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History records that Chandragupta Maurya the Founder of the Mauryan Empire 321-297 BCE built the Grand Trunk Road 3760 kms long road to connect land-locked Central Asia to Cox Bazar, the seaport on the Eastern Coast through Howrah-Allahabad-Delhi-Amritsar-Lahore-Rawalpindi-Peshawar-Kabul, to facilitate Trade & Commerce
1600 AD onwards when the Mughal Empire took root & reigned in India, it is recorded Mughal nobles built serais as a welfare measure to earn their place in heaven. The state too pitched in by building serais as a welfare measure where travelers were given food & shelter for the night.
The Serais (Serai- In Persian means a Travellers Lodge)-
A huge room for travelers to rest for the night. With a facility for their animals to rest & feed at night.
Early Categorization of Hotels aka Sarais
The 1760s saw the Industrial Revolution taking place.
The Turnabout Phase in hospitality
1794 - The City Hotel in New York opened with 70 rooms. The 1st hotel building to be planned & designed as a hotel.
Starting Evolution of modern Hospitality Industry The 20th Century
Chain Hotels and Impact of Major Events in 20th Century…
WWII and new demand for business hotels1939- 1945- the World War II.
Rise of Indian Diaspora in the American Hotel Industry
So What is learning?
MS Neelakantan passed put from the Institute of Hotel Mgt & Catering Technology Ahmedabad 1986- The 1st batch. has operational experience with the Welcomgroup Hotels now, named ITC Hotels and the Taj group. He found his true calling as a teacher with the IHMCT Pusa, New Delhi. Then continued to teach at institutes across India. He has now found success in teaching & tutoring students & professionals online for hospitality management and Spoken English. He is the author of Love Affection & Respect.A Teacher's Ode to His Students. In addition, he is highly rated for his expertise on www.quora.com as a mentor for hospitality industry students and as a life coach.
Read the Script of video here[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][stm_post_comments][/vc_column][vc_column][vc_tta_accordion active_section="0" collapsible_all="true"][vc_tta_section title="Read the Script Here" tab_id="1607242154877-a5232741-8191"][vc_column_text]Unknown Speaker 1:30
You know, when I was doing my research for one of the projects, which is my final year project, which is incidentally there, at least I'd given it to the archives, the National Archives, at least back then in 1991. And I started researching it I found that the you know, if you go into the genesis of it, the industry itself started with the concept of the surprise of course, in the Mughal period, but earlier than that, the term charlas So, the term charlas in the ancient world, now, you know, is where this concept started from back in 321 BC, there are some really, you know, as you can call it mentions of the the people traveling and you know, requiring accommodations and food and therefore, you know, you had the advent of either in the earlier days the mushrooms, so, if you look at it, you had the mushrooms, the mushrooms kind of led to them Sharla has the term shala has led to the surprise, there is a very good genesis of how this development has happened. But if you look at it and Chandragupta Maurya has time during the Mauryan Empire, when the Grand Trunk road which we call it as today, what it is known as was built now, which connected bingo all right up to the shower and beyond into Afghanistan, that 4000 odd kilometer reload, you know, that it used to bear in terms of the traffic required people to stay somewhere that that road of that connection required people to stay somewhere and therefore, the advent of longer road ashrams of sages etc that we utilize or term charlas and subsequently we had obviously the the fact that we had this arise, and then the in concept that even came into India.
Unknown Speaker 3:21
By caravans You mean the caravan, romantic picture caravanserais traveling by day step by night.
Unknown Speaker 3:30
Actually, that concept is more specific to North Africa and to Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula they had to gather, but essentially the ones that carried you know, salt, gold, spices, etc. Across the deserts from the more greener pastures onwards to the northern side of the yellow continent in Africa or in Saudi Arabia, the same story in India we didn't call them the caravans our eyes. Of course, if you look at it, the Islamic reference to it is from those who have traveled from Africa, they called it Tara, carwash and I say the caravan if you come to think of it from
Unknown Speaker 4:10
the good indie film was a very popular famous event called karma Connect. So
Unknown Speaker 4:18
correct to the concepts came in from there. The the obviously the the, I would say that you know, if you look at it when ROM in Ramayana, let's go back into history, even at that time, ROM and Ramana. When he is traveling, he did stay at ashrams have visited ashrams, anytime you visited an ashram, you were being fed and you were being provided shelter that could be considered the earliest advent of really the the way in which the Indian system of hospitality developed, and of course during the middle long, yes. And the surprise, of course, have come in subsequently when more of the road transportation using a horseback and elephant back became common. That was the When this became a model, which is called is this arise? So, yes, it was meant for travelers carrying merchandise and trade material or as well, pilgrims, because many people, if you recall, you know, would travel from the south of the country to come to Banaras for pilgrimage, they would come there because Kashi was considered the land of the Holy Land of the holy place, the holy city, then you wanted to come there for pilgrimage. And if you had to travel across the country, where would you stay, you would stay in these kind of, you know, establishments where food and shelter were both being provided. That is absolutely, absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 5:39
All the way to Kashi and I've been putting
Unknown Speaker 5:42
locally absolutely, you did that they were 12 thumbs, or the 12 jyotirlingas, as they used to call it. And even from the Hindu system, you know, you had to visit the 12 jyotirlingas to have a real true pilgrimage including Kashi. Kashi itself was one of the jyotirlingas. So therefore, when you did the, you know, the travel across to the 12, jyotirlingas, you were traveling across borders, and open land and you needed places to stay. So this is how the advent of this kind of a system developed. And then of course, it became more refined, more established, more firm. And this all came out as a result of my spending time and doing some research while doing my project back in 1991. And that's what that's what got me very interested in the history of, you know, modern hospitality, you know, because there's an ancient route connected to it. And it's not only in India, if you look at it globally, as well, the Roman, you know, roads, as we used to call it, which is to connect Rome to all parts of the Roman Empire had a lot of the, you know, the ins which were created for horseback riders, for people who were carrying mail, etc, etc, cetera that those were all kind of, you know, well established. proofs of how this industry developed
Unknown Speaker 6:57
the industry, the Chandragupta Maurya grant and go to the time of the Silk Route almost.
Unknown Speaker 7:03
So Silk Route was a concept which came about more connecting Persia to, you know, to China. And of course, there was a line that are a route that came in into India as well through, of course, the passes in the Himalayas. But that was called the Silk Route, while ours was more specifically, you know, our own travels that happened because of the extensive empires that overruled India over the ages. If you look at it, we have a very deep history. The first person who kind of had a large, you know, oversight on to the Indian subcontinent was Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka Moria, expanded it as Buddhism also expanded subsequently. So if you look at it historically, the the, you know, the Silk Route came a little after our own Indian system, to come to think of it because the Silk Route was established at the trading route in from the Persian Empire standpoint, and even taking it up to literally Constantinople and beyond, into, you know, into Europe into Rome. Because as the Roman Empire expanded, and it became more of being here, you know, based in Rome, as well as in Constantinople, Constantinople, if you look at it as the modern day Istanbul, that is where the trade and commerce on the large Roman Empire started to happen. But I should even point out another thing, if you look at it, the real road from Europe to India opened as a result of the one individual that was Alexander of Macedonia, Alexander of Macedonia came in over all the way down to India. And that was the last stop before he turned back, then in this global conquest, if you think about it, he has gone ahead and he's opened a sort of a trade route, which also became a part of that too, now the subsidize.
Unknown Speaker 8:45
So you've been after that initial surge and the next quarter, what he should have noted was moguls. 1600
Unknown Speaker 8:54
Yes. If you look at it from the initial surprise, which was really if you look at it a large place which had communal family facilities where you could sit, sit down, rest awhile, feed yourself, and we you know, did you or your family family, you were in a large establishment, where you would sleep for the night that became, you know, started off even really, if you look at it, during the Delhi Sultanate, because, although it was formalized during the Mughal Empire, but if you look at it, the GT road in its modern construction, much of it can be attributed to a man called chez Shah, Suri. And 3d. Sorry, go ahead. You had a question.Unknown Speaker 9:35
That Well, he was
Unknown Speaker 9:37
he was enough, done, he was enough done. So shisha. So he was enough done, who was actually from sasaram in Bihar, and when not became the emperor of India. When he deposed barber for about five years. He made his capital and john poor nirala bad, then between Banaras and alaba. Then when he made it its capital. He obviously wanted to link the northern part of his empire to the south. In part, so the old Chandragupta Maurya road, which was out there, he converted it into a more formal structure called as the Grand Trunk road. And that is when the real sariah started where, you know, you could have these, you know, travelers on horseback, or chariots or even foot soldiers and people just walking coming over, you know, finding a spot for themselves, keeping their, you know, goods and provision safe cooking for themselves, being able to kind of get a fresh refill for water and other kind of condiments and food articles that they could carry to cook on the way before the next guy came their way. So really, if you look at it, this rise, as you rightly captured, is really you can call it the melting pot of cultures, because, you know, different kinds of travelers traveling. And they were different kinds of people with different backgrounds coming in to stay in
Unknown Speaker 10:52
common currency
Unknown Speaker 10:53
right? earlier there was if you look at it, the common currency could have been just exchanging material and goods also at times, but there was no formal, you could have some kind of a gold coin or a silver coin being traded or a more they used to call it a more in those days, more being used as a method for paying for goods and services. But more often than not, it was really utilizing what you had with you in terms of any any unique item like silica, or, you know, some kind of precious stone or anything that was unique to your area where you were coming from that you were carrying with you barter. barter system? Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 11:33
They would be, they would arise. I mean, where the traveler, W's arise. They try to come and cook their own meals, but in the new model tries to join the free food and the lodging. And there's a huge difference.
Unknown Speaker 11:49
Yeah, very true.
Unknown Speaker 11:51
The selector affordable little I know, they bit the mughalsarai such a famous place. And so I think they exerted this question of this. This category the size of being a different levels, so mobile salesmen for the average of the model, combat officers on duty.
Unknown Speaker 12:12
Yeah, if you look at it, you know, it comes about like this. The Empire was big, there was more money. And when you had more money you could provide for your people who were traveling. It was like the concept of the dock bungalows, which came in in the government times. If you look at it, the dark bungalows are really a more glorified form of the same size. What were the dark bungalows they were for government officials going to collect, you know, land, revenue, and staying someplace. So if you look at it, that is how the Advent it started from government officials. It let's say it started with travelers and pilgrims, it became formalized under a large Empire with lots of money into a more formal place for soldiers as well as administrators to stay in. And then the generals, of course, and the larger bigger administrators had more formal quarters. You look at it, it became then into the dark bungalows during the British Raj. So in a way this is this is the the circuit houses there you go. It's that's exactly it. So you know, I think you captured it right here. As you look at it, the hotels today, budget, luxury, debt, that's that categorization is not new in India. It happened back then almost about, you know, you can say two centuries ago, even during Chandragupta Maurya time an ordinary pilgrim would stay in an ordinary guest house or attorney, you know, a guest house, an ashram that has the king, if he were traveling would have a 10th of his own constructed for him in advance, and his retinue would stay over there. So if you look at it, categorization had already started compartmentalization was already
Unknown Speaker 13:42
formally started, then, in the mobile time,
Unknown Speaker 13:44
correct, the Mughals formalized it to the point where they actually made a more regiment alized approach where depending on your rank, and depending on where you belong in the hierarchy, you would be kind of you know, rested and taken care off based on your level of, you know, importance in the system, as they call it. And then of course, you've got the details of how you got the BB has arrived and Johnny job bill by Jahanara sergeant's daughter, but sahjhan, if you see came in, in the 1600s, we are going back to centuries. So historically, we've got a lot of evidence of this kind of formal development, from very, very informal roots, as we call it.
Unknown Speaker 14:26
much ahead, India was much ahead of the world, in terms of Well,
Unknown Speaker 14:30
I mean, if you look at it, yes, because the Indian culture can be traced back to 5000 years. If you go back to Historically, the presence now we I don't consider Mahabharata alone to be epic, just written on the forms of the Odyssey or the Iliad by Homer, I call it that there was some proof of existence. And in the Mahabharata times when the well you know, the the so called rulers from the various parts of the world, what does Mahabharata mean? Mahabharata, greater India, so it's Look at it, people were traveling from the greater part of India to come in and come in to meet, you know, their relatives and friends and Huston are poor. And the war happened between really relatives and friends if you look at it, but when these people are traveling, they were obviously the ability to accommodate not only them as rulers but also the people who were traveling with them. So, frankly, if you look at it, I say our history goes back 5000 years art history. In fact, even goes back to Ramana if as I mentioned to you, but in Ramayana, there was not that formal method. In Ramayana what is more happening was that you know, Rama and his retinue stayed at sages and seers and saarloos places, which are called as ashrams. So, you, if you look at it, there has been an admin and a development from almost 5000 years ago, more from something. Yes, yes, I mean, if you look at it, it started with what in modern days was really a motel, which has now become all these mega five star hotels, you know, with categorization for budget travelers, for business travelers, for vvips, but all of that is really that categorization always existed, so that
Unknown Speaker 16:09
we have captured India, and today's What about us, you will know the widely traveled man, what are the USA and Europe the history, the revolution there?
Unknown Speaker 16:18
So I will I will give you
Unknown Speaker 16:21
too many big details like the I will know the story of what of authorea. So,
Unknown Speaker 16:26
yeah, so if you look at it, you know, hotel industry against in Europe, which was really the predecessor of much of this formality as I call it started off during the Roman times, Roman times for formalize this, you know, but after that, during the 16th century, if you open it over, you know, that is when when the Europeans traveled over Europe was a little bit more advanced. America was really the New World, as we call it. So the Europeans when they went in over and you know, much of the development that had happened in terms of cabin size, or really, as they call it, the horse, the horse stables, which became like the formal residences for travelers. So you have to remember that horses needed to be changed or fed or, you know, kept fresh. So as they would check in, they would be the stables where you could exchange horses. And at that very places, you actually had people who could stay over, you know, Park, the carriages and what have you. So by the time this concept came in, into the United States, you already had in England and in much of central Europe, much of these, as you call it, a caragea, places of accommodation for the night. And those became kind of the motels of the early years. And the concept moved to the US and says that in the US the concept shaped in large, you know, motorable roads being developed. And as a result of the motorable roads being developed in the United States, you see the advent of the motor oil industry in the US, which is the predecessor of the large five star hotels, as you call it, but we should also look back on Africa, Africans gave us a very unique thing. You know, salt trade, I'm going to touch on it before we go in into the boom and the Industrial Revolution. The salt rate in Africa led to a lot of caravans traveling up not to the Mediterranean Sea across the desert. And in the desert, you had the Oasis, the oysters kind of became the de facto
Unknown Speaker 18:24
salt corrodes
Unknown Speaker 18:26
the salt caravans are very important because salt was being traded in Africa, and you have to look it up as a Smithsonian research that was done, that salt was being traded pound for pound with gold, because people needed salt to keep their food articles fresh or maintain. So they were trading gold for salt back in the days. The salt. I'm sorry, what does that do the salt? Who need your salt? Yes, Europeans took the same salt from Africa. The issue from India as well, if you look at it, that's why you are the salt ghagra that the market demands. Yeah, so these are all linked portions. See, we have to remember we don't dive in into history as much to understand that two or three things have led to a large change in how things have happened in the globe. Sugar was another such a reason if you look at it, funnily Indians, how do you see Indians and in Fiji Islands and in Caribbean and in Mauritius and all of these places? The Indian desert labor, indentured laborers. Why? Because sugar cane, sugar cane, Indonesia, all this?Unknown Speaker 19:30
Correct, Java, etc. Right? Correct. So what happens next after the US and then we go to the post the post industrial revolution?
Unknown Speaker 19:40
Yeah, let's get into the government advice. Yeah. So people went over into the Industrial Revolution period of it and if you you know, the industrial revolution that started off, you know, primarily in the in Europe, in around the 1760s. And that is when you know, you started seeing development happening, people move From Nigerian society to a more industrial society, people were leaving their farm houses and traveling to the cities to work over there. And that too led to really the concept of people wanting to stay in accommodations that they could kind of, you know, afford or they could provide, they could be provided for the steam engine was another thing that brought about, you know,Unknown Speaker 20:23
victory in the steam engine.
Unknown Speaker 20:25
steam engine was one of the largest changes, I mean, if you look at it, the wheel was the biggest, because without the value wouldn't have had the chariots. And without the chariots, they wouldn't have even had the, the engines. So if you look at it, I call the villas, the biggest development in humankind. And because of the wheel, you have even the steam engine, etc. And of course, then ships because you could carry people from different continents. But across large oceans, if you go back again into history, and so much for history, the Phoenicians were already traveling in the Mediterranean area with their kind of outriggers and ships that they've got for trading with Arabia, the Arabians were traveling with that house, and they're kind of you know, regard ships to India, you see a proof of this, when people travel, you need to provide for them. So going back to our industrial revolution, the same thing happened, the steam engine allowed more people to be carried than a carriage would allow. And as that started happening, and people started traveling longer distances, the need for accommodation and shelter became very evident. And that is the time when the Industrial Revolution led to the growth of the hotel industry in Europe. And the same thing then transferred over to us. And in the US, the land being larger, wider and bigger. Not only did the engines that came in, you know, helped with the bringing the land together, because places like Chicago places like, you know, Kansas City places, you know, such as these in the middle help connect the west coast to the east coast, through train lines. It was a big event, because as people were traveling across screens, you needed accommodation for these people. And so if you go forward, the first boom period for hotels, if you click on it, you know a little bit more, you will see that that is the point in time that, you know, you had large scale openings of hotels happening in cities like Copenhagen, in Europe, and in New York City. In New York City, you had obviously the growth and development of large and fairly large, reaching upwards of 200 rooms, which is where you know that city, it becomes the center of commerce. And that is the way in which the history of the US developed in Copenhagen, of course for Europe and then in England, you saw that the Royal Hotel in London, was built in the 18 hundred's. You have of course in Paris, Louie The 14th was very well known for being rather extravagant in his way to spend, he opened the palace window over there. A lot of complexes came up in those days for high, you know, high end banqueting. So you see that the hotel industry grew as a result of the demands for more sophistication, even in the middle.
Unknown Speaker 23:09
And then the engine and then the development and the traveling,Unknown Speaker 23:14
the ship, the shipping, the shipping, of course the shipping, and of course airlinesUnknown Speaker 23:18
for the wheel, right. That's it?
Unknown Speaker 23:20
Yeah, first of the wheel, we have to remember that without the wheel, you wouldn't have had the chariots. Without the chariots, you couldn't have even conceived moving even carriages because the wheel is the one that led to all of this development happening. I think the road and the wheels, First came the wheel. And then came the need for a road and examples like the GT road and the you know, the Roman roads are examples of how in order to have carriages travel across, you needed formal roads. So it's a strange connection, that the real and the road have gone together for centuries. And even in the modern times, if you see the road, the growth of roads, the Eisenhower roadway system in the US, led to really the the growth of the motor industry in Detroit. You see us at one time was known as the motor capital of the world. Detroit was the Motor City or Motown as they called it. And then Motown yet Chrysler, Ford and General Motors producing cars. Why do so many cars produced in the US because you were driving great distances? Now you had the capability to do so. But one must remember a very interesting thing here, folks about you know, how did the US system start, this credit has to go to and strangely enough, a man called at all at all Fiddler. Hitler created the first of the roadway systems in Germany, the autobahns, the autobahns actually proceed the US Eisenhower roadway system. The US in a way followed very, very strangely and very, very interestingly, a concept set up by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War when he started giving so called jobs to young Germans by putting them to work on the auto bonds, the same buddy autobahns became the face of the United States.
Unknown Speaker 25:06
I don't know when he was a soldier, he must have been to Germany or soil. But he back came back, he became president and then
Unknown Speaker 25:13
even Correct, correct. That is exactly how the system went, it was best practice sharing, I always say there's always a lot of best practice to be shared and learned from. And I think that is what has happened in this case, as well. Now we get into the point called the turnabout phase. And if you want to just click on it, you know, we can get into a little bit more of discussion on the turn about phase mohnish. So if you click on it, you know, we talked about hotels opening in New York City, upwards of 70 rooms going up to 200 rooms, 794 7094, you had the city Hotel in New York, you had earlier hotels were operated out of buildings that already existed. So they were converted into hotel rooms, and you know, use for that purpose. But really, if you look at it, since the almost 1800s, rooms started being built in formal structures called as hotels in from a formality standpoint, that was in 1829, the first modern hotel, the Fremont house in Boston was open, which had really toilets also included to the room system, they had locking systems and they had food from an ala carte standpoint, you could really order for what you wanted to eat from the Publish menu rather than being fed what was being made that day.
Unknown Speaker 26:27
They took Bible so backward before that, no locks not all the room.
Unknown Speaker 26:32
Correct. And if you look at it the
Unknown Speaker 26:35
little, little by little little inch by inch is going up.
Unknown Speaker 26:39
Yes, exactly. I mean, if you look at it, the caravanserais did not have any formal bathrooms and what have you, I mean that you were using the well and you were going out into the fields if you look at it from a very informal standpoint, but that is how people have seen in India you did not have the challenges of cold weather and climate as challenging as in the parts of Europe etc. So if you look at it, building toilets in house became a lot more relevant and a lot more important in places where cold weather would have a very different impact on human beings. Therefore, if you see these are all linked to how the human species had to evolve based on the climatic situation based on their needs for for comfort and personal preservation, as I call it.
Unknown Speaker 27:25
Of course, what happens after the hotel no
Unknown Speaker 27:28
hotel is what led to the growth of really the elevators what are called as the elevators Otis elevators, which are in use now Schindler elevators really came about from the growth of hotel industries and large buildings, which are skyscrapers. If you see the skyscraper city of Chicago, which is where the first cry, scrapers came up. And you couldn't climb 3040 floors, just yourself. So you needed something. So when the elevators came in, or the lifts came in, that opened up the the concept of the very large hotels coming up and then you see, you know, the large hotels like Waldorf Astoria, like the Palmer house,
Unknown Speaker 28:07
where do we go from this footage after? Do we go straight into some way that we still seem to
Unknown Speaker 28:13
be going into really the growth of the hotel industry, per se, but, you know, the specific mention was that with all this growth happening in the hotel industry, Suzanne, in Switzerland decided to open a hotel School, which became the first formal school for hotel education because people need a trained staff. So if you see a very big evolution that happened, but let's get on into the evolution of the modern hospitality,
Unknown Speaker 28:37
same lows, and Susan still knows
Unknown Speaker 28:40
exactly the very same. So that's
Unknown Speaker 28:44
one of the one of the finest in the world.
Unknown Speaker 28:46
Correct, correct. Of course, after that, you have Cornell which has come in you've come in with, you know, places such as New Hampshire Now, of course, in India, you have our own in suits of hotel management, but Welcome grupotel Institute and workshop manipal, as we call it. So, you know, these are all toots from the concept that started in Switzerland,
Unknown Speaker 29:06
was led
Unknown Speaker 29:08
to well, accepting that it was more of a management training program, rather than, you know, training people from ground up fight right outside of high school, etc. So different versions, different views in how the hotel industry and the need for trained staff led to the growth of the hotel schools as well. Now coming to the evolution of the modern hospitality industry in the 20th century. Yeah. So if you click on it mohnish we can get in and little bit more deeper into it. So if you see a Caesar Ritz, he was called as the hotelier of the kings and the king of ateliers. He was a Swiss national legend. And the very famous Ritz that you hear about today, he opened the Ritz at the palace Vendome in Paris. And that is where you have the concept of the Ritz Carlton hotels or the Ritz hotels coming about, really so in the Ritz. Hotels which are now a part of obviously a larger chain, which has become a part of the Marriott group started off really as you know as as a concept in Europe expect to the US after that, and in 1999, the Ritz Barcelona, Spain opened the hotel which had the ability to provide hot and cold water also to people in their toilets earlier than that hot water had to be boiled in a separate location brought by buckets and other means, in order to be given for like a gas
Unknown Speaker 30:30
station in India running hot water and the boy gets running comes running into the hot bucket, the bucket
Unknown Speaker 30:36
Correct, correct. If you look at it, these are all developments that have happened in in Yeah. So, you know, if you go forward, the 20th century is referred really to the point where it was the prosperity phase for hoteliers, and that is because you saw the Savoy in London opening up you saw St. Moritz in you know in the ABS coming up with ski resorts you saw more and more of people starting to travel and more so because the airlines after the Second World War, it started getting established and as you started flying across for leisure, you needed accommodations. So, much of this is again as a growth of the human spirit as I call it. Then we come in into the impact of the chain hotels and you know, events such as those so if you look at it in the US, Conrad Hilton had come up with a concept which led to the growth of you know, the the the Hilton group you had Ezra staedtler, which led to opening the buffalo Statler Hotel in Buffalo city, you had really, of course, other staedtler hotels in Cleveland and Detroit that came up. And in, you know, Europe had started off with World War, but us was not affected by World War One because it wasn't happening on their continent. So really, if you look at it, you know, Henry Ford was able to develop the Motor City, as you call it, Detroit by producing the Ford Motor T and with that the assembly line production led to more volume driven car growth in the US. You know, and as I mentioned, Eisenhower had a taste of the autobahn being developed in the in Europe, and he came about and got plans to develop the US, you know, approach to it. And therefore, you know, the again, motels etc started, but one has to remember that in the 1930s, while the Europe was you, fighting the second world war or getting into it, US was leading with the Great Depression. And even though the Great Depression was happening, that was the time when a hotel called the Waldorf Astoria got permission. And that was the first one to come up with the Rome resist reservation system. I can, you know, really say with great pride that I've stayed there. earlier. Yeah. So it was it was something unique to be a great
Unknown Speaker 32:48
pride as a hotel, you had to go and stay there and set the place where I learned about and where they started the first salvation system.Unknown Speaker 32:55
Yeah, 1999 at that time
Unknown Speaker 32:57
was the 10. There's no other systems we just had to go and check with.Unknown Speaker 33:02
You had to walk in here to see if they had accomodation for you. You could not reserve a room in advance it was on first come first served basis.
Unknown Speaker 33:09
When I get to the landmark day here, Waldorf Astoria, and first time they introduced reservation systems,
Unknown Speaker 33:17
correct? That is correct. And of course, that happened afterUnknown Speaker 33:20
World War Two.
Unknown Speaker 33:21
Yeah, war two brought about a different growth in the travel because you see, 1939 to 1945 is when World War Two happened. While it was a destructive thing, but it brought people together, you know, you had Americans in, in Europe fighting a war in on that continent, you had Britishers fighting in Burma and China and other places, you had Americans fighting the Pacific. So you see, you know, Germans fighting and North Africa. So there was a cross pollination happening with people ever at work. And women were joining the industry as well, at that point in time, and the men were traveling out to fight and even women as Red Cross soldiers, to different continents, and they were getting exposed to something different. And if you look at it, when those people return from those lands, specifically when soldiers who returned from, you know, Europe, brought about the roadway system, or what is called as the freeways as I mentioned already, because they saw the hint of it in Europe, where large tank contingents were being moved on these auto bands that were created in Germany, only for the facilitation of this kind of, you know, mass army movement, as I call it. And of course, that came in the Ford car company and we talked about it that they the growth of the freeways and the traveling salesman, the traveling toothbrush salesman, as we call it, they would leave every Monday morning in their cars and come back on a Friday evening, back home, but in the middle, they were really staying at different in different cities in different locations, which are called as motels. So that is the Advent and the growth of really the post World War situation. event on
Unknown Speaker 34:55
the road when you're on the road traveling. So it went to the state during that time. So that
Unknown Speaker 35:00
is where they would stay at any, you know, farmer or, you know any kind of person who was willing to give them shelter in the night. But that blend became a concept of becoming a motor hotel, which is called as a motel It started with people staying in, you know, places where they were running out of food or they were running out of gas and they wanted to go and get to a gas station and close to that they could get some food and therefore in those areas, people started opening
Manish Gupta
A California-based travel writer, lover of food, oceans, and nature.
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