Thursday, July 14, 2011

In The Travel Industry Hotels Are Star Actors

By Adriana Noton


Post modern sociologists delight in de-constructing hotels as signs of many different things. They are of much more significance than mere places to stop over. They also stand for social values, architectural features and national landmarks.

Having come into the English language from French the word carries with it the usual flair that French words bring with them. A hotel is not an 'inn' or 'hostelry' because it owes its existence and its name to the fact that it will offer more than basic accommodation, but other attractions as well.

On the one hand people who choose to pause in their travel beneath the sign 'hotel' as a sign above the door of a place to stay will expect practical functions of various kinds. There will be clean rooms and bedding attended to by professional hotel staff. After that the services provided will vary enormously, depending on the tariff. Some cheap offer clean and economical rooms and not much else. For a little more one may expect facilities for making a cup of tea upon awakening.

On the other hand each hotel has its unique character. It lives in a space between its location and the passing trade of travellers who come and go on a daily basis. Its unique character is derived from it function as a temporary stop in the transient flow of humanity. Hotel staff come to work every day and manage the delicate balance between those who come and go and those who come and stay.

In English literature and culture hotels play their significant roles. The novelist Arnold Bennett helped to portray them as places where the activities and attributes of various characters are entwined with the activities of a place. Guests come and discretely but closely observed by staff who are balanced between the security of being permanent and the obligation to serve temporary guests.

More recently the TV series 'Fawlty Towers' explores in hyperbolic terms the situations that can arise where the public and private worlds clash. In countless film dramas, corridors and rooms are used as places where an outside threat may suddenly intrude into a private place. As Aristotle advised, this tension between opposing impulses is the essence of drama.

Parallel with the hotel trade industry is a burgeoning Bed and Breakfast industry. It might be expected that his would pose a serious threat to the hotel industry, but such does not appear to be the case. New hotel chains seem to profit and expand, yielding good returns for investors even though Bed and Breakfast take their quota of travelling guests.

There are several reasons why hotels can easily withstand the combined assaults of many small competitors. A chain offers exactly the same standard of service in each of its units so that to stay in one is almost the same as to stay in another. Travel can be wearying and many people, at the end of a day like to stay in a place that they know will offer a standard of service that they know. They may also prefer privacy and discretion to the intrusive hospitality of an enthusiastic but quizzy host.




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