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No one can claim he/she has not stayed in a hotel at least once in life. For those traveling for business, pleasure or for that matter, any other reason, hotels have come to become home away from their homes. Why travelers prefer hotels over motels when all they provide are same? Well, motels by far differ from hotels in their functionality, additional services, and construction. Motels have their room doors opening to exteriors to their driveway while hotel rooms open to interiors.

Apart from other regular guest services that hotels provide, you can also plan your business meetings, conferences or even large conventions in some hotels, which is a far cry at motels. What is more, even the locations of hotels are also conveniently located unlike the traditional motels, which invariably cater to highway travelers who just stay by night.

The word hotel has originated from French, which referred to townhouse before being known universally as it is today.

What Is Star Classification of Hotels

The star classification of hotels indicates the type and quality of service available at any hotel. The enormous explosion of tourism in the last century has necessitated star classification for the benefit of discerning tourist public.

International and national tourism agencies along with respective governments rate and classify hotels on a scale of one to five stars. However, if you thought there is a standards body which classifies all the hotels of this world, here, you are in for a surprise. The attempts by interested industry captains have failed thus far and the standardization has been elusive till date.

What Do Star Ratings Mean

Briefly the ratings mean this:

One star: An inexpensive, low budget hotel which may not have maid or room service. Quite affordable by middle class.

Two star: Marginally expensive and may have once a day maid service.

Three star: A budget hotel which boasts of maid and room service, internet and health club service in addition to having a swimming pool.

Four star: Expensive hotels by even middle class travelers; offers many luxury services in addition to afore mentioned services.

Five star: Stands testimony to final word in luxury and are very expensive anywhere in the world. They offer countless innovative extras. Some of them boast of private airports and golf courses.

If you thought this was all, sample this. There are some unusual hotels too.

' Treehouse hotels
' Underwater hotels
' Cave hotels
' Ice hotels etc

Hotels are not far behind in records making. For example: Burj-al-Arab, Dubai, is the tallest hotel at 321 meters and the honors for being largest hotel goes to Ambassador City Jomtien with 5100 rooms at Pattaya Thailand.