Here all along I thought we were talking about the late 18th century, early
19th century version of the hotel.  Then Ned's message came along. At that
point I remembered all those messages focussing on the bottles. Hmmm...
Very astute, as usual, Ned. But taverns weren't exactly truck stops. I'd
always thought of them more like today's hotels with parking lots. If you
look in a dictionary published in 1800, you won't find the word "hotel."
You will find the word "tavern," which will be defined something along the
lines of a place to find overnight lodging. Now, if you happened to be
riding a horse, which is very likely if you are traveling from point A to
point B, then you would need a place to stable it as well as yourself. And,
you would also need something to eat. And since water was incredibly unsafe
to drink in those days, you would want something that wouldn't make you
sick when you quenched your thirst, so the tavern keeper would probably
have some rum or wine or ale on hand in case you wanted it. If you are
driving cattle to market, he would make some accomodation for them as well.

The French word "hotel" did not make it into American vocabularies until
after 1820, and then for only very luxurious accomodations in big cities.
Gradually, country taverns who sought to upgrade their images adopted the
term, and only those establishments that provided food and liquid
refreshments without overnight accomodations called themselves "taverns."
By the 1870's, the word "saloon," also a fancy French word, began to be
used for those places that offered only liquid refreshment and no overnight
accomodation. The "tavern" had by that time long fallen into disrepute. Of
course, by 1920, the saloon had become so disreputable that the term wasn't
revived until the 1970's, just like the "tavern."