A special 25th year anniversary edition of The Design Hotels™ Book presents an in-depth look at 25 boutique properties around the world that are changing the way we think about hospitality. For a quarter century, Design Hotels™ has been at the forefront of a movement in hospitality, curating a global collection of independent, design-driven hotels that function as social hubs and platforms for extraordinary experiences. In celebration of this benchmark, Design Hotels™ sent some of the world’s leading editorial and lifestyle photographers around the world to capture the unique character of 25 hotels at the vanguard of their hand-selected collection. Each hotel tells a story, rich with emotion and steeped in the history, culture, and nature of its local environment. The new, special edition of the brand’s wildly popular annual brings these stories to life through evocative photo essays and reportage. This edition of The Design Hotels™ Book is a distillation of a quarter century of pioneering design and original experiences, as well as a must-have for a worldwide community of travelers, likeminded in their pursuit of singular aesthetic environments, genuine local culture, and transformative, boundary-pushing travel experiences that defy conventional notions of luxury.
Who minds sleeping under a mosquito net when it's royally draped over the bed in a lush Kenyan, open-walled hut, fashioned from tree trunks and shielded from the sun by a sumptuous thatched roof? This selection of the most-splendid getaway havens nestled throughout the African continent is sure to please even the most finicky would-be voyagers. Photos.
What is a hotel? As Caroline Field Levander and Matthew Pratt Guterl show us in this thought-provoking book, even though hotels are everywhere around us, we rarely consider their essential role in our modern existence and how they help frame our sense of who and what we are. They are, in fact, as centrally important as other powerful places like prisons, hospitals, or universities. More than simply structures made of steel, concrete, and glass, hotels are social and political institutions that we invest with overlapping and contradictory meaning. These alluring places uniquely capture the realities of our world, where the lines between public and private, labor and leisure, fortune and failure, desire and despair are regularly blurred. Guiding readers through the story of hotels as places of troublesome possibility, as mazelike physical buildings, as inspirational touchstones for art and literature, and as unsettling, even disturbing, backdrops for the drama of everyday life, Levander and Guterl ensure that we will never think about this seemingly ordinary place in the same way again.
From its beginnings as the humble inn, the hotel has undergone enormous changes over the centuries. Elaine Denby charts the development of the Grand Hotel and how it has kept pace with technological innovations.
From the palace hotels of the elite to cheap lodging houses, residential hotels have been an element of American urban life for nearly two hundred years. Since 1870, however, they have been the target of an official war led by people whose concept of home does not include the hotel. Do these residences constitute an essential housing resource, or are they, as charged, a public nuisance? Living Downtown, the first comprehensive social and cultural history of life in American residential hotels, adds a much-needed historical perspective to this ongoing debate. Creatively combining evidence from biographies, buildings and urban neighborhoods, workplace records, and housing policies, Paul Groth provides a definitive analysis of life in four price-differentiated types of downtown residence. He demonstrates that these hotels have played a valuable socioeconomic role as home to both long-term residents and temporary laborers. Also, the convenience of hotels has made them the residence of choice for a surprising number of Americans, from hobo author Boxcar Bertha to Calvin Coolidge. Groth examines the social and cultural objections to hotel households and the increasing efforts to eliminate them, which have led to the seemingly irrational destruction of millions of such housing units since 1960. He argues convincingly that these efforts have been a leading contributor to urban homelessness. This highly original and timely work aims to expand the concept of the American home and to recast accepted notions about the relationships among urban life, architecture, and the public management of residential environments.
The World Boutique Hotels Awards showcases the finest luxury boutique hotels around the world, and is distributed internationally to the rooms of every member hotel and other luxury locations. Building on the highly successful and internationally recognized World Boutique Hotel Awards, this unique coffee table-style book not only promotes the extraordinary hotels but also tells the fascinating stories of the people behind them: the owner's journey, their business ethos, and their vision to create truly unique experiences.
In the tradition of Kitchen Confidential and Waiter Rant, a rollicking, eye-opening, fantastically indiscreet memoir of a life spent (and misspent) in the hotel industry. “Highly amusing."—New York Times Jacob Tomsky never intended to go into the hotel business. As a new college graduate, armed only with a philosophy degree and a singular lack of career direction, he became a valet parker for a large luxury hotel in New Orleans. Yet, rising fast through the ranks, he ended up working in “hospitality” for more than a decade, doing everything from supervising the housekeeping department to manning the front desk at an upscale Manhattan hotel. He’s checked you in, checked you out, separated your white panties from the white bed sheets, parked your car, tasted your room-service meals, cleaned your toilet, denied you a late checkout, given you a wake-up call, eaten M&Ms out of your minibar, laughed at your jokes, and taken your money. In Heads in Beds he pulls back the curtain to expose the crazy and compelling reality of a multi-billion-dollar industry we think we know. Heads in Beds is a funny, authentic, and irreverent chronicle of the highs and lows of hotel life, told by a keenly observant insider who’s seen it all. Prepare to be amused, shocked, and amazed as he spills the unwritten code of the bellhops, the antics that go on in the valet parking garage, the housekeeping department’s dirty little secrets—not to mention the shameless activities of the guests, who are rarely on their best behavior. Prepare to be moved, too, by his candor about what it’s like to toil in a highly demanding service industry at the luxury level, where people expect to get what they pay for (and often a whole lot more). Employees are poorly paid and frequently abused by coworkers and guests alike, and maintaining a semblance of sanity is a daily challenge. Along his journey Tomsky also reveals the secrets of the industry, offering easy ways to get what you need from your hotel without any hassle. This book (and a timely proffered twenty-dollar bill) will help you score late checkouts and upgrades, get free stuff galore, and make that pay-per-view charge magically disappear. Thanks to him you’ll know how to get the very best service from any business that makes its money from putting heads in beds. Or, at the very least, you will keep the bellmen from taking your luggage into the camera-free back office and bashing it against the wall repeatedly.
The author brings to life some of Italy's most amazing landscapes, such as Venice, Lake Como, Florence, the Amalfi Coast and the Aeolian Islands. She explores legendary hotels in which novels have been set, movies made and love stories consummated.
As the digital revolution has dominated the modern business world, successful online marketing is made a necessity, not a luxury.If you're determined to embark on digital marketing for your hotel or tourism company, but you 're deterred by the complexity of the task, we have news! If you're set on giving your business THAT upward trend, with most efficient digital marketing strategies, this book is exactly what you need! Get Your Hands On A Rich Collection Of Marketing Wisdom!A pioneer in Digital Media and Technology, founder of Barbados.org, most popular Caribbean travel site for Barbados, best-selling author of Website and winner of the Atlantic Canada Award for Innovation in Technology, featuring in New York Times (NYT 2011 nytimes.com/2011/04/19/business/19hotels.html) & The Financial Post, on Canadian TV and countless media...... Ian R. Clayton, author of Marketing Hotels & Tourism Online needs no further recommendation! And he is sharing with all ambitious hotel & tourism business owners a wide range of life-changing tools, tips and techniques to expand your customer base through the smart use of the social and digital media.Get On The Map, Ensure High Ranking & Skyrocket Your Bookings!If you think it's time to save time and tons on money on poor or zero result marketing strategies, you're definitely in the right place!No more theories! Get the first-hand knowledge you need to embark on successful online marketing through tried, tested and proven marketing techniques, precious tools and sound promotion advice:- turbocharge your business digital potential with the high traffic it deserves- get highly ranked and easier to find - build a stellar reputation- get featured in the press- get in charge of the marketing game and ahead of the pack! Walk Your Path To Success With Confidence!Easy-to-follow and comprehensive, this book is a real gem for practical guidance with the last trends in digital marketing, which will help all hotel and tourism professionals feel inspired, supported and empowered to start their own success story!Order Yours NOW & Turn Over A New Leaf On Your Hotel Or Tourism Business! ### Authors Notes The Marketing Hotels and Tourism Online Series are three books, WEBSITE, DIGITAL MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY, that provide simple but powerful, practical and actionable advice and know-how for hotel and tourism professionals, owners and marketers. These books will get you inspired, focused and ready to take direct control of your online marketing, reputation management, and public relations. All Books include actual case studies, illustrations and examples from tourism. The strategies, tools and resources apply to any business and the book is especially reliant to small business owners, manager and industry professionals. Book 1 is for digital novices are requires little or no knowledge of the internet. It explains how to perfect your website for the digital age. Book 2 digital media is still at the introduction level but it introduces more advanced topics featuring what you need to do to drive traffic to your website and build your brand online. All at a easy to follow level. Book 3 is the most advanced level and build on book 1 and book 2. It looks at Artificial Intelligence and technology to Build your brand, market, engage, inspire and close business.
WhoÕs that knocking on your hotel room door? Is it room service or a ghostly visitor? Guests have recounted strange occurrences likes these during their stays at some hotels. This title introduces reluctant readers to some of these haunted encounters with unwanted hotel guests.
