
Hammurabi, King of Babylon.
In that code, one of the acts mentioned taverns, which
enjoyed a dubious reputation

 Two possible explanations of why ancient times people

felt required to be hospitable: they felt that hospitality to
strangers was necessary to their religious well-being and
in others, they were hospitable only because of their
own superstitious fears.
Hospitality in ancient Greece is understandable that
certain elements of religion were intermingled with the
idea.
Missionaries, priests, and pilgrims formed a very large
part of the travelling public.
Often they were journeying to holy places, perhaps
oracles or temples that had a dominant position in their
religion.
During the Roman era, travelers who were not on the
road for religious reasons were usually on military,
diplomatic or political missions.

 In ancient Greece, there was also a tavern, which plays an

important role in society, as they were an important part of
religious and social life of the society.
To the ancient Greeks, hospitality was a right.
The host was expected to make sure the needs of his guests
were met.
The ancient Greek term xenia, or theoxenia when a god was
involved, expressed this ritualized guest-friendship relation.
In Greek society a person's ability to abide the laws to
hospitality determined nobility and social standing.
In the taverns and even had a place to sleep, but they
were intended for the catering. Trade development implies
the need for travelling overnight, so there were other type
of enterprise - inns.

 The most extensive network of coaching homes had in ancient

Rome.
Construction Romans coaching houses to start creating and
shaping the hospitality industry.
In ancient Persia, travelling was done in large caravans, which
carried elaborate tents for use along the caravan routes.
However, at certain points on these routes, accommodations
known as Khans were constructed.
These were simple structure consisting of four walls that provided
protection not only against natural elements but also against
enemies who attacked under cover of darkness.
In the later years of the Roman Empire, taverns and inns provided
shelter for travelling merchants, actors, and scholars.
Accommodations were still primitive.
Sometimes there were rooms for the people but no stables for the
horses; more often there were stables but no rooms.

 The high spot of that era in terms of hospitality was the

development by the Persians of posthouses along the
caravan routes.
These developed later than the khans and provided
accommodations and nourishment for both soldiers and
couriers.
Marco Polo described the posthouses known as yams as
apartments suitable for a king.
They were located 25 miles apart, perhaps equivalent of
a days ride, and supplied fresh horses for the couriers
carrying messages throughout the land.
By Marco Polos estimate, there were 10,000 such
posthouses in existence at the time of his journey to the
far east.

 In the early Middle Ages the provision of services to

ordinary people engaged in religious institutions. Travelling
made mostly missionaries, priests and pilgrims, so
coaching house became positioned closer to the churches
and temples.
During the Middle Ages, we find once again the
intermingling of religion and hospitality.
A It was considered as the duty of the Christians to offer
hospitality to travelers and pilgrims.
Monasteries functioned as inns, providing accommodations
and food for the weary traveler.
Some monasteries and churches, concerned perhaps with
the invasion of private meditations by the traveling public,
constructed a separate building to accommodate travelers.
These building were known asxenodocheions, a Greek
word meaning inns or resting places.

 Charlemagne during his reign enacted laws setting out the

duty of a Christian to provide a free resting place for a
traveler.
However, in consideration perhaps of the possibility that a
traveler might overstay his welcome, and also the burden or
providing free food for an indefinite period of time, the law
limited the stay of any traveler in any place to three nights.
In England inns were built not for travelers, but rather for
the population to consume alcoholic beverages.
In the Middle Ages the number of coaching houses steadily
increased, but the level of services provided there remained
low.
Guest slept on mattresses s or just on the floor.
Food was also quite meager and monotonous. Most often,
the guests ate that brought with them or bought from the
owner

 In rural areas, inns were not so common.

Most often in the villages was one inn that serves all the
people coming.
Wealthier people at inns were not staying and traveling
in his carriage or on horseback.
Poor people, who makes such trips on their own, such
institutions were not allowed to come in.
All the inns there was a clear differentiation along class
lines.
Wealthy guests had dinner in the dining room or in their
room.
Poor people ate together withthe owner and his family.
They provide a simple food, no frills, for the minimum
price.

 Wealthy people can afford to order anything they wish,

can go to the kitchen and watch the cooking.
Trying to please the wealthy guests, the innkeeper
typically offer him something special from the kitchen, a
dish that is famous in the whole district.
Food prices also varied.
Ancestors gourmet among Europeans were residents of
Italy.
Early bourgeoisie of this country, engaged in trade and
craft, facilitated the formation of cooking art and
development of the hospitality industry.
In 1282 in Florence Italy, the great innkeepers of the
city incorporated an association for the purpose of
turning hospitality into a business.

 Inns became licensed and were permitted to import and

resell wine.
The inns themselves belonged not to the innkeepers but
to the city, and they were operated under three-year
leases, which was sold by auction.
In the year 1290, 86 inns in Florence were members of
the guild.
A Shortly thereafter, the business of hospitality spread
to Rome and other Italian cities.
It is interesting to note that during that period many of
the innkeepers were German rather than Italianpossibly because many of the merchants who were
traveling themselves German and were eager to find
accommodation where they would find their own
language and food they were accustomed to.

 Around the second half of the XIV century. the center of

the famous culinary and hospitality arts moved from
Italy to the French capital - Paris.
Food Industry in France received substantial government
support.
The French kings did not expense was spared on the
delicious food. The French King Charles V personal chef
Guillaume Tireli that in 1375 in a single copy wrote the
first cookbook

 In Italy, a similar book was only 100 years later, in 1470 It

was written by unknown monk and was called "Virtuous
pleasure."
In 1508 in England the first cookbook was published by a
printing press.
In 1571, France had developed the first menu that allows you
to quickly select dish and to know how it is cooked.
The menu is meant for the court of King CharlesIX. It was of
only sporadic.
Currently refined menu appears 100 years later, in the XVII
c., at the court of Louis XIV in the form of "notes" with a la
carte dishes on the palace kitchen.
King served a list of dishes in a single copy
The title of the Evening at King serve hundreds of guests, but
there existed discrimination on social grounds.
Guests are served a variety of different dishes, which, of
course, were different from the royal.

 During this period of 16th to 18th Century considerable

improvement took place, particularly in England, in the
quality or accommodations.
The common mode of transportation used then was
stagecoach. Stagecoaches were forced to make
overnight stops on long journeys.
These called for not only food and rest for the horses but
also food and accommodations for the passengers.
A direct result was the construction of inns or taverns at
suitable locations along the stagecoach routes.
Since the passengers were mainly wealthy people,
accustomed to certain luxuries, the stagecoaches
contributed not only to growth in the number of inns but
also to improvements in their quality.

 The inns or taverns also became popular meeting places

for local nobility, politicians, priests and other.
License for the inns were issued by the local lord or
knight whose territory the inn lay.
The design of the inns was in the form of quadrangle,
with stagecoaches and people entering through a
vaulted gateway.
The yard within the quadrangle was used for many
purposes, such as weddings.
The quadrangular form provided outside was easy to
control and protect.
The various buildings or sections within provided
sleeping accommodations for the travelers, a faculty in
which food and drink was served, and shelter for both
the drivers and the horses.

 Origin and development of hotel business can be divided

into four main stages:
1) to the beginning of the XIX century. - Background to
the hotel industry - the first stage;
2) The beginning of the XIX - early XX centuries. - The
emergence of different companies in the field of hotel
services - the second stage;
3) The beginning of the XX century. - The middle of the
XX century. - Increase in the number of enterprises in
the area of service, improve the quality of services
provided - the third stage;
4) from the middle of the XX century. to the present
time - the formation of the hospitality industry - the
fourth stage.

 The Renaissance through the French Revolution:

During the Renaissance, world travel and international trade
greatly improved the European way of life.
The food preparation system we now call haute cuisine, an
elaborate and refined system of food preparation, had its
roots during this period.
Guilds, or associations of people with similar interests or
professions, were organized.
Cooking guilds established many of the professional
standards and traditions that exist today.
In 1765, a man named Boulanger began serving hot soups
called restaurers (meaning restoratives) for their healthrestoring properties.
He called his caf a restorante, the origin of our modern word
restaurant.

 Colonial North America

As people immigrated to the New World, cities along the
East Coast grew.
As early as 1634, an inn in Boston called Coles offered
food and lodging to travelers.
Very few early-colonial Americans ever traveled or dined
out. Those people who did travel, stayed at inns, often
sleeping together in the same large room and even
sharing a single bed. If travelers arrived after dinner had
been served, they would have to go without.

 The Industrial Revolution:

During the Industrial Revolution, people moved to the
city to find work in the growing number of factories to
earn a better living.
People needed to live close enough to the factory to walk
to work, go home for lunch, and leave again for dinner.
As cities became business hubs, dining and lodging
establishments opened up to serve the needs of workers
and employers.
With the invention of the railroad in 1825, inns, taverns,
and foodservice facilities located near railway stations
began to grow.

 The Twentieth Century:

By the turn of the century, more people were working
and therefore eating out more, especially for lunch.
During World War II in the 1940s, the lodging
industry prospered as people traveled for warrelated reasons.
After World War II, in the 1940s and 1950s, the
quick-service restaurant segment of the industry
grew quickly.
In the 1960s, commercial air travel became popular,
and builders focused on land near airports as the
next new place to situate hotels, motels, and
foodservice facilities.