Following are the classification of hotels by types:
Table of Content
Target Markets
Hotels target many markets and can be classified according to the markets they attempt to attract their guests. A common type of market includes business, airport, suites, residential, resort, timeshare, casino, convention and conference hotels.
- Business Hotels
- Airport Hotels
- Suite Hotels
- Extended Stay Hotel
- Apartment Hotels
- Resort Hotels
- Bed and Breakfast Hotels
- Timeshare and condominium Hotels
- Casino Hotels
- Conference Centres
- Convention Centres
Business Hotels
These hotels are the largest group of hotel types and cater primarily to business travellers and usually located in downtown or business districts. Although Business hotels primarily serve business travellers, many tour groups, individual tourists and small conference groups find these hotels attractive.
Guest amenities at business hotels may include complimentary newspapers, morning coffee, free local telephone calls, Breakfast etc. In addition to this facility like access to a business centre, personal computer, Wi-Fi and fax machines also provided to the guest.
Airport Hotels
These types of hotels typically target business clientele, airline passengers with overnight travel layovers or cancelled flights and airline personnel. Some hotels might give free transport between hotel and airport.
Some hotels also provide meeting facilities to attract guests who travel to a meeting by air and wish to minimize ground travel. Another attraction of these hotels is instead of charging the guest on a daily basis guests can also pay for their room on an hourly basis.
Suite Hotels
These kinds of hotels are the latest trend and the fastest-growing segments in the hotel industry. Main attraction of these hotels is guestrooms with a living room and a separate bedroom. In exchange for more complete living room suite hotels generally have fewer and more limited public areas and guest services than other hotels.
This also helps keep suite hotel’s guestroom prices competitive in the market . Professionals such as accountants, lawyers, businessmen and executives find suite hotels particularly attractive as they can work and also entertain in an area beside the bedroom.
Extended Stay Hotel
Extended stay hotels is somewhat similar to suite hotels but usually offers kitchen amenities in the room. These kind of hotels are for travellers who want to stay more than a week and does not want to depend on the service of the hotel. Extended service hotels usually do not provide any F & B service or Laundry service etc. These kinds of hotels are considered by guests as “Home away from home”
Apartment Hotels
Apartment / Residential hotels provide long-term or permanent accommodation for guests. Usually guest makes a lease agreement with the hotel for a minimum of one month up to a year. These lease agreements are renewed on a yearly basis.
Guest rooms generally include living room, bedroom, kitchen, private balcony, washing machines, kitchen utensils etc. The residential hotel also provided Housekeeping, laundry, telephone and in some hotels a restaurant and lounge etc will be present on the premises.
Resort Hotels
Resort hotels are usually located in the mountains, on an island, or in some other exotic locations away from the city. These hotels have recreational facilities, scenery, golf, tennis, sailing, skiing and swimming. Resort hotels provide enjoyable and memorable guest experiences that encourage guests to repeat to the resort.
Bed and Breakfast Hotels
These are houses with rooms converted into overnight facilities, this can size up to 20 to 30 guest rooms. They are also known as ‘Home Stay’s’. The owner of the B&B usually stay on the premises and is responsible for serving breakfast to the guest. Due to the limited services offered at these hotels the price for a room is very less than any full-service hotel.
Another new type or segment of the hospitality industry is the timeshare hotels. These are sometimes referred to as “ Vacation-interval” hotels. Timeshare hotels are where the guests purchase the ownership of accommodations for a specific period. These owners may also have the unit rented out by the management company that operates the hotel.
Condominium are similar to timeshare but the difference between the two lies in the type of ownership. Units in condominium hotels only have one owner instead of multiple owners, each for a limited amount of time each year. In a condominium hotel, an owner informs the management company if when he/ she wants to occupy the unit.
Casino Hotels
Hotels with gambling facilities may be categorized as a distinct group called Casino Hotels. Although the food and beverage operations in a casino is luxurious their functions is secondary to and supportive of casino operations. Casino hotels attract guests by promoting gambling and other entertainment.
Conference Centres
These types of hotels focus on meetings and conferences and overnight accommodation for meeting attendees. They also provide High-quality audiovisual equipment, business services, flexible seating arrangements, flipcharts etc. These hotels are mostly located outside the metropolitan areas and have facilities like golf, swimming pools, tennis courts, fitness centres, spas etc.
Convention Centres
Convention hotels are larger in size compared to conference centres and likely to have more than 1500 rooms. These hotels are huge and have a sufficient number of guest rooms to house all the attendees of most conventions, even the size of the meeting rooms, ballrooms, exhibit rooms are quite huge. They usually cater to the convention market for state, regional, national, and international associations.
Levels of service
World class service
These are also called luxury hotels, they target top business executives, entertainment celebrities, high-ranking political figures, and wealthy clientele as their primary markets. They provide upscale restaurants and lounges, concierge services and also private dining facilities.
Guestrooms are oversized, heated and plush bath towels, large soaps bars, shampoo, shower caps and all amenities. Housekeeping services are given two times a day including turn-down service. Above all luxury hotels give personalized service to the guest and have a relatively high ration of staff members to guests.
Mid-Range Service
Hotels offering mid-range service appeal ti the largest segment of the travelling public. This kind of hotel does not provide elaborate service and have adequate staffing. They also provide uniformed service, food and beverage room service, in-room entertainment’s and also Wi-Fi. Property may offer a speciality restaurant, coffee shop and lounge that cater to visitors as well as hotel guests.
Type of guests who like to stay at these hotels are business people, individual travellers, and families. Rates are lower than luxury hotels as they provide fewer services, smaller rooms and a smaller range of facilities and recreational activities.
Economy or Limited Service
These hotels provide clean, comfortable, safe, inexpensive rooms and meet the basic need of guests. Economy hotels appeal primarily to budget-minded travellers who wants a room with minimum services and amenities required for a comfortable stay, without unnecessary paying an additional cost for costly services.
The cliental of these hotels include families with children, travelling business people, backpackers, vacationers retirees etc. These types of hotels might not offer food and beverage facilities
Ownership and Affiliations
Ownership and affiliation provide another means by which to classify hotel property. There are two types:
Independent Hotels
They do not have identifiable ownership or management affiliation with other properties. That means these properties doesn’t have any relationship to another hotel regarding policies, procedures, marketing or financial obligations.
An example for the same would be family owned and operated hotel that is not following any corporate policies or procedures. The advantage of individual property is its autonomy. An independent hotel however does not get the advantage of board advertising exposure or management insight and consultancy of an affiliated property.
Chain hotels
This kind of ownership usually imposes certain minimum standards, rules, policies and procedures to restrict affiliate activities. In general the more centralized the organization the stronger the control over the individual property. Some chains have strong control over the architecture, management and standards of affiliate properties. Others concentrate only on marketing, advertising and central purchasing.
Basis of Size
The number of a guest rooms in a hotel is also a basis of classification of the hotel. Hotels can be grouped into the following categories:
Small Hotel
In India Hotels with 25 rooms or less are classified as small hotels. E.g. Hotel Alka, New Delhi and the Oberoi Vanyavilas, Ranthambore. Etc. While in the developed countries lie Europe and America, hotels with less than 100 rooms are considered small. These hotels provide a clean and comfortable environment for the guest to stay.
Medium Hotel
Hotel with twenty-six to 100 rooms is called medium hotels, E.g. Hotel Taj view, Agra and Chola Sheraton Hotel, Chennai. However in developed nations, In foreign countries (Sorry).In abroad hotel with up to 300 rooms are termed a medium-sized hotels.
Large Hotels
Hotels with 101-300 guest rooms are regarded as large hotels in India E.g. the Imperial, New Delhi, The Park, and Kolkata. Whereas hotels with 400- 600 rooms are termed as large hotels in the developed world.
Mega Hotel
Hotels more than 1000 guest rooms are known as very large hotels E.g. MGM Grand.
Duration of Stay
On the basis of duration of guest stay hotels can be classified into following categories:
Commercial Hotels
The duration of guest stay in these hotels is short, ranging from a few days to a week.
Transient Hotels
Transient guests are those who are en-route guests i.e. who are in the process of moving from one destination to another and stop at the hotel for a short period of time as against a terminal guest who has reached his final destination. Hence hotels, which cater to transient guests, are called transient hotels. The duration of guest stay in these hotels is very short, i.e. a day or even less.
Semi-resident Hotels
These hotels are generally preferred by people who are staying at the location while in transit to another place. The duration of stay may range from weeks to some months. They incorporate the features of both transient and residential hotels. These guest have to come to the destination for some specific purpose of a shorter duration.
Apartment Hotel
Residential hotels are also called as apartment hotels. Room in a Residential hotel is sold on a monthly or yearly basis. Rooms may be furnished or unfurnished, single or en-suite. Almost all residential hotels operate a restaurant, offer telephone services, laundry and valet services.
Advance rent is usually collected while other charges are billed weekly. The duration of guest stay in these hotels may range from months to a few years. The demand of these hotels has increased during recent times.
Extended stay Hotels
Extended stay hotels are a type of lodging having features which are not available in standard hotels. Outsourcing and mobility, business executives are often on move and thus away from their home towns for extended periods of time and require more than a hotel room. These features are intended to provide more home-like amenities. Extended-stay hotels typically have self-serve laundry facilities and offer discounts for it.