Hospitality sector calling: A home away from home.

Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, or the practice of being hospitable, that is, the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, with liberality and goodwill.

Derived from the Latin hospes meaning stranger, it implies compensating /equalising a stranger to the host, making him feel protected and taken care of, and at the end of his hosting, guiding him to his next destination.

Comfort and convenience, freedom and fantasy, exclusivity and exoticism are the hallmarks of hospitality sector. Generically, there are three major physical forms of this sector, hotels, resorts and clubs. Often conceived and resolved as synonyms, as such each has its distinct demands and expectations.

A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for vacations. Resorts are therefore places which are self-contained and attempt to provide for most of a vacationer’s wants such as food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping etc. while remaining on the premises. A famous resort of the ancient world was Baiae, Italy, popular over 2,000 years ago which attracted visitors due to hot water sulpher springs.

The club on the other end is seen as a recluse from busy urban routine, most frequently and repeatedly visited building type of the hospitality centre. Club has its roots in the meaning of ‘Knot’- people connected as well as being ‘clubbed’ together. The idea of club, in the sense of an association to promote good-fellowship and social intercourse, became common in England in the 17th century.

With the introduction of coffee-drinking in the middle of the 17th century, clubs entered on a more permanent phase. The coffee houses are the real originals of the modern clubhouse. Historically, clubs started as a node for exclusive meetings/activities of the selective and likeminded persons and remained accessible only to its member.

Gradually with monotonous daily routine and reduced neighbourly interaction it has turned into social node for meeting fellow citizens through chance encounters.

Transforming further, the same exclusive club has, in recent times, morphed into a facility provider. Rather than social encounters, it has primarily become the single window of amenities for personal consumption.

Place that provides the facilities that you personally wish to avail in daily/ weekly routine but cannot afford to provide individually. Club provides them as collectively shared and thereby making them affordable and accessible to its members.

All along its metamorphosis from the exclusive to populist its pluralism has increased but along with that what has also increased is the sense of indifference with fellow members as well as the place.

With  the increased size of membership and their individualistic demands clubs have hardly remained the venue for the collective activity or the association of the likeminded people. It has emerged as multi-focal, poly nodal and diverse.

Variety is therefore the key design attribute of clubs. Variety of space situations, diversity of scales, different set of moods and ambiance and multiple facilities as activity generators (recreational, health related or socio-cultural) are the considerations to offer wider choices and meet with expectations of plural facility users.

Hotel is a home away from home and therefore remains the personal domain even though amidst number of fellow occupants. The word hotel is derived from the French hôtel (host), which referred to a building seeing frequent visitors. Comfort and convenience is the name of the game.

There was a time when hotels were seen as fantasy lands to offer things beyond the routine. No more hotels are seen as fantasy worlds or dream destinations. They are very functional places and therefore seen as no-nonsense facilities expected for functional efficiency rather than frills and frolics.

Resort is different. It is a destination in itself. It is self-contained with food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping within the facility so that guests have no need to leave the facility throughout their stay. It almost trades on the edge of the fantasy or the make believe world.

Something different from daily encounters. Unique and not universal. Psychological fulfilment is as much demanded as much if not more than the physical comfort. In urban life, leisure is changing its meaning from neighbourly encounters and socialising with friends and family to pursuit of personal fantasies and idiosyncrasies.

The writer can be reached at pandyatin@hotmail.com.