Hospitality

For other uses, see Hospitality (disambiguation).
This article is about the social concept and practice of hospitality. For the commercial activity of travel services, see Hospitality management studies and Hospitality industry.
Bringing in the boar's head. In heraldry, the boar's head was sometimes used as symbol of hospitality, often seen as representing the host's willingness to feed guests well.[1] It is likewise the symbol of a number of inns and taverns.[2]
Trestles in the medieval House of Stratford coat of arms:
The trestle (also tressle, tressel and threstle) in heraldry is also used to mean hospitality, as historically the trestle was a tripod used both as a stool and a table support at banquets.[3]

Hospitality is the relationship of a host towards a guest, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill and welcome. This includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis, chevalier de Jaucourt describes hospitality in the Encyclopédie as the virtue of a great soul that cares for the whole universe through the ties of humanity.[4] Hospitality is also the way people treat others, for example in the service of welcoming and receiving guests in hotels. Hospitality plays a role in augmenting or decreasing the volume of sales of an organization.

Hospitality ethics is a discipline that studies this usage of hospitality.

  1. ^ Wade, William Cecil (1898). The Symbolism of Heraldry. London: G. Redway. pp. 31, 67.
  2. ^ Lower, Mark Anthony (1845). The Curiosities of Heraldry. London: J. R. Smith. pp. 73.
  3. ^ Guillim, John (1724). A Display of Heraldry. London: S. Roycroft & R. Blome. pp. 228–229.
  4. ^ de Jaucourt, chevalier Louis (2013) [1765], "Hospitality", Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 8, translated by Bourgault, Sophie, Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project, hdl:2027/spo.did2222.0002.761 – via University of Michigan Library