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.

Success in today’s rapidly changing hospitality industry depends on understanding the desires of guests of all ages, from seniors and boomers to the newly dominant millennial generation of travelers. Help has arrived with a compulsively-readable new standard, The Heart of Hospitality: Great Hotel and Restaurant Leaders Share Their Secrets by Micah Solomon, with a foreword by The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company’s president and COO Herve Humler. This up-to-the-minute resource delivers the closely guarded customer experience secrets and on-trend customer service insights of today’s top hoteliers, restaurateurs, and masters of hospitality management including: Four Seasons Chairman Isadore Sharp: How to build an unsinkable company culture Union Square Hospitality Group CEO Danny Meyer: His secrets of hiring, onboarding, training, and more Tom Colicchio (Craft Restaurants, Top Chef): How to create a customer-centric customer experience in a chef-centric restaurant Virgin Hotels CEO Raul Leal: How Virgin Hotels created its innovative, future-friendly hospitality approach Ritz-Carlton President and COO Herve Humler: How to engage today’s new breed of luxury travelers Double-five-star chef and hotelier Patrick O’Connell (The Inn at Little Washington) shares the secrets of creating hospitality connections Designer David Rockwell on the secrets of building millennial-friendly restaurants and hotel spaces (W, Nobu, Andaz) that resonate with today’s travelers Restaurateur Traci Des Jardins on building a “narcissism-free” hospitality culture Legendary chef Eric Ripert’s principles of creating a great guest experiences, simultaneously within a single dining room. The Heart of Hospitality is a hospitality management resource like no other, put together by leading customer service expert Micah Solomon. Filled with exclusive, first-hand stories and wisdom from the top professionals in the industry, The Heart of Hospitality is an essential hospitality industry resource. As Ritz-Carlton President and COO Herve Humler says in his foreword to the book, “If you want to create and sustain a level of service so memorable that it becomes an unbeatable competitive advantage, you’ll find the secrets here.”

The fully revised edition of this well-known text by an experienced author, consultant and educator follows the structure and approach which has proved so successful since its first publication in 1980. The book examines the hotel as a business providing commercial hospitality. It focuses on markets, money and people, and uses examples from hotel operations throughout the world. This new edition is the outcome of a thorough revision of an established text. The new material includes a comprehensive profile of the hotel business in the 1990's and includes data, quotes and extracts from a wide range of authoritative industry sources.

This book is an introduction to the management of food and beverage operations within a luxury hotel environment. It provides detailed coverage of operational areas within the food and beverage department, based on multiple real industry examples, allowing the reader to grasp the intricacies of the day-to-day running of outlets. Food and Beverage Management in the Luxury Hotel Industry is a reference for any hospitality management student wishing to gain sufficient knowledge in the subject, to conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the department, through revenue and cost management, and quality audits. It also looks at the various trends shaping the industry today, particularly focusing on sustainability issues and ethical concerns.

Provides a broad range of research and commentary on issues in the management of modern hotel departments for students. Covers changes in the industry reflecting the economy, organizational design, interdepartmental conflict in hotels, food and beverages, entertainment, front office management, marketing, financial control, and managing human resources. Includes numerous examples and case histories. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book offers students a uniquely concise, accessible and comprehensive introduction to hotel accommodation management that covers the range of managerial subjects and disciplines in the sector. The book focuses on enduring aspects of the accommodation management function (front office management, housekeeping, revenue management); the changing context of hotel accommodation provision (the move to ‘asset light’, the supply of accommodation, trends in hotel investment and asset management, the challenges engendered by social media and the collaborative economy to the hotel market); and the role of accommodation in additional and integrated facilities and markets (spas, resorts, MICE markets). International case studies illustrating examples of practice in the industry are integrated throughout, along with study questions and other features to aid understanding and problem solving. This is essential reading for all hospitality and hotel management students.