A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms and air conditioning or climate control. Additional common features found in hotel rooms are a telephone, an alarm clock, a television, a safe, a mini-bar with snack foods and drinks, and facilities for making tea and coffee. Luxury features include bathrobes and slippers, a pillow menu, twin-sink vanities, and jacuzzi bathtubs. Larger hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a restaurant, swimming pool, fitness center, business center, childcare, conference facilities and social function services.

Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs) to allow guests to identify their room.
Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In the United Kingdom, a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all guests within certain stated hours. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a minimized amount of room space and shared facilities.
Etymology
Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal, Budapest, Hungary
The word hotel is derived from the French hôtel (coming from hôte meaning host), which referred to a French version of a townhouse or any other building seeing frequent visitors, rather than a place offering accommodation. In contemporary French usage, hôtel now has the same meaning as the English term, and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning. The French spelling, with the circumflex, was also used in English, but is now rare. The circumflex replaces the 's' found in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time took on a new, but closely related meaning. Grammatically, hotels usually take the definite article – hence "The Astoria Hotel" or simply "The Astoria."
[edit] Types

Une assurance est un service qui fournit une prestation lors de la survenance d'un risque. La prestation, généralement financière, peut être destinée à un individu, une association ou une entreprise, en échange de la perception d'une cotisation ou prime.

Par extension, l'assurance est le secteur économique qui regroupe les activités de conception, de production et commercialisation de ce type de service.


L’assurance en France regroupe traditionnellement deux univers :

    * les assurances Vie ;
    * les assurances IARD (Incendie, Accidents, Risques Divers) qui sont souvent confondues avec les assurances Dommages ou encore le Non-Vie. Ce dernier terme semble d’ailleurs se substituer progressivement aux deux autres.

Assurance service is an independent professional service, typically provided by CPAs, with the goal of improving the information or the context of the information so that decision makers can make more informed, and presumably better decisions. Assurance services provide independent and professional opinions that reduce the information risk (risk that comes from incorrect information).[1]
[edit] Types of assurance service

Audits can be considered a type of assurance service. However audits are only designed to test the validity of the financial statements. Under an assurance engagement, accountants can provide a variety of services ranging from information systems security reviews to customer satisfaction surveys. Unlike audit and attestation services that are often highly structured, assurance services tend to be customized and implemented when performed for a smaller group of decision makers within the firm. Often managers must make decisions on things they have incomplete or inaccurate data for, and decisions made on such data may be incorrect and increase the overall business risk. In this respect, assurance services can be very helpful in reducing such risk and help managers or decision makers make more confident decisions within a given firm. This is similar to audits in that investors will choose to invest in a firm that is publishing financial statements that have been audited by an independent firm.