Inn brand names like Holiday Inn, and in some laws that refer to lodging operators as "innkeepers". The Inns of Court in London were once accommodations for members of the legal profession. Other forms of inn exist throughout the world. Among them are the honjin and ryokan of Japan, caravanserai of the Ottoman Empire, and Jiuguan in ancient China. In Asia Minor, during the periods of rule by the Seljuq and Ottoman Turks, impressive structures functioning as inns () were built because it was thought that inns were socially significant. These inns provided accommodation for people and their vehicles or animals
Awazu Onsen Awazu Onsen Away Onsen claims to have been founded by the shugendō monk Taichō in the Nara period. Taichō was a native of neighbouring Echizen Province and is said to have been the first person to have claimed Mount Hakusan, from which the hot springs at Awazu Onsen have their source. Although it is a small resort with few more than ten "ryokan", each inn has its own well, rather than using a common source. The Hōshi Ryokan, founded in 718 AD was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest hot spring innfounded in 705.