"гостиница" и "отель"

[Brzeczyszczykiewicz]

Thus far I'd only encountered "гостиница" in my Russian course book, but a short while ago I was reading a novel and found "отель " instead. Is it merely a stylistic thing or is there any other difference between the usage of one or the other?

[Fruchtenstein]

Depends on the text you are reading, in some sense. Many years ago, there was the implicit meaning that "отель" is a "гостиница" in a foreign country. Nowadays, even stylistically they are almost indistinguishable. Perhaps, "отель" is a little pretentious.

[Brzeczyszczykiewicz]

Thank you very much! Yes, I used to think that "отель" was only used to emphasize that it was not a Russian hotel one was talking about.

The instance of "отель" in the novel I'm reading refers to a hotel in Vienna. Afterwards, however, another hotel is mentioned (I read this passage only about an hour ago), this time in Budapest, and that one is called a "гостиница"; so you are quite right, it seems there's not really much of a difference in how they are used.