We'll Keep the Light on for You

"The democratic sociability of American hotels was distinctive, and very much at odds with travel accommodations across the Atlantic. European hostelries were typically designed to keep their guests separated in their own suites of rooms, a custom originally devised to allow noblemen to keep aloof from the hoi polloi. When they visited the United States, Europeans reacted indignantly to the social promiscuity of hotels, often citing crowded dining halls like this one at New York City's Fifth Avenue Hotel. A 19th-century visitor from France groused that many American hotels 'offer hardly more privacy than bee-hives.'"

A.K. Sandoval-Strausz in Slate narrates a slide-show on the early history of the American hotel.