Hotel Babylon

This book is similar to Air Babylon, which I read earlier this year - the focus on an industry with an image of glamorousness, narrated by a middle-manager who is neither a star nor a slacker, unveiling not just what really goes on in front of the curtain/behind the locked door, but the sex and drink-fuelled lives of the people who smile and look after us. Once again, none of the "exposés" are that shocking (and an identical vibrator story appears in both books, which is sloppy) but it's an entertaining read. I enjoyed it more than Air Babylon, mainly because of the way it shows you the mechanics of running a hotel - I like to know how things work, and it was interesting to find out exactly what makes a good concierge or bar manager. show more It's also pretty humane about the worse-off members of the hotel food chain, at one point noting "all the meat that comes back here has had a better life than most of the staff who work in this place". show less

Makes me really loathe the luxury hotel business. They sound like prostitutes, doing anything for the right amount of money. Such amazing things go on behind the scenes and behind the eyes of normal guests. This is certainly an eye-opening read.

This book describes 24 hours in a five-star hotel in London. The anonymous author was a manager of such a hotel when the book was published, but it’s written from the point of view of a receptionist. The staff are fictionalized, but the author claims that all the incidents described had really happened, albeit not in one day. He also tells stories about celebrities observed by him or his colleagues in various London hotels. This book is highly entertaining, but a few of the tales related are rather vulgar, and there was a point in the beginning of the book when I wondered whether to continue reading it or chuck it into the wastebasket. I decided to give it another try and was glad I did, for it does improve soon after.

The best part of show more the book, besides its humor and general entertaining value, is that the author doesn’t spare anyone: guests, hotel administration, its staff, or even himself. It’s a real behind the scenes look. Often it’s not a pretty picture, and it wouldn’t have made such an enjoyable read if it hadn’t been so hilarious. Guests who have to be rich to pay for accommodations there steal all sorts of things, from hotel bathrobes and KitKat from the minibar, painstakingly filling the plastic package with something to make it appear full, to artwork and refrigerators. However, the hotel grossly overcharges the guests on everything, from rooms to continental breakfasts which aren’t complimentary at all and mineral water in the minibar. It also overbooks, just in case someone cancels, which apparently happens often, and so guests who paid for an extra day to be allowed to check in early may not find their room available when they arrive (lying that the person who currently occupies the room couldn’t leave on time due to food poisoning works; lying that the room is unavailable due to sudden plumbing problems doesn’t). The sound insulation is apparently nil – the author says he can hear an orchestra of snores of various timbres when he walks along the corridors at night – and if somebody has a night-long wild party in his room, but orders enough food and drink through room service, the staff just sends the neighbors ear-plugs if they complain. Rats, mice and cockroaches defy all attempts to eradicate them. In short, it’s seems much pleasanter to read about than to experience. My personal favorite tidbit was about rich Arab businessmen who apparently routinely smuggle live sheep into their suits and butcher them there, leaving blood all over the floor, but nobody minds because they tip the staff in Cartier watches and diamond earrings.

Working there doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience either. It’s stressful and seldom rewarding. (The author mentions being thanked by a guest for being upgraded from a room to a suite, due to overbooking, to which he replied, “My pleasure,” adding to the readers that it really was a pleasure because usually they only get the grief.) Long hours take a toll of relationships. At one point, seeing an oil millionaire from Texas deciding which of the two prostitutes to take up to his room, the author says he finds the scene depressing, adding that it’s probably because it reminds him that they’re “all prostitutes in the luxury hotel business,” kowtowing to every whim of the rich. So why do people choose to work there? The only thing I could think of, from reading this book, is money, for they make quite a lot in tips. (Employees who don’t get tips are practically all immigrants who don’t speak even conversational English and are often illegal to boot – hotels “turn a blind eye to doctored passports” and “see nothing wrong in sending someone’s wages into an account under a totally different name.”) But, perhaps, it’s deeper than that, because the author says that he decided at the age of six that he wanted to work in a hotel and apparently never changed his mind, but he doesn’t elaborate on what attracted him to this work then or now. He opens the curtain behind the operation of a luxury hotel and the experience of working there, but chooses to draw it over his more personal sentiments.

But whatever working or staying in such a hotel is like, the book is very enjoyable, informative and well-written. I decided that I’d like to read more books like this about other work environments, and then I found out that the professional co-author of this book (Imogen Edwards-Jones) wrote similar books after this one, in partnership with other anonymous sources. The one about a hospital ER was favorably reviewed on LT by an ER doctor. However, I subsequently found out that most of her books are very rare in the US, for whatever reason. Perhaps, the industries involved didn’t like the exposure. One reviewer on Amazon.con wrote that it’s best not to read the book on air travel shortly before taking a plane. show less

I enjoyed this insider's story of a luxury hotel in London. There were several stories of strange or badly-behaved guests, as well as details about how hotels operate. Funny at times, tragic at others.

When I picked up this book, I correctly guessed that there wouldn't be much of a plot to it - that it would just be a jumble of all the crazy happenings that can happen at a luxury hotel, with it's wealthy and eccentric guests. However, I was -not- correct in thinking the lack of plot meant I'd be able to put it down whenever I wanted to, and come back to it later. The stories are just -that- crazy and wild, that you want to gobble them all up at once.

I love reading about the service industry, and this one was exceptionally well done. A sort of best-of five-star hotel, it shows the beautifully rotten underbelly of the shiny and perfect hotel we all expct when we travel. The pefect book to read on a long trip home from the Gold Coast.

An expose of the luxury hotel industry in Great Britain, by the manager of a five star hotel as told to a journalist/author. If only half of this stuff is true... I gobbled this book up, read it in one day because I just couldn't put it down. A guilty pleasure, much like reading The National Inquirer or Weekly World News.