I stay in hotels a lot. Often for only one night at a time. I recent traveled back to the UK and for a one week trip to visit family, whom I stay with, I have to stay in 3 different hotels (2 of them airport hotels). I’m fascinated by the way hotels work, how rooms are allocated and so on. Why in some hotels when I return to my room mid afternoon has it still not been cleaned? I’m often checking in super late at night and when I travel for work to Asia, I’m checking in at 6 am so I did know how to ensure your room doesn’t get given away because you were a no-show.
This book answered a lot of my questions (but not all). The author has an engaging writing style. He does hate working in hotels though so if you were hoping to buy this for an aspiring hospitality worker, don’t!!
He has some great anecdotes and once or twice I laughed loud enough to have to read out the funny bit to my husband. The one thing I was disappointed in was that the author has only worked in hotels in US cities. I think part of what fascinates me is how people assimilate when they live abroad (and no prizes for guessing why that fascinates me if you read my bio!) particularly working odd or long shifts. I once met a girl working in a hotel in Shanghai from the next door Caribbean island to where I live. I had so many questions for her but instead spent the time with her discussing home and local politics, which she seemed to need to hear about more than I wanted to know what her expat life was like.
The author has the usual cringe-y stories about what goes on behind closed doors. And if you’ve ever lost anything in the bedding and asked the hotel to retrieve it for you, you’ll think again once you’ve read how they have to wade through mountains of dirty and stained laundry to find it!
Overall a good read if you’ve ever wonder what it’s like working in a hotel.