Why do we say a "hotel room" and not a "hotel's room"? [closed]

I would like to know what the rule is to explain why we do not use the genitive construction hotel's room. Instead, we say "a hotel room".

Other examples:

• a hospital bed
• a bike stand

Would it suffice to ask "What kind of..."?

Solution 1:

Your examples use nouns that are used to modify other nouns (attributive nouns). Possessive (also called Saxon Genitive) constructions, on the other hand, show possession [in the extended (my bike's front wheel) rather than just the proprietorial (John's bike) sense].

"a hotel's room" - a room belonging to a hotel

"a hotel room" - a specific type of room, somehow related to hotels (in this case also usually belonging to the hotel but that is not necessarily important)

similarly "hospital's bed", vs "hospital bed"

• We have three beds from central supplies and one from King Edward VII Hospital. The hospital's bed must be returned by May 2.
• A hospital bed can be identified by the fact that it may be raised electrically.
• There are an additional 10 000 new hospital beds in the new Nightingale hospitals. [Here, beds may mean beds, ie spaces, available.]

"the bike's stand" would imply that the stand belongs to the bike while "bike stand" describes a type of stand that is somehow related to bikes (of course, here, designed to house bikes).