Page 3 - Demo

In the 13th century, Marco Polo discovered an extensive system of relay houses and way stations in China. Each provided lodging, provisions, and a change of horses for both travelers and postal-service employees. Polo claimed there were as many as 10,000 such posts%u2014all built at the Kahn%u2019s expense.By the beginning of the 15th century, France had enacted a law that required hotels to keep a guest register. About that same time, guide books began to be published. During the French Revolution, Georges Auguste Escoffier developed his Brigade de cuisine (kitchen brigade). This was a hierarchical system for organizing hotel restaurants. He based it on how a military brigade was organized. A modified version of his system is still in use today. In England during the 1600s, there were more 600 registered inns. They typically had an arched opening in a porch that led to a paved interior courtyard, with bedrooms along two sides of the open space. The kitchen and public rooms were at the front, with stables at the rear. During the centuries when horses were the primary means of travel, it was essential to offer stables and fodder, even a change of mounts.The first inn to actually call itself a hotel was London%u2019s Grand Hotel, which opened on January 25, 1774. The Industrial Revolution brought more railroads which allowed much faster and less expensive travel. Not surprisingly, hotels began popping up all across England, as well as Europe and North America. And they were often built in the center of town near the railroad stations.Soon a Golden Age of the modern luxury hotel began catering to a wealthy clientele. It was exemplified by London%u2019s Savoy, which opened in August 1889 with Cesar Ritz as general manager. To prevent London%u2019s smoke-laden air from soiling the hotel%u2019s outer walls, it was sheathed in glazed brickwork. Inside, the Savoy was Britain%u2019s first hotel with electric lights and elevators. Plus, each of its 268 rooms had hotand-cold running water, and most had their own private marble bathrooms. Notable guests have included Claude Monet, Oscar Wilde, Edward VII, Harry Truman, Babe Ruth, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, and Whoopi Goldberg. This notable hotel is still in operation today. It Plastic model of the type of road house Marco Polo would have seen in China.A kitchen brigade organizational chart.