The Oldest Hotel in the World – The Roshi Ryokan

The existence of hotels and inns has been important in the history of traveling. People traveling thousands of miles needed places to stop for having rest, taking food and water after long journeys. It is considered that people started to build inns from the Roman times. These were not only places where travelers stopped, but also was a community gathering spot. Besides lodging, food and water, inns also provided travelers with horses as well as sheltered horses in their stabling. The history of inns is over 2000 years old. Time and the nature have played their crucial role in destroying most of those ancient buildings.  

However, a well preserved hotel has survived for 1,300 years and still hosts travelers from different parts of the world. The ancient history of the Roshi Ryokan hotel in Japan begins with a great Japanese Buddhist teacher Taicho Daishi, who was traveling across the area perform his exercises. For this reason, he climbed the mount Hakusan, which was an amazing spot for training Buddhist exercises. The wonder happened when in his dream the spirit of the Mount Hakusan appeared to the teacher, by indicating the place of a hot spring, which had  a curing power. The indication was quite clear with mentioning the name of a small village Awazu, where the natural spring was supposed to be. By the help of the local people, the Buddhist teacher traveled around the area, finding the spring, which cured people of all their illnesses.

The rumors about the curing power of the hot spring spread all over the country; more and more people traveled to the place to get healed their illness. On this regard, the teacher ordered to build a spa on the place for the people visiting the area to get healed.

Now there is a Japanese ryokan (the Japanese name of the word inn) on the spot, which has been run by the Hoshi family for 1,300 years. Accordingly, it is considered to be the oldest standing and active hotel in the world; moreover, it is the oldest company that has operated over 1,300 years. Certainly, the old building of Hoshi Ryokan has expanded into numerous new building with all of the contemporary equipment to ensure the comfort of its visitors. If more in details, the hotel can host nearly 450 guests.

The four buildings comprising the hotel are named after the four seasons of the year. It is supposed that all of those seasons signify life, hence giving happiness to their visitors. 
This magnificent relic of history is considered one of the top hotels in the world, providing its guests with a high quality service.