From Publishers Weekly
The anonymous author, who now manages an unnamed five-star hotel, has spent the past 15 years working in London's top lodgings. With British journalist Edwards-Jones, the author compresses these years into a 24-hour period (divided into one chapter for every hour) and places the events at a fictitious Hotel Babylon (to protect the guilty who may include the author). The result is an irreverent exposé of the often unimaginable debauchery and dishonesty of the luxury hotel industry. The insider's perspective affords honest assessments of the guests, workers and the hotel itself, revealing that "the scams are endless.... The suppliers do the hotel, the staff do the hotel and the hotel tries to do everyone." The man who can afford a £250 -per-night room but refuses to pay his 850-quid worth of calls to porn lines is despicable, but so is the hotel when it appends corkage fees for bottles never opened to unknowing wedding parties. In addition to including details of the rich and famous (Margaret Thatcher was "a great whiskey drinker"; Madonna complained "about the color of the curtains in her room"), the book shares odd "day-in-the-life of a front-desk receptionist" anecdotes (e.g., a naked lady singing in the lobby, a false fire alarm and the natural death of an old woman who lived at the hotel). Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
A luxury-hotel manager reveals what goes on behind closed doors...and sometimes, right out in the hallway.
The manager of an exclusive boutique hotel (who shall remain nameless) exposes the low-life styles of the rich and famous.
And we're not talking just loud all-night bashes...
The anonymous author has encountered lavish drug parties, gorgeous call girls, naked guests falling out of windows, $9,000 bottles of wine, astronomical telephone porn bills, bathtubs of Evian, and on more than one occasion, dead sheep. And every dirty word of it is true.
This is a trawl through the decadence and debauchery of the ultimate service industry - where money not only talks, but gets guests the best room, the best service, and also entitles them to behave in any way they please.
About the Author
Anonymous is currently the manager of a five-star hotel.
Imogen Edwards-Jones is an award-winning journalist.
Hotel Babylon: Inside the Extravagance and Mayhem of a Luxury Five-Star Hotel FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
The anonymous author, who now manages an unnamed five-star hotel, has spent the past 15 years working in London's top lodgings. With British journalist Edwards-Jones, the author compresses these years into a 24-hour period (divided into one chapter for every hour) and places the events at a fictitious Hotel Babylon (to protect the guilty who may include the author). The result is an irreverent expos of the often unimaginable debauchery and dishonesty of the luxury hotel industry. The insider's perspective affords honest assessments of the guests, workers and the hotel itself, revealing that "the scams are endless.... The suppliers do the hotel, the staff do the hotel and the hotel tries to do everyone." The man who can afford a 250 -per-night room but refuses to pay his 850-quid worth of calls to porn lines is despicable, but so is the hotel when it appends corkage fees for bottles never opened to unknowing wedding parties. In addition to including details of the rich and famous (Margaret Thatcher was "a great whiskey drinker"; Madonna complained "about the color of the curtains in her room"), the book shares odd "day-in-the-life of a front-desk receptionist" anecdotes (e.g., a naked lady singing in the lobby, a false fire alarm and the natural death of an old woman who lived at the hotel). (Dec. 7) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Art & Photography
Book Info
