Inns (inn) have existed since very ancient times to serve merchants and other travelers. In the Roman Empire hostelries called mansionis were situated along the Roman road system to accommodate travelers on government or commercial business. The commercial revival of the European Middle Ages stimulated a widespread growth of inns and hostels. Many of these were operated by monastic brotherhoods in order to guarantee haven for travelers in dangerous regions; a famous example is the hostel in the Great St. Bernard Pass (Great Saint Bernard Pass) in the Swiss Alps, which was founded in the 10th century by St. Bernard of Montjoux and is still operated by the community of Augustinian monks. In 13th-century China Marco Polo (Polo, Marco) found an extensive system of relay houses in existence to provide lodgings for travelers and way stations for the Mongol postal service.

Privately operated inns intended primarily for use by merchants were widespread in both Islāmic and western European countries during the later Middle Ages. The rapid proliferation of stagecoach travel during the 18th century further stimulated the development of inns. But it was the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century that stimulated the most progress in innkeeping, especially in England, whose inns became a standard for the world on account of their cleanliness and comfort. Meanwhile, American innkeepers were setting a standard for size; by 1800 the inns of the United States were the largest in the world. The American trend toward large size continued into the 20th century and eventually was adopted by other countries.

Another landmark was the opening in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1908 of the Statler Hotel, whose owner, Ellsworth Milton Statler (Statler, Ellsworth Milton), introduced many innovations in service and conveniences for the benefit of the large and growing class of business travelers. From the Buffalo Statler grew the Statler Company, the first great chain operation in hotelkeeping.

World War I was followed by a period of tremendous hotel construction, and hotels also increased in size; the Stevens Hotel (later the Conrad Hilton) in Chicago opened with 3,000 rooms and retained the title of the world's largest until the late 1960s, when the Hotel Rossiya opened in Moscow. After World War II many hotels were built at or near major airports.

The operation of hotel chains became a characteristic of modern hotelkeeping, particularly in the decades after World War II. A chain operation, in which one company operates two or more hotels, permits increased efficiency in such areas as purchasing, sales, and reservations.