Inns in Russia were the prototypes of modern hotels and hotels. As a rule, before the revolution, these were special rooms in which not only the travelers themselves, but also their servants and horses could sleep.
The emergence of the hospitality industry
The need for inns or their prototypes appeared almost at the same time when people had the desire or need to travel. At that moment, demand generated supply. Inns appeared in Russia, in Europe - taverns and taverns. All countries and all continents had their own analogues.
Depending on the era, they met different requirements. But at all times they performed the main task - they gave people the opportunity to stay for the night.
Hotel development since ancient times
Historians have been able to establish that the first hotels on planet Earth appeared about two thousand years ago, at the very beginning of our era. These were peculiar analogues of the pre-revolutionary inns.
Like much that we are currently using, they arose in Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. In these states, which at that time were the most developed, they were called hospitiums. Rich merchants stayed in them, who went on distant voyages in order to establish trade relations with new partners. Wandering artists settled in institutions more simply, who wandered with numbers from city to city, thus earning little money. Religious pilgrims and minstrels found shelter here. Mostly they were wandering people who spent most of their lives en route.
In Russia inns appeared much later.
What did the ancient hotels look like?
Over the years, the appearance of the hotels has remained virtually unchanged. These were two-story buildings with extensions in which it was possible to leave horses or other animals that were used for movement. On the ground floor there was a large and spacious room. In it, guests relaxed, ate and talked. The second floor was divided into many rooms in which 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 the famous minds of their time, have a drink and a snack, find out about the events in the surrounding cities and distant countries where travelers came from. It was in taverns that entertainments such as cockfights, darts were born. It is worth noting that often these were quite dangerous places. They attracted dashing people who sought to make money by robbing a merchant who was returning from a successful deal or who went through a wealthy traveler with alcohol.
Hotels in the Middle Ages and the New Age
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 lodging of wandering travelers with churches. It was then that the need arose to revive private hotels.
In different countries, such institutions were subject to certain requirements. For example, in England, owners were required to provide guests with a friendly atmosphere, comfortable and pleasant conditions, as well as rich and tasty food.
Interestingly, the hotels in their modern form did not appear in Europe, but in the USA. This happened around the middle of the 19th century. It was then that they began to rent 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 around the XI-XIII centuries. It was then that inns (hotels) began to appear . First of all, they were popular and in demand among the messengers. In the XV century, postal stations were born. They could not only spend the night, but also wait out bad weather or change horses if the traveler was in a hurry and did not intend to spend time on rest.
In the XVIII century, the rapid construction of inns and taverns throughout Russia began. It is noteworthy that they were built on a national basis. For example, “aglitsky”, “Greek” or “Armenian” courtyards appeared in Moscow, and “Dutch” and “German” 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 looked 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 the movement between cities. At the beginning of the century in Russia, there were about four and a half thousand hotels. And this is not counting restaurants and other establishments for a short rest.
In the USSR, the impetus for the development of the hotel business was the organization of large all-Union socio-political events. They attracted a huge number of guests from all over the country, representatives of other states. All of them had to be settled. Moreover, it was necessary to offer a modest option to the engineer from the factory, and more comfortable for representatives of the foreign delegation. Talking about European service in Russia became possible only after 1993. Russia has moved from a planned economy to a market economy; in these conditions, hotels have begun to strive to meet European standards.
Number of stars
Today, there are both small private hotels and entire chains with representative 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, everyone else took over this fashion. There were hotels with only one star. Here the guest could offer the most minimal set of services. As a rule, they were located on the outskirts. Two stars received hotels of a slightly larger size, which 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 the service. The list of required services was wider. A four-star hotel was considered a first-class establishment. Travelers could count on superior service and comfort. As a rule, they had restaurants with cuisines of different nations of the world.
Five star hotels deserved the highest rating. On their territory, in addition to bars and restaurants, there should have been spa centers and other entertainments. In these hotels, guests are offered the widest range of services - up to a personal butler.
Modern inn
Calling the hotel today in the old manner is preferred by some entrepreneurs. For example, the "Grinn" inn is one of the few country hotels in the Kursk region. This is a comfortable two-story hotel complex, which has a basement and attic floors. All this gives it a special uniqueness. Nearby there is a picturesque landscape area and secured ample 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 place of Freedom Zolotukhinsky district. So today it, as in pre-revolutionary Russia, attracts a large number of pilgrims from all over the country. For the past seven hundred years there has been an icon of the Mother of God of Kursk, 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, VIP-rooms and presidential apartments.
"Captain's daughter" of Pushkin
Often inns were described in the works of domestic literature. After all, these were the centers of public life.
For example, in the famous work of Alexander Pushkin, “The Captain's Daughter”, the first meeting of Grinev and Pugachev takes place at the inn. He plays the important role of a certain place of salvation, to which the future outrageous masses help the protagonist who fell into a snowstorm to get to.
It was at the inn that Grinev draws attention to the duality of Pugachev. The severity and inaccessibility, which caught his eye during a meeting in a snowstorm, then faded into the background, the ferocity in the guise of a hero immediately disappeared.
Turgenev's Tale
Russian writer Ivan Turgenev even wrote a short story entitled "The Inn". It tells about the inn, which is at the same distance from two district towns. It constantly stops cabbies, convoy peasants, clerks, merchants.
In the novel "The Inn", Turgenev was one of the first in Russia to draw attention to the fact that a new type of village fist has developed in society. In the conditions of the fortress village, real movers and dealers appeared, who were very similar to the characters of Shchedrin - the Razuvaevs and Kolupaevs.