Inns in Russia were the prototypes of modern hotels. As a rule, before the revolution, these were special rooms that could accommodate not only the travelers themselves, but also their servants, horses.
The emergence of the hospitality industry
The need for inns or their prototypes appeared almost at the same time when people had a desire or need to travel. At that moment, demand created supply. Inns appeared in Russia, in Europe - taverns and taverns. All countries and all continents had their counterparts.
Depending on the era, they met different requirements. But at all times they performed the main task - they gave people the opportunity to stay overnight.
The development of hotels since ancient times
Historians managed to establish that the first hotels on planet Earth appeared about two thousand years ago, at the very beginning of our era. These were original analogues of pre-revolutionary inns.
Like many things we use now, they originated in Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. In these states, which at that time were the most developed, they were called hospiteums. They stoppedwe althy merchants who went on distant voyages to establish trade relations with new partners. Wandering artists settled in simpler establishments, who traveled with numbers from city to city, thus earning little money. Both religious pilgrims and minstrels found shelter here. They were mostly wandering people who spent most of their lives on the road.
In Russia, inns appeared much later.
What did ancient inns look like?
For many years, the appearance of hotels has remained virtually unchanged. These were two-story buildings with outbuildings in which horses or other animals used for transportation could be left. On the first floor there was a large and spacious room. In it, the guests rested, ate and talked. The second floor was divided into many rooms where visitors stayed for the night.
In ancient times, hotels, in fact, were centers of cultural life. They could communicate with a variety of people, including famous minds of their time, have a drink and a snack, learn about the events taking place in the surrounding cities and distant countries where travelers came from. It was in the taverns that such entertainments as cockfights and darts were born. It is worth noting that often these were quite dangerous places. They attracted dashing people who sought to profit by robbing a merchant who was returning from a successful deal or who had gone over a we althy man with alcohol.traveller.
Hotels in the Middle Ages and Modern Times
In the Middle Ages, hotels moved to churches. The ministers of the church sought to shelter pilgrims going to holy places. Everything changed only in 1530, when a decree was issued prohibiting the settlement of wandering travelers near churches. It was then that there was a need to revive private hotels.
In different countries, certain requirements were imposed on such institutions. For example, in England, the owners were obliged to provide guests with a friendly atmosphere, comfortable and pleasant conditions, as well as plentiful and tasty food.
It is interesting that hotels in their modern form appeared not in Europe, but in the USA. This happened around the middle of the 19th century. It was then that they began to rent out not just separate rooms with beds, but full-fledged rooms with all amenities in the form of a toilet and a bathroom.
Hotels in Russia
It is believed that in our country the hotel business appeared approximately in the XI-XIII centuries. It was then that inns (hotels) began to appear. First of all, they were popular and in demand among messengers. Postal stations were born in the 15th century. It was possible not only to spend the night on them, but also to wait out bad weather or change horses if the traveler was in a hurry and did not intend to waste time on rest.
In the 18th century, the rapid construction of inns and taverns began throughout Russia. It is noteworthy that they were built according to the nationalsign. For example, "English", "Greek" or "Armenian" courts appeared in Moscow, "Dutch" and "German" courts were widespread in Nizhny Novgorod.
Inns (hotels) in Russia were not just hotels. Active trade was constantly conducted here, shopkeepers came to them, warehouses with a wide variety of goods were formed around. Those inns were outwardly very different from modern hotels. They had gates, towers.
The real boom in the hotel business began in the 20th century with the advent of high-speed transport, which greatly simplified and accelerated movement between cities. At the beginning of the century, there were about four and a half thousand hotels in Russia. And that's not counting taverns and other establishments for a short break.
In the USSR, the impetus for the development of the hotel business was the organization of major all-Union social and political events. They were attended by a huge number of guests from all over the country, representatives of other states. All of them needed to be settled. Moreover, it was necessary to offer both a modest version to the engineer from the factory, and a more comfortable one for representatives of the foreign delegation. It became possible to talk about European service in Russia only after 1993. Russia has moved from a planned economy to a market economy, in these conditions hotels and hotels began to strive to meet European standards.
Number of stars
Today there are both small private hotels and entire chains,having offices in almost all countries of the world. The latter can be recognized as enterprises of the highest level of service. These include the famous Hilton, Marriott or Best Western hotels.
The division of hotels into categories appeared in the UK. From there, this fashion was adopted by all the others. There were hotels with only one star. Here the guest could be offered the most minimal set of services. As a rule, they were located on the outskirts. Two stars were given to slightly larger hotels that had their own restaurants and bars. They were already moving closer to the city center.
Three-star hotels had to meet the basic requirements of service. The list of obligatory services was wider. A four-star hotel was considered a first-class establishment. Travelers could expect top quality service and comfort. As a rule, they had restaurants with cuisines from different nations of the world.
Five-star hotels deserve the highest rating. On their territory, in addition to bars and restaurants, there were supposed to be spa centers and other entertainment. In such hotels, guests are offered the widest range of services - up to a personal butler.
Modern inn
Today, some entrepreneurs prefer to call hotels the old fashioned way. For example, the inn "Grinn" is one of the few country hotels in the Kursk region. This is a comfortable two-story hotel complex, which has a basement and atticfloors. All this gives it a special uniqueness. Nearby - a picturesque landscape area and secure spacious parking.
Although it is located outside the city, it is not far from the regional capital. Just 25 kilometers from Kursk. Moreover, this is one of the holiest places in the region - the town of Svoboda, Zolotukhinsky district. So even today, as in pre-revolutionary Russia, it attracts a large number of pilgrims from all over the country. For seven hundred years, the icon of the Mother of God of Kursk has been located here, which the Orthodox consider miraculous. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad even recognizes it as its main shrine.
The hotel has standard and superior rooms, suites and junior suites, a VIP room and a presidential suite.
"The Captain's Daughter" by Pushkin
Often inns were described in works of Russian literature. After all, these were the centers of social life.
For example, in Alexander Pushkin's famous work "The Captain's Daughter", the first meeting between Grinev and Pugachev takes place in the inn. It plays an important role of some kind of saving place, to which the future disturber of the masses helps the protagonist get into a snowstorm.
It is at the inn that Grinev draws attention to Pugachev's duality. The severity and impregnability that caught his eye during the meeting in the blizzard faded into the background here, the ferocity in the guise of a hero immediately disappeared.
Turgenev's Tale
Russian writer Ivan Turgenev even wrote a story called"Inn". It tells about an inn, which is located at the same distance from two county towns. Cab drivers, convoy men, clerks, merchants constantly stop in it.
In the story "The Inn" Turgenev was one of the first in Russia to draw attention to the fact that a new type of village kulak had developed in society. In the conditions of a serf village, real bigwigs and businessmen appeared who were very similar to Shchedrin's characters - the Razuvaevs and Kolupaevs.
