Thursday, 14 July 2011

In The Travel Scene Hotels Are Main Performers

By Adriana Noton


Hotels are interesting features in the social landscape. In the view of post modern sociologists they can be de-constructed in many ways. Not only are they signs of commercial activity but also of the values and habits of people who use them. They may also be architectural and social artefacts in themselves.

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.

Hotels have dual functions. The primary function is accommodation. Travellers who draw in beneath a lighted sign will expect in the first place to find acceptably clean shelter and bedding where they can sleep peacefully. The following morning they might begin looking about for a few extras, depending on the tariff. Depending on what they have paid they may have access to a good breakfast, to a gym, sauna and perhaps a feeling of unfamiliar affluence that they may enjoy for a while before returning to reality.

Each hotel has a character. Some are new and shiny, others revel in their antiquity. The more that a hotel can gather from its ever moving clientele that happier it will be. Although shiny competitors keep rising from the ground the establishment with a past usually takes pride in that, and posts pictures, signatures and memorabilia from its ever moving stream of guests as signs of its reputation.

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.

It might have been expected that the 'Bed and Breakfast' phenomenon would pose a serious threat to the hotel industry. It is easy for home owners to set aside a spare room and offer accommodation at cheap rates. However, the expansion of the tourist industry that is associated with air travel seems to more than compensate for competition from this source. New hotels keep rising from the ground and chains produce profits for investors.

The capital behind hotels allows them to offer services such as gyms, health spas and theme restaurants that the private residence cannot afford. More importantly, privacy and discretion are valued by people who travel. After a wearying day the business person does not always wish to enter into new acquaintances and private conversations, with a curious host wanting to chat and share mutual acquaintances.




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