The Peninsula New York in the context of The Peninsula Hotels

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator, and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a television, and en-suite bathrooms. Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs) to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities.

The precursor to the modern hotel was the inn of medieval Europe. For a period of about 200 years from the mid-17th century, coaching inns served as a place for lodging for coach travelers. Inns began to cater to wealthier clients in the mid-18th century. One of the first hotels in a modern sense was opened in Exeter in 1768. Hotels proliferated throughout Western Europe and North America in the early 19th century, and luxury hotels began to spring up in the later part of the 19th century, particularly in the United States.

New York City is home to the largest metropolitan transgender population in the world, estimated at more than 50,000 in 2018, with concentrations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The Brooklyn Liberation March, the largest transgender rights demonstration in history, took place on June 14, 2020 in Brooklyn, focused on supporting Black transgender rights and drew an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants.

Despite playing a significant role in advocating for LGBTQ equality since the 1969 Stonewall Riots and beyond, the transgender community in New York City has frequently been marginalized and abandoned by the city's broader gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer communities. Since Stonewall, particularly in the 21st century, New York City's transgender community has grown in both size and prominence.