a commercial establishment offering lodging to travelers and sometimes to permanent residents, and often having restaurants, meeting rooms, stores, etc., that are available to the general public.
a word used in communications to represent the letter H.
Military. Hotel, the NATO name for a class of nuclear-powered Soviet submarines armed with single-warhead ballistic missiles: in service with the Soviet Navy 1959–91.
Hotel, house, inn, tavern refer to establishments for the lodging or entertainment of travelers and others. Hotel is the common word, suggesting a more or less commodious establishment with up-to-date appointments, although this is not necessarily true: the best hotel in the city; a cheap hotel near the docks. The word house is often used in the name of a particular hotel, the connotation being wealth and luxury: the Parker House; the Palmer House. Inn suggests a place of homelike comfort and old-time appearance or ways; it is used for quaint or archaic effect in the names of some public houses and hotels in the U.S.: the Pickwick Inn; the Wayside Inn. A tavern, like the English public house, is a house where liquor is sold for drinking on the premises; until recently it was archaic or dialectal in the U.S., but has been revived to substitute for saloon, which had unfavorable connotations: Taverns are required to close by two o'clock in the morning. The word has also been used in the sense of inn, especially in New England, ever since Colonial days: Wiggins Tavern.
First recorded in 1670–80; from French hôtel, Old French hostel hostel
How does hotel compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
When you're on vacation, one place you can stay for a nightly fee is a hotel. Most hotels provide accommodations for sleeping, with minibars, pools, and ice machines to keep you entertained. While in Australia and New Zealand a hotel can also be a bar or a pub, most English-speakers recognize this word as the equivalent of an inn. Simple hotels give you a bed to sleep in and a bathroom to use, while fancier hotels might have beautiful furnishings, separate sitting rooms, swimming pools, and cafes. In the 1760s, hotel was defined as "an inn of the better sort."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Residents living near to a fire-damaged seaside hotel in Folkestone have been evacuated over safety fears that the intensity of the basement blaze weakened the building's structure, the council has said.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
Thanks to special pricing at a Disney-owned hotel and discounts for using a Disney-branded Visa credit card, Doug Heyden Jr.’s family went to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom for the first time this summer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
Kansas head coach Lance Leipold added that the hospitality was outstanding, while the hotel and practice facility "was a win".
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
The Press Trust of India, the country’s main wire service, cited people saying Xi had “returned to his hotel room to rest,” and video showed him climbing the stairs to his plane unaided.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
“Like Black hair-care products in fancy hotel rooms—my aunt is a hairstylist, and shampoos and conditioners that don’t treat 4C hair are the bane of her existence.”
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Gladys Avyla, a member of Unite Here Local 11, has worked as a cleaner at the W Hotel in Hollywood for the last 14 years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
Out of the front windows was the distinctive facade of the Chelsea Hotel.
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026
The party, held in the Rendezvous Hotel, was hosted by BGC Group, a U.S.-listed brokerage who has seen its fortunes boom since the Iran war upended global energy markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Reform county councillor George Madgwick said about 30 to 40 people gathered outside the Marriott Hotel in Cosham on Tuesday evening, amid false rumours that a group of migrants had arrived by bus.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Imagine if she had appeared at the Grand Hotel in her plain brown governess’s dress and demanded a royal suite charged to Queen Victoria’s account!
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Cheers to hotels that will deliver a professional-grade steamer to your room.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
He noted that Google kept its lead as the “first stop” for respondents when it came to use cases like buying flights and hotels, finding services, searching for vacation ideas, picking restaurants and travel planning.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
Around Britain, regular protests have been staged against housing asylum seekers in hotels and other facilities.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
It’s such a noisy world — so full of crappy music that plays outside all these hotels and places where we stay.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
But this is not one of those not-quite holidays spent in luxurious hotels.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
