Flotel, a portmanteau of the terms floating hotel, refers to the installation of living quarters on top of rafts or semi-submersible platforms. Flotels are used as hotels on rivers or in harbour areas, or as accommodation of working people, especially in the offshore oil industry.
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Flotels were extensively used to house cleanup workers for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Cities along the shore in some cases were unable to accommodate the large number of workers needed for the cleanup, so BP used flotels to house some of the workers. BP told the media that flotels were convenient because they allowed workers to be close to cleanup sites, lessening travel time.
References
Flotel Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA