Hotel keeping is an arduous profession. It needs technical, managerial, marketing and economic expertise; what’s more, it demands total commitment. This book provides the complete purchasing toolkit. It removes all the complications and mystique and guides readers around the pitfalls of ownership, saving much heartache and expense.

Hospitality.

Hotels.

Many people dream of buying a house in the country or near the coast, with outbuildings that can be converted into holiday lets; or of taking over an existing holiday cottage business. Gillean Sangster did it. She moved to Scotland with her husband where they started their own successful holiday cottage business. In this book, she tells you how you can do it too.

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.

This is the 2nd edition of this practical guide to establishing a profitable online business. It includes business ideas, case studies, suggestions for creating a visible web presence, tips for gaining and maintaining customers, and everything else you need to know to set-up and run a successful online venture. Anyone looking to generate some extra income through their computer will benefit from this guide. Only basic computer and internet skills are needed for this guide. It provides an advice for established businesses looking to fully harness the power of the internet.