The pleasures and potential of the "anti-hotel" (a.k.a. the home-tel) are manifold: Anyone opening up a private residence to travelers is likely doing it for the income, but he or she may also relish the role of innkeeper, sharing insider-y information about the area.

CNN: Staying in a stranger's home: A field test

Their home became an unofficial headquarters for Soviet Jews wanting to escape anti-Semitism, and a temporary hotel for many who had finally won the right to emigrate.

NEWYORKER: A Woman��s Place

The event in a Greenville hotel ballroom was organised by the anti-abortion Personhood USA movement, which call itself the civil rights movement for the 21st Century.

BBC: South Carolina: Up close and in personhood

Luxe details include in-room bath products by La Prairie (Hotel Bel-Air is the only U.S. hotel to carry the Swiss brand specializing in anti-aging) and oversized baths with flat-screen TVs.

FORBES: Three New Top Hotel Re-openings To Check Out In 2012