Historia hotelarstwa w Łodzi

Abstract

Łódź has been described in numerous historical publications, yet none of them was entirely devoted to the history of hotel industry in Łódź. Therefore, the need to present this issue has arisen even if it is only for tourism and hotel schools. While analysing available sources, the authors have distinguished and characterised the following periods in the course of development of Łódź hotel industry: – the period preceding the 19th century – the 19th century – the beginning of the 20th century (till 1918) – the interwar period (1919–1939) – after World War II (1945–1973) – years 1974–1989 – the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries (1990–2004) Changes which occurred in a 150-year-period of the development of Łódź hotel industry were concerned not only with the number of hotels, rooms or accommodation places but also with the distribution and the type structure of accommodation sector. The most dynamic period for the development of hotel industry in the city fell on the years preceding World War I with the number of hotels reaching 20 (in 1918). This amount has not been reached till nowadays. As to accommodation places offered by hotels their number was significantly increased after World War II, especially in the 1970s when two biggest hotels of Łódź (Centrum and Światowit) were opened to the public. Another growth was observed in the second half of the 1990s together with the appearance of new establishments and transformation of previous workers’ hostels into public hotels. Till World War II hotels were concentrated within the boundaries of Nowe Miasto and its neighbouring streets which seems to be in agreement with the location of the most significant offices, cultural institutions and the railway station. This layout was preserved till the first half of the 1990s. After this period, running a small business not related to hotels, convenient location of the institution managing the hotel or a close neighbourhood of the communication artery have been some of the factors influencing locations of hotels in areas distant from the city centre. The structure of establishments rendering accommodation services in Łódź till World War II due to some inaccuracies in terminology was limited to hotels, guest-houses and inns and moreover, some of these notions were used interchangeably. About 43 accommodation establishments were operating in the post war history of Łódź hotel industry. In 2004, 40 of them have been rendering accommodation services (58% establishments are rated). Despite the significant domination in the type structure of hotel establishments they are rather poorly differentiated in terms of star rating. Among 7 hotels only 5 are three-star hotels and two are one-star hotels. Taking into consideration the small number of newly built hotels and hotel designs, together with suspended hotel constructions in recent years; it is evident that hotel investment in Łódź has been going through a serious crisis.