[bodyfour]

> hostel vs hotel

In french there is a common pattern where words lost an "s" while a vowel gained a circumflex. i.e. hospital -> hôpital, forest -> forêt, etc. I'm guessing hostel -> hôtel is another example of that pattern.

[henderson101]

Yes. The Norman French retained the S, where as it was lost in Central. Though, I've no idea of the timelines and how Norman ended up later on.