Hospitality is the relationship between guest and host, or the act or practice of being hospitable. Specifically, this includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, resort

Resort

A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company....

s, membership clubs, conventions, attractions, special events, and other services for travel

Travel

Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...

ers and tourists.

Etymology

The word hospitality derives from the Latin hospes, which is formed from hostis, which originally meant "to have power." The meaning of "host" can be literally read as "lord of strangers."http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=host Hostire means "equalize or compensate."

Current usage

In the West today hospitality is rarely a matter of protection and survival, and is more associated with etiquette

Etiquette

Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...

 and entertainment

Entertainment

Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...

. However, it still involves showing respect for one's guests, providing for their needs, and treating them as equals. Cultures and subcultures vary in the extent to which one is expected to show hospitality to strangers, as opposed to personal friends or members of one's in-group.

The hospitality service industry includes hotels, casinos, and resorts, which offer comfort and guidance to strangers, whether it be commercial (for monetary gain) or non-commercial (not for profit). The terms hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

, hospice

Hospice

Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...

, and hostel

Hostel

Hostels provide budget oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available...

 also derive from "hospitality," and these institutions preserve more of the connotation of personal care.

Hospitality ethics is a discipline that studies this usage of hospitality.

Pakhtuns

The Pakhtun people of South-Central Asia, pre-dominant in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 have a strong code of hospitality. They are a people characterized by their use of Pakhtunwali, an ancient set of ethics, the first principle of which is Milmastiya or Hospitality. The general area of Pakhtunistan is also nicknamed The Land of Hospitality.

Biblical and Middle Eastern

In Middle Eastern Culture, it was considered a cultural norm to take care of the strangers and foreigners living among you. These norms are reflected in many Biblical commands and examples.

The obligations of both host and guest are stern. The bond is formed by eating salt under the roof, and is so strict that an Arab story tells of a thief who tasted something to see if it was sugar, and on realizing it was salt, put back all that he had taken and left.

Classical World

To the ancient Greeks, hospitality was a divine right. The host was expected to make sure the needs of his guests were seen to. The ancient Greek term xenia

Xenia (Greek)

Xenia is the Greek concept of hospitality, or generosity and courtesy shown to those who are far from home. It is often translated as "guest-friendship" because the rituals of hospitality created and expressed a reciprocal relationship between guest and host.The Greek god Zeus sometimes referred...

, or theoxenia when a god was involved, expressed this ritualized guest-friendship relation. In Greek society a persons ability to abide the laws to hospitality determined nobility and social standing.

Celtic cultures

Celtic societies also valued the concept of hospitality, especially in terms of protection. A host who granted a person's request for refuge was expected not only to provide food and shelter to his/her guest, but to make sure they did not come to harm while under their care.

India

In India, hospitality is based on the principle Atithi Devo Bhava, meaning "the guest is God." This principle is shown in a number of stories where a guest is literally a god who rewards the provider of hospitality. From this stems the Indian approach of graciousness towards guests at home, and in all social situations.

Cultural value or norm

Hospitality as a cultural norm or value is an established sociological phenomenon that people study and write papers about (see references, and Hospitality ethics). Some regions have become stereotyped as exhibiting a particular style of hospitality. Examples include:

• Minnesota nice
  Minnesota nice
  Minnesota nice is the stereotypical behavior of long-time Minnesota residents, to be courteous, reserved, and mild-mannered. The cultural characteristics of Minnesota nice include a polite friendliness, an aversion to confrontation, a tendency toward understatement, a disinclination to make a fuss...
  
  

See also

• Backpacking (travel)
  Backpacking (travel)
  Backpacking is a term that has historically been used to denote a form of low-cost, independent international travel. Terms such as independent travel and/or budget travel are often used...
  
  
• CouchSurfing
  CouchSurfing
  CouchSurfing International Inc. is a corporation based in San Francisco that offer its users hospitality exchange and social networking services. It is a for-profit private corporation, planning to go public. With more than 3 million profiles in 246 countries and territories, CouchSurfing has an...
  
  
• Hospitality management studies
  Hospitality management studies
  Hospitality management is the academic study of the hospitality industry. A degree in Hospitality management is often conferred from either a university college dedicated to the studies of hospitality management or a business school with a department in hospitality management studies...
  
  
• Hospitality service
  Hospitality service
  The concept of hospitality exchange, also known as "accommodation sharing", "hospitality services" , and "home stay networks", "home hospitality" , refers to centrally organized social networks of individuals, generally travelers, who offer or seek accommodation without monetary exchange...
  
  s, modern day hospitality networks.
• Hotel manager
  Hotel manager
  A hotel manager or hotelier is a person who holds a management occupation within a hotel, motel, or resort establishment. Management titles and duties vary by company. In some hotels the title hotel manager or hotelier may solely be referred to the General Manager of the hotel...
  
  
• Motel
  Motel
  A motor hotel, or motel for short, is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles...
  
  

Further reading

• Danny Meyer (2006) Setting the Table : The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business
• Christine Jaszay (2006). Ethical Decision-Making in the Hospitality Industry
• Karen Lieberman & Bruce Nissen (2006). Ethics in the Hospitality And Tourism Industry
• Rosaleen Duffy and Mick Smith. The Ethics of Tourism Development
• Conrad Lashley and Alison Morrison. In Search of Hospitality
• Hospitality: A Social Lens by Conrad Lashley and Alison Morrison
• The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg
• Customer Service and the Luxury Guest by Paul Ruffino
• Fustel de Coulanges. The Ancient City: Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome
• Bolchazy. Hospitality in Antiquity: Livy's Concept of Its Humanizing Force
• Jacques Derrida (2000). Of Hospitality. Trans. Rachel Bowlby. Stanford: Stanford University Press
  Stanford University Press
  The Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
  
  .
• Steve Reece (1993). The Stranger's Welcome: Oral Theory and the Aesthetics of the Homeric Hospitality Scene. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press
  University of Michigan Press
  The University of Michigan Press is part of the University of Michigan Library and serves as a primary publishing unit of the University of Michigan, with special responsibility for the creation and promotion of scholarly, educational, and regional books and other materials in digital and print...
  
  .
• Mireille Rosello (2001). Postcolonial Hospitality. The Immigrant as Guest. Standford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Clifford J. Routes (1999). Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
  Harvard University Press
  Harvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
  
  .
• John B. Switzer (2007). "Hospitality" in Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
• Immanuel Velikovsky (1982). Mankind in Amnesia. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.