BEHIND THE SCENES IN A HOTEL
The modern hotel industry, claimed by the 35th Conventionof the New York Hotel Association to be the fifth largest industryin the United States, is of comparativelyrecent growth. It is true that fromthe earliest times there have been inns andsmall hostels for the accommodation of thewayfarer. But this accommodation was the simple provisionof board and lodging. The host and his family ran the housemuch as the modern boarding and rooming house is run. Untilthe late nineteenth century these houses, small and few innumber, were usually at stage-coach changes along the road.With the great increase in travel, stimulated by the growthof steam railroads, hotels sprang up in great numbers andtended to concentrate in large centers of population. The inventionof the elevator and the use of fireproof materials havemade possible the construction of gigantic modern edifices.In the last few decades, under these conditions, more and morecapital has been attracted to the industry until today thereare 40,000 hotels, large and small, in the United States.
The individual hotel has developed into a complex institution,often of colossal size, supplying board and lodging on amost luxurious scale. In all parts of New York State, particularlyin the smaller cities and towns, the small hotel withthe inn tradition, with a simple table d’hôte service at onerate, still exists. But the tendency in New York City and infirst and second class cities of the State has been toward arapid expansion in the size of the individual establishmentwith an elaboration of service, and a specialization of hoteltypes. In the larger cities of the State, there are hotels with450 or more rooms; in New York City there are many hotelswith from 1000 to 2000 rooms. The largest hotel in NewYork, “the largest hotel in the world,” by its own advertisement,contains 2200 rooms and 2200 baths. In answer to thespecial needs of special groups, different types of hotels have4sprung up—the commercial-transient hotel which suppliescomplete, efficient but unelaborate service, the apartmenthouse and family hotel with additional comforts and luxuriesfor residents of a longer period, the ultra-fashionable hotel,and the hotel that specializes in banquets, conventions andother social functions. No distinct classification holds, forthere is usually an overlapping of types.
As the individual hotel has grown, hotel corporations andsyndicates have developed. In New York City the largest,most complete hotels, almost without exception, are operatedby hotel corporations. Two companies are each managingfive of the largest hotels. Another company manages fivehotels, two of which are in first class cities of New York Stateand three in other states. On