This chapter is a brief introduction of how the hotel business evolved in the United States with the grand opening of the first tavern in the states of Boston in 1634 by an entrepreneur named Samuel Coles and finish with the development of luxury hotel in the new millennium. Also this chapter focus on the sub-categories of hotel development and ownership. Some of the sub-categories are franchising, the referral associations, the management contracts and the real estate investment trust. Additionally, this chapter focus on the classification of hotel and how the hotels are rate by the American Automobile Association (AAA) with the raking numbers from 1 to 5 diamonds. Some of the hotel classifications are city center hotels, resort hotels, airport hotels, freeway hotels, and motels, casino hotels, convention hotels, full-service hotels, economy/budget hotels, boutique hotels, extended-stay hotels all-suites extended-stay hotels, condotels and mixed use hotels, and the last category is bed and breakfast inns. To conclude this chapter, the writer talked about the trends in the hotel development in which include capacity control, safety and security, assets and capital, technology, new management, globalization, consolidation and diversification within segment of the lodging industry.

Key Words and Concepts:

1. Capital Intensive – Example: To open a restaurant in the city of New York it’s require an intensive amount of money because for you to survives the first year you need to have a strong capital intensive amount of money.
2. Fair Return on Investment – Example: When you share ownership of a business with the co-owner it is important to share the profit of a business equally among themselves.
3. Feasibility Study – Example: To open a restaurant business in an specific demography area, the owner need to do an intensive feasibility study to see if the business will be profitable in that area.
4. Direct Economic Impact – Example: The war between Iraq, Afghanistan and the United States has a negative direct economic impact to the United States economic.
5. Indirect Economic Impact – Example: The war between Iraq, Afghanistan and the United States has an indirect economic impact on people salary and job stability in the United States.
6. Franchising – Example: McDonald’s and Subway’s restaurants are examples of franchising business.
7. Management Contracts – Example: I want to open a restaurant business and I would like to partnership with a management contracts because I don’t have the knowledge or experience on how to manage a business in the culinary art industry.
8. Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) – Example: I would like to invest my saving in the real estate trust by buying stocks on REITs and obtain a profitable return on the investment.
9. Referral Association – Example: Some hotels and motel are associate with the Referral Association and most of them use a common image, logo or advertising slogan which are known for providing discounts to members, management training and continuing education program.
10. Vacation Ownership – Example: In the Dominican Republic, tourist and foreign Dominican like to buy vacation ownership in hotels that are associate with the beaches coast like Punta Cana.