Inn

Inns were like bed and breakfasts, with a community dining room which was also used for town meetings or rented for wedding parties.

The better managed inns would place fresh rushes on the floor, mixed with rose petals, lavender and herbs.

A passenger train stopped only at designated stations in the city center, around which were built grand railway hotels.

(Hotels often contain restaurants serving full breakfasts and meals, thus providing all of the functions of traditional inns.

Economy, limited service properties, however, lack a kitchen and bar, and therefore claim at most an included continental breakfast.)

Among them are the honjin and ryokan of Japan, caravanserai of Central Asia and the Middle East, and jiuguan in ancient China.

These inns provided accommodations for people and either their vehicles or animals, and served as a resting place to those traveling on foot or by other means.

The term "inn" historically characterized a rural hotel which provided lodging, food and refreshments, and accommodations for travelers' horses.

To capitalize on this nostalgic image many typically lower end and middling modern motor hotel operators seek to distance themselves from similar motels by styling themselves "inns", regardless of services and accommodations provided.

In some jurisdictions, an offense named as "defrauding an innkeeper" prohibits fraudulently obtaining "food, lodging, or other accommodation at any hotel, inn, boarding house, or eating house";[6] in this context, the term is often an anachronism as the majority of modern restaurants are free-standing and not attached to coaching inns or tourist lodging.