Just a couple of weeks ago, in New York City, I spotted an elevator being described as a “lift.” Now, one from an Aloft Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina. This seems to be a trend.
Just a couple of weeks ago, in New York City, I spotted an elevator being described as a “lift.” Now, one from an Aloft Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina. This seems to be a trend.
notoneoffbritishisms.com 
It isn’t politically correct any more, I know, but do Americans use the term ‘dumb waiter’ to refer to a tiny lift, used for moving dishes between kitchen and restaurant?
Yup. Here in Atlanta I have seen them in houses built in the last 15 years. Not necessarily massively large homes either, in houses with the kitchen on a floor above the garage entry.
The answer is here – https://www.dumbwaiters.com/contact-us
And for the UK – http://www.serviceliftco.co.uk/
Given the “lift” term, I’m wondering if that floor numbering is “American” or “European” style (i.e. whether that “2nd Floor” is one or two levels above the ground floor respectively).
It was American-style, Kelly.
Curiously, I was just reading an article in today’s Observer. Jonathan Bouquet was contrasting clichés with the turns of phrase used by Raymond Chandler. One extract he quotes from The Lady in the Lake starts, “The self-operating lift was carpeted in red plush.” Now, Chandler was educated at Dulwich College in London, but his books are seen as being typically American. (I suppose Bouquet could be quoting from an edition edited for the UK, but that doesn’t tend to happen in my experience.)
And I’ve just seen, in a newly refurbished shopping mall in Guildford in south-east England, a sign on a lift saying, “Elevator out of service.”