A roadhouse (Australia and the United States) or stopping house (Canada) is a small mixed-use premises typically built on or near a major road in a sparsely populated area or an isolated desert region that serves passing travellers, providing food, drinks, accommodation, fuel, and parking spaces to the guests and their vehicles. The premises generally consist of just a single dwelling, permanently occupied by a nuclear family, usually between two and five family members.
In Australia, a roadhouse is often considered to be the smallest type of human settlement. [1] [2]
In Britain, the term was often a synonym for an advanced motel, but roadside pub-restaurant or hotel, depending on use, is more common today. A hotel resembling and having a public house (pub) is widely, nationally, called an inn.
The word's meaning varies slightly by country. The historical equivalent was often known as a coaching inn, providing food, drinks, and rest to people and horses.
The "roadhouse" or "road house" acts as a restaurant, serving meals, especially in the evenings. It has a bar serving beer or hard liquor and features music, dancing, and sometimes gambling. Most roadhouses are located along highways or roads in rural areas or on the outskirts of towns. Early roadhouses provided lodging for travelers, but with the advent of faster means of transport than walking, horseback riding, or horse-drawn carriages, few now offer rooms to let. Roadhouses have a slightly disreputable image, similar to honky tonks. This type of roadhouse has been portrayed in movies such as Road House (1948), The Wild One (1953), Easy Rider (1969), and Road House (1989).
Historically, roadhouses sprang up when significant numbers of people began to move to the frontier. In Western Canada they were known as stopping houses. From the 1890s in Alaska and the Yukon, beginning with the gold rush, [3] roadhouses were checkpoints where dog drivers (mushers, or dog sledders), horse-driven sleighs, and people on snowshoes, skis, or walking would stop overnight for shelter and a hot meal. Remains of a Klondike Gold Rush roadhouse can be seen today south of Carmacks, Yukon, along the Klondike Highway. [4] One built in 1902 is the Black Rapids Roadhouse; another still operating is Rika's Landing Roadhouse.
In Australia, a roadhouse is a filling station (service station) in many towns outside of major population areas. A roadhouse sells fuel and generally has an attached "restaurant" (like a café or diner) to sell and serve hot food to travellers. Historically, roadhouses served as bus stops for regional services along with mechanical repair and towing services for travellers, though this became less common.
In some areas such as the Nullarbor Plain, a roadhouse also offers motel-style accommodation and camping facilities. In many areas, the roadhouse may be the only remaining shop and outlet in a town. [5]
Truck stops are like roadhouses, but are located on primary intercity routes and transport hubs within major cities. They provide additional space for short term parking of heavy vehicles, as well as catering to travellers in private cars.
In Britain, the early forms of wayside lodgings of this type are coaching inns. As abroad, they were a place along the road for people travelling on foot or by horse to stay at night, but today they are often pub-restaurants without rooms to rent. Many, especially in rural parts, have kept guest accommodation to become bed and breakfasts or country hotels. With the advent of popular travel by motor car in the 1920s and '30s, a new type of roadside pub emerged, often on the new arterial roads and bypasses. They were large establishments offering meals, refreshment and accommodation to motorists and parties travelling by charabanc. The largest pub-restaurants boasted facilities such as tennis courts and swimming pools. Their popularity ended with the Second World War halting recreational road travel, and the advent, post-war, of the drink driving law thwarted the full recovery of the larger instances. Some out-of-town hotels rely on the breaking of long journeys, such as at the Dartford Crossing and Firth of Forth. [6] The term 'motel' is rarely used.
Post houses (casas de postas) were established in major towns and along principal highways. Post masters provided fresh horses, and sometimes carriages and over-night accommodation for use by Royal officers called Postillones, who were uniformed guides authorised to conduct passengers, goods and messages along specific routes. [7]
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator, and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a television, and en-suite bathrooms. Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities.
Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accommodation for horses.
A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries after World War II, the word motel, coined as a portmanteau of "motor hotel", originates from the defunct lodging compound establishment; The Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo, California, which was built in 1925. The term referred to a type of hotel consisting of a single building of connected rooms whose doors faced a parking lot and in some circumstances, a common area or a series of small cabins with common parking. Motels are often individually owned, though motel chains do exist.
A pub is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private houses from those open to the public as alehouses, taverns and inns. Today, there is no strict definition, but the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) states a pub has four characteristics:
The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon in northwestern Canada, between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896; when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of prospectors. Some became wealthy, but the majority went in vain. It has been immortalized in films, literature, and photographs.
A tavern is a type of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that has a license to put up guests as lodgers. The word derives from the Latin taberna whose original meaning was a shed, workshop, stall, or pub.
A resort is a self-contained commercial establishment that aims to provide most of a vacationer's needs. This includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort and the term resort may be used for a hotel that provides an array of entertainment and recreational activities. Some resorts are also condominium complexes that offer timeshares or fractional ownership, in addition to wholly owned condominiums. A resort is not always a commercial establishment operated by a single company, but in the late 20th century, that sort of facility became more common.
The coaching inn was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point (layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of travellers, for food, drink, and rest. The attached stables, staffed by hostlers, cared for the horses, including changing a tired team for a fresh one. Coaching inns were used by private travellers in their coaches, the public riding stagecoaches between one town and another, and the mail coach. Just as with roadhouses in other countries, although many survive, and some still offer overnight accommodation, in general coaching inns have lost their original function and now operate as ordinary pubs.
A truck stop is a commercial facility which provides refueling, rest (parking), and often ready-made food and other services to motorists and truck drivers. Truck stops are usually located on or near a busy road.
Balladonia is a small roadhouse community located on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia. It is the first stop east of Norseman on the journey east across the Nullarbor Plain. Between Balladonia and Caiguna is a 146.6-kilometre (91.1 mi) stretch of the highway which is one of the longest straight stretches of road in the world.
Moonbi is a village situated on the New England Highway 20 kilometres north of Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia. It is nestled at the foot of the Moonbi Range and is part of the Tamworth Regional Council local government area. Moonbi is located a few kilometres to the north of the town of Kootingal. At the 2006 census, Moonbi had a population of 357 people.
An Australian pub or hotel is a public house in Australia, an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. They may also provide other services, such as entertainment, meals and basic accommodation.
Hotels in Toronto have been some of the most prominent buildings in the city and the hotel industry is one of the city's most important. The Greater Toronto Area has 183 hotels with a total of almost 36,000 rooms. In 2010, there were 8.9 million room nights sold. Toronto is a popular tourist destination, with it having the 6th highest room occupancy rate in North America, but about two thirds of rooms are taken by commercial, government, or convention travellers.
A drinking establishment is a business whose primary function is the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. Some establishments may also serve food, or have entertainment, but their main purpose is to serve alcoholic beverages. There are different types of drinking establishment ranging from seedy bars or nightclubs, sometimes termed "dive bars", to 5,000 seat beer halls and elegant places of entertainment for the elite. A public house, informally known as a "pub", is an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises in countries and regions of British influence. Although the terms are increasingly used to refer to the same thing, there is a difference between pubs, bars, inns, taverns and lounges where alcohol is served commercially. A tavern or pot-house is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and, more than likely, also be served food, though not licensed to put up guests. The word derives from the Latin taberna and the Greek ταβέρνα/taverna.
The Grand Forks Hotel was a prominent roadhouse during the Klondike Gold Rush, situated near Dawson City in the Yukon region of Canada.
The Royal Oak Inn is a heritage-listed hotel located on the corner of Windsor Road and Commercial Road, in Rouse Hill in The Hills Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built in 1829. It has also been known as the Queens Arms Inn, and is currently known as the Fiddler Hotel. The property is privately owned and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
White Horse Inn is a heritage-listed former residence, inn, bank and restaurant at Market Street, Berrima, Wingecarribee Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1834 to 1850 by Edward Davies. It is also known as Commercial Bank of Australia, Rosebank, Oldbury's Inn, Holsberry Inn, Mail Coach Inn, and Royal Mail Coach Inn. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Clarence House, previously the New Inn (1785–1830) and the Clarence Hotel (1830–1972), is a former coaching inn and hotel in Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. The only surviving coaching inn of many which used to stand on North Street, Brighton's main commercial thoroughfare, it retains much of its original "severely plain" Georgian appearance, with Classical features and mathematical tiles; but the interior has been changed since its closure in 1972 and conversion into a mixed-use commercial building. The four-storey structure, which is in a conservation area and which has been listed at Grade II by Historic England for its architectural and historical importance, is empty and has been vandalised and squatted repeatedly, but planning applications were raised in 2021 and 2022 for the creation of two flats and a new restaurant within the building.