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.
One of the hotel directors even gave her a sewing machine, she says, enabling her to make a small income.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
One of Southern California’s premier seaside resorts, the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, has been sold for an estimated $600 million as the top end of the state’s hotel market continues to thrive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
It’s 70 and sunny as I write this from the hotel pool to fight off jet lag before heading to the Vatican.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Northwest of Austin, the Auberge Collection is developing a hotel named Mirasol Springs on the Pedernales River.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
I was seated in the hotel restaurant, just about to sink my teeth into a buttery roasted goose.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
The suspected head of one compound installed at the Live Hotel in the city was a Chinese national who was among those extradited to Beijing.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
For support, Weinstein brandished a photograph of the two of them taken in 1997 during the Oscar party his company Miramax hosted at Beverly Hills’ Peninsula Hotel.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026
A separate check by financial-news outlet Yicai found a luxury suite at Beijing’s Peninsula Hotel listed for 2,915 yuan through Doubao, versus 2,624 yuan on Trip.com and 2,332 yuan quoted directly by the hotel.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026
Hotel rivals have even poked fun at the requests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
Hotel servants fetched water, blankets, and towels, as her chaperone kept a desperately ill Kate alive that night.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
This charge will be an uncapped levy as a percentage of the cost of hotels, bed and breakfasts and other types of accommodation.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
In a good sign, households also spent more discretionary goods such as hotels and restaurants.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
At the Trop, they were around $500, meaning it was cheaper for people to travel to the Tampa Bay area, even when factoring in flights and hotels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
For years, airlines, hotels and ride-share companies such as Uber have done so.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
We took a bus to the ocean where all the skyrise hotels stuck out of the sand like a row of white teeth.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
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