Abstract

The article analyses the development of rented accommodation facilities in the city of Naples, from the 1740s until the Napoleonic decade. Except for Paris, recent historiography on mobility and migration has devoted little attention to temporary accommodations such as hotels, inns, hostels, and rooms for hire. The essay explores the relationship between these structures and their location in the city, focusing on the professionals who ran them, the services provided, and lastly the customers themselves. This has made it possible to detect the gradual differentiation of facilities in the Neapolitan accommodation market after the arrival of wealthy travellers and foreign businessmen who spread consumption models originating in Northern Europe. Alongside the new types of hotels, traditional structures persisted, accommodating workers and professionals «in transit», but also Neapolitans without a fixed home.