Early History
& The concept of hospitality is extremely old; it is mentioned in writings dating back to Ancient Greece, ancient Rome and Biblical Times.
& Two possible explanations of why ancient times people felt required to be hospitable: they felt that hospitality to strangers was necessary to their religious well-being and in others, they were hospitable only because of their own superstitious fears.
& Therefore we find either religion or the supernatural as the principal motivating force in the concept of hospitality.
& Hospitality in ancient Greece is understandable that certain elements of religion were intermingled with the idea. Missionaries, priests, and pilgrims formed a very large part of the travelling public. Often they were journeying to holy places, perhaps oracles or temples that had a dominant position in their religion.
& During the Roman era, travellers who were not on the road for religious reasons were usually on military, diplomatic or political missions.
& Many military travellers disdained using the accommodations that were available along the route. Inn in the cities was of bad reputation and detrimental to travelers; outside the cities, they neither existed nor were needed. The military travelers preferred, therefore, to sleep in the tents they carried with them.
& In ancient Persia, travelling was done in large caravans, which carried elaborate tents for use along the caravan routes. However, at certain points on these routes, accommodations known as Khans were constructed. These were simple structure consisting of four walls that provided protection not only against natural elements but also against enemies who attacked under cover of darkness.
& In the later years of the Roman Empire, taverns and inns provided shelter for travelling merchants, actors, and scholars. Accommodations were still primitive. Sometimes there were rooms for the people but no stables for the horses; more often there were stables but no rooms.
& The high spot of that era in terms of hospitality was the development by the Persians of posthouses along the caravan routes. These developed later than the khans and provided accommodations and nourishment for both soldiers and couriers.
& Marco Polo described the posthouses known as yams as apartments suitable for a king. They were located 25 miles apart, perhaps equivalent of a day’s ride, and supplied fresh horses for the couriers carrying messages throughout the land. By Marco Polo’s estimate, there were 10,000 such posthouses in existence at the time of his journey to the far east.