Antje Rathsmann

• The importance of the hotel sector as part of the cultural environment has not been recognised yet, partly because of a missing awareness that hotels could actually be regarded as a national treasure. The hotel business is not only a service provider for tourism - supplying different options for overnight stays - but also representative of social and built environment. It works as a meeting place and communication point; it reflects former and current culture of living as well as buildings. Within a rapidly changing world there is an increasing requirement of protecting measures for ever more aspects of the environment as e.g. for national heritage and nature conversation. So far nobody thought that hotels and inns might qualify for this category and any initiatives taken so far were generally based on private effort. A public awareness does not exist, partly because the difference between culturally worthy objects/ensembles is solely depending on individual measures of value. A classification in categories, which strengthens awareness for the hotel environment and also allows an affiliation of giving cover, is missing. This work is dedicated to exactly that shortage. In the beginning it proves that hotels/inns are worthy being integrated into protective measures. They are important representatives of the built and social culture including the living culture where one lives history. The main part of the work concentrates on a two-part systematisation ï‚· An areal allocation seems essential to rate where exactly in a town protective measures are needed. In order to do so examples for the so called "town protection zones" (Stadtschutzzone) by JÄTZOLD are used. ï‚· Following the idea of the town protection zones an introduction of a historical categorisation will be introduced, which allows allocating objects and ensembles into the different eras. The history of hotels and concise examples will show the differences " relics of early tourism, time of hostels and inns, health resorts and grand hotels, recent developments as well as stylish hotels. Subsequent to this categorisation additional conceptual suggestions to be used in praxis are made, taking into account the decision-makers that should be involved. It results in a multidisciplinary approach, which integrates heritage, town planning, bearers of cultural awareness, policy makers, etc. Negative and positive examples are deployed to force the urgency of a sensible exposure with the treasure "hotel". To force the necessity a comparison between Germany and Great Britain is used where applicable. The author believes the cultural awareness in Great Britain, which also integrates the protection of the hotel sector, is much higher and better than in Germany.