Questions

1. What is a guest house like?

2. What is the characteristic feature of this type of accommodation in Russia?

3. Why does the quality in guest houses differ in Russia?

4. What are the room taxes in guest houses defined by?

5. Where are guest houses mostly located?

6. Why are mini-hotels typical for the St. Petersburg hospitality infrastructure?

7. What are they like? What are they equipped with?

Motels

Traditionally a motor hotel or a motel for short is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles.

In Russia motels have national peculiarities and they are popular as the country does not enjoy the developed highway system everywhere. So the need for inexpensive, easily accessible overnight accommodation sited close to the main routes is obvious. Most Russian motels developed from the road cafes by contracting extra rooms for guests. The main accent is made on public catering though. A Russian motel is usually a two or three-storey building with a café or restaurant on the first floor and rooms for guests above it. It usually doesn’t have more than 50 rooms.

Quite often the word ‘motel’ is used for entertainment complex including a casino, amusement park, restaurant, rooms, horse-riding facilities. (e.g. Motel Aivengo, 18km from Moscow). Motel “Chaika” in Perm has a paintball complex, ski slope, football field and other not typical facilities for whole concept of a motel. So, such motels cater for a different target group than simply motorists. They are a mixture of a mini-hotel and a motel in fact. That’s why calling this type of accommodation “a motel” is rather a marketing strategy.

Questions

1. What is a motel?

2. What national peculiarities do Russian motels have?

3. What is the main accent made on in Russian motels? What target group do they cater for?

4. What other facilities in addition to parking can Russian motels offer?

Hostels

Russian hostels are a budget-oriented sociable accommodation, where guests can rent a bed in a dormitory, share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen.

Russian hostels operate together with travel agencies. According to the Russian legislation hostels cannot act as an independent accommodation. Such hostels are usually based on various lodging facilities and occupy a rented space (one or several floors in the building). The hostel has all the common features of this type of accommodation: a travel agency arranges a shared kitchen, lounge, provides Internet use and often translating services. Another scheme is when inexpensive hotels or dormitories are promoted and are offered for rent under the hostel’s label.

The first Russian hostel was opened in 1992 in St. Petersburg. In 1993 Russian Youth Hostel Association (RYHA) was founded. At present it combines the lodging facilities in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novgorod, Petrazavodks, Irkutsk. Due to the major flow of visitors to Russian capitals the hostel community is quickly developing there. Moscow hostels are more focused on foreign tourists who make 60-90% of the visitors staying in hostels.