Definition
An innkeeper; the keeper of a hostelry or inn. Historically, the term designated the person responsible for lodging and accommodating travelers, encompassing both the provision of shelter and, commonly, the care of guests' horses. Over time, the occupational meaning narrowed: the stable-keeping function split off into the distinct term "ostler" (also spelled "hostler"), while the lodging function became absorbed by the more modern vocabulary of innkeeper and hotelier.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An alternative form of "hosteller," meaning a person who stays at or operates a hostel.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The keeper of a hostel or inn; also, historically, a student residing in a small unendowed college at Oxford or Cambridge.
The legal and common meanings tracked closely for centuries but have since diverged in emphasis. In modern common usage, "hosteler" (or "hosteller") leans toward the traveler or hostel-goer rather than the proprietor, reversing the older occupational sense. The legal usage was consistently proprietorial — the hosteler was the keeper, not the guest — and carried with it duties of care toward travelers and their property that attach to innkeepers at common law.
Common Confusion
HOSTELER / OSTLER / HOSTLER: The three forms share a common root and are easily conflated in historical texts. "Hosteler" in its legal sense meant the innkeeper or lodging-house keeper. "Ostler" and "hostler" are variant forms that, by the time the major dictionaries were compiled, had narrowed specifically to stable hands who tended guests' horses. Researchers encountering these spellings in older records should not assume they refer to the same role or carry the same legal duties.
HOSTELER / INNKEEPER: For practical legal purposes, the two terms are interchangeable in historical sources. Innkeeper is the preferred term in modern legal usage and in the case law and statutes that govern liability for guests and their property.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is primarily encountered in historical sources — medieval and early modern English legal records, colonial American materials, and nineteenth-century treatises — where it functions as a synonym for innkeeper. Researchers should be aware of three navigational points.
First, spelling variation is significant. The term appears as "hosteler," "hosteller," "ostler," and "hostler" across sources from the same period, sometimes within the same document. Only context clarifies whether the reference is to the inn's proprietor (hosteler/hosteller) or the stable hand (ostler/hostler). Legal duties and liability questions turn entirely on which role is meant.
Second, the substantive law that attaches to this term is the law of innkeepers — the common-law strict liability for guests' goods, the duty to receive travelers, and related obligations. Searching under "hosteler" alone will miss the bulk of the relevant doctrine, which migrated to "innkeeper" vocabulary well before American legal sources became dense. Researchers should treat hosteler as an entry point that leads immediately to the innkeeper corpus.
Third, Anderson's Dictionary cross-references only to HOTEL and INN without defining the term independently, which is a fair signal that by the time of that dictionary's compilation the term had become archaic in active legal usage. The substantive content lives under those related entries.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in close agreement. Both Black's (first and second editions) and Bouvier's give nearly identical definitions, each citing Cowell's legal glossary as authority: an innkeeper, with the note that "ostler" had become the form applied specifically to those tending horses. Anderson's declines to define the term at all, redirecting to HOTEL and INN. This consensus reflects a shared understanding that hosteler was a term of historical interest rather than active legal currency by the late nineteenth century. None of the dictionaries develop the duties or liabilities associated with the role under this headword; that doctrine is reserved for the innkeeper entries. Researchers should not expect these dictionary entries to surface the common-law content — they function as indexing terms only.
Jurisdictional Note
The term belongs to the common-law tradition and appears in English and American legal sources. It has no meaningful modern statutory presence in either jurisdiction. Substantive legal questions about innkeeper liability are governed by state common law and statute in the United States, with significant variation in the scope of liability for guests' property.