This triple word confusion was my own curiosity, and which word you choose among hostel vs hotel vs motel can show your reader a lot about the character and the setting.
A hostel is cheap accommodations usually used by students or other young people, who don’t mind a lack of privacy and enjoy a highly social environment.
A hotel is a high-end accommodation with all sorts of amenities, greater security, usually with a restaurant and bar included, and definite privacy.
A motel is another budget-friendlier accommodation with privacy, some amenities, and less security. It rarely offers meals in-house and definitely not a bar. Although there may be a restaurant and/or bar down the road.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Hostel | Hotel | Motel |
|---|---|---|
 |
Hard Rock Hotel Towers, Las Vegas, by Jeff Hitchcock is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
High Desert Motel, Joshua Tree, is Bernard Gagnon‘s own work and is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Noun; Verb, intransitive
Plural for the noun: hostels Third person present verb: hostels |
Noun
Plural: hotels |
Noun
Plural: motels |
| Noun: An establishment that provides inexpensive lodging for a specific group of people, such as students, workers, or travelers
[British] A supervised lodging house for nurses, workers, etc Verb, intransitive: |
Noun: [Commerce] An establishment providing accommodations, meals, other services, and often containing a public bar for travelers and tourists
[Telecommunications] A code word representing the letter H used in radio communication |
Noun: A roadside hotel designed primarily for motorists, typically having the rooms arranged in a low building with parking directly outside |
| Examples: | ||
| Noun: The hostel has rooms accommodating up to ten people, as well as double and family options. We can keep expenses down by staying in hostels. “On many thru-hiking trails, there is often relatively easy and semi-frequent access to towns with outfitters or even hiker boxes of left-behind items at hostels and stations” (McDarris). She spent two years living in a hostel, with no possessions. “A good glass in the bishop’s hostel in the devil’s seat forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main branch seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death’s-head a bee line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out” (Poe). There’s a nurse’s hostel two blocks away. Verb, intransitive: They hosteled throughout Germany. She hostels at an old hostel for pilgrims. |
Noun: I wish we could afford a five-star hotel. They only have one hotel room left. A group of four friends had gone to have dinner at a roadside hotel. The new hotel has over five hundred bedrooms. “This is Hotel Tango 478.” the pilot stated. |
Noun: Motel 6 started off charging only six dollars per night for a room. If we stay at motels along Route 66, we’ll save a ton of money. The old style of motels with parking right outside the room was not very safe. “In the mid-20th century, the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King was killed, was one of the few motels in Memphis, Tennessee, to offer lodging to blacks” (Kamin). |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Noun: hosteler, hosteller [British], hostelry | Noun: hotelier, hoteling | Noun: motor lodge |
| History of the Word: | ||
| Middle English in the general sense lodging, place to stay, is from the Old French, from the medieval Latin hospitale, neuter of the Latin hospitalis meaning hospitable, from hospes, hospit- meaning guest, host. | Late 17th century, from the French hôtel, from the Old French hostel. | The 1920s, a blend of motor and hotel. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
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Resources for Hostel vs Hotel vs Motel
Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: hostel
The Free Dictionary: hostel
Kamin, Ben. Room 306; The National Story of the Lorraine Motel. Michigan State University Press, 2012. <https://amzn.to/4bqntTJ>. Print.
McDarris, Alisha. “Ultralight Backpacking Hacks No One Tells You About.” Popular Science. 29 July 20212. Accessed 22 May 2024. <https://www.popsci.com/diy/ultralight-backpacking-tips/>.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Gold Bug. Originally published 1843. 2022. <https://amzn.to/459G0RX>. Ebook.
Pinterest Photo Credits
Hostel Room is Kprateek88‘s own work and is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Hotel Room by William Warby is under the CC BY 2.0 license. Recreation of Room Shared by Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy at Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee, is Adam Jones, PhD‘s own work and is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license courtesy of the National Civil Rights Museum. All three are via Wikimedia Commons.
