PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN HOTELS:
AN EXPLORATORY OVERVIEW
Leslie A. Brownrigg
KEY WORDS: residence, units of population enumeration, hotels, and business strategies
ABSTRACT
The number and types of hotels and similar accommodations hosting residents, sojourners on open-ended stays and regulars who spend part of every week or month or year in hotels began to increase in the late 1980s. People from all walks of life are settled, onindefinite stays or cycling through hotels. Multimillionaires enjoy services and facilities even they cannot afford to replicate in private household settings, and often buy equity in the unit they occupy. Hundreds of thousands of Americans at any time are in establishments that offer discounts or subsidies arranged by third parties – employers, government housing programs, insurance companies, universities, the military, and social service agencies. Accommodating settlers, sojourners and regulars reflect innovative business strategies adopted by most hospitality brand families and property owners. New construction and remodeled hotels offer complete housing units – studio or bedroom apartments with kitchen and bath – where local ordinances permit. States and localities markedly vary in how they define, tax, and regulate accommodations not exclusively geared to transients. The report concludes with a discussion of ways the Decennial Census, Service Census, and both population and economic surveys can respond to the present reality of people living in hotels.
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