Abstract: The market reforms that began in the late Soviet period and continued after the collapse of the USSR radically changed the country's hotel industry. The changes have affected literally all aspects of the industry. Similar large-scale changes were already taking place in the hospitality industry at the beginning of the twentieth century, after the socialist revolution of 1917. Therefore, it is interesting to find out how the young Soviet state, in the most difficult conditions of the civil war and foreign intervention, was able to practically rebuild the country's hotel industry. Because of this, the experience of hotel construction in the first two decades of Soviet power can be useful. The subject of the research in this article was the development of hotel enterprises in Nizhny Novgorod, such as communal hotels, "Peasant Houses", night shelters during this period.  The paper provides an analysis of the main directions of development of the Nizhny Novgorod hotel industry from 1918 to 1939. The article is based on materials from regional archives (TSANO and GOP NO), periodicals, and scientific literature. The article uses historical-systemic and historical-comparative methods, as well as general scientific methods such as description and comparison. The conducted research showed that the hotel industry of the city was in a difficult situation by 1918. The change in the social system in the state, the decline in the standard of living of the population, and the refugees provoked a crisis in the hotel industry of Nizhny Novgorod. The mass closure of enterprises was avoided only by nationalization and municipalization of enterprises. The opening of the Peasant's House in 1925 was able to alleviate the acute shortage of hotel stock for a short period. But in the 1930s, due to the growth of foreign tourism, the problem of a shortage of high-class hotels worsened. The construction of the Volna, Rossiya and Intourist hotels partially solved this problem. But for ordinary Soviet citizens, hotels are still inaccessible. At the same time, the level of service was at an extremely low level.