Pulling Back the Sheets: The Hotel Owners and Managers Operating & Repair Manual

Why are many hotels so broken and losing money? Could it be because hoteliers are stuck in the mindset of the past rather than focusing on what will bring more bookings and greater commercial success? Pulling Back the Sheets offers a candid look into the way the hotel business has failed to delight both customers and investors, even before the pandemic, and offers pointed guidelines on how to save a broken hotel. From empty rooms, restaurants and bars to gaping financial losses, the author explains why hotels have lost huge amounts of revenue and the market share of hospitality to online travel agents, Airbnb and independent restaurants and bars. This book is aimed at hotel owners, managers and anyone whose life revolves around hotels. Using his wealth of experience spanning more than 50 years in the hotel management sector, the author offers his key insights into the mistakes hotels have been making over the years. From their inherited legacy of aristocratic hierarchies to the infiltration of American capitalism on a global scale, the author pulls back the sheets on where hotels have been going wrong even prior to the COVID-19 crisis. Referring to the misguided philosophy of ‘the way things have always been done’ and the rigid resistance to change, the author proposes a new perspective on how to run, own or work in a hotel which is more in line with current lifestyles and guest expectations. Whether you are a hotel customer, a hotel owner or a hotel employee, you will find specific chapters dedicated to helping you get more out of your hospitality experience. Learn how to fix broken hotels that have continued to maintain the outdated traditions of haughty pretentiousness and formality and discover why few people wish to stay or work in such hospitality mausoleums. Through his own rich experiences and unique personal anecdotes, the author offers suggestions for a more effective, accountable organisational structure that needs far less staff than the hierarchical layers found in conventional hotels or those stuck in the traditions of Downton Abbey.This is not a self-help book; it is more like the service and repair manual that enables you to carry out your own car or motorcycle maintenance. Destined to revolutionize hotels and the way they are managed with its groundbreaking proposals for saving the hotel industry, Pulling Back the Sheets should be part of any hotel management school curriculum and read by all those involved in the world of hospitality.This is a book you need to read!