The Republican journal., 1900-01-04
The community's Duty to the Hotel

Inc community O~Sy ~ S .'OsSA
The hotel that retains guest for a
longer period than was intended is bene-
factor Of the city; the one that is SO in
hospitable and inferior as to cut his stay
short is the opposite. Every citizen should
he interested in the ho1el reputation his
citv bears. for no other business institu-
ton, investment considered, mas SO much
influence either for or against the city as
its leading hotel or hotels. 1t the leading
hotel of a town is slovenly managed,
| dirty, offensive to the taste OF the better
! class of travel; if its cooking is such as to
displease those accustomed to good MOTEL
service, that hotel is an institution which
no town can afford to maintain. Any one
! who travels extensively for business Or
pleasure, but especially the latter, will
admit that time and time again has a
pleasant, well conducted hotel been in
strumental in holding him longer than
was intended; the same person will also
relate to YOU instances where the hotel
was SO unsatisfactory as to cut the contem-
plated stay short.
Too often are the citizens of a town
chargeable with indifference toward the
efforts of the hotel proprietor, who may
be making brave struggle against great
odds. With a little exertion on the part
of the citizens, at little or no cost to them,
worthy endeavor on the part of the
hotel proprietor might result in success
instead of failure. What would be the
result? The town would retain a we'll
kept hotel, attracting and holding pat
ronage that is of general benefit to all,
instead of a concern that perhaps closes
or becomes third class establishment.
| A hotel is of public interest, of public
benefit There are instances where a
direct subscription to keep and maintain
a hotel would be profitable one for the
citizens. While such an unbusinesslke
measure is not to be advocated, yet it is a
fact that there are communities that neeo
stirring up on this subject. If the citizens
| themselves patronized the hotel to no
detriment or loss to themselves it would
assist the proprietor in dollars and cents
and, most of all, encourage him With
their good intent and will.
One point may be emphasized here. 1t is
better to do what You can to assist the
proprietor after it is open than to sub
scribe for a bonus fund in establishing a
hotel 1t isn't enough to build fine
hotel; it must be supported. Only million
aires can indulge in hotel building as a
pastime, and very few of them enjoy it.
How often does the community, as ex-
pressed in the local papers and other wise,
clamor for new, modern hotel. 1t is
built; there is a grand opening, and then
comes that ''dull thud.' Some one Tor
more than one) has been hit. 1t is to be
believed that the dear public has at last
become cOgniZant of the fact that neither
the hotel owner nor the lessee of the
present day is absolutely sure OF making
a million or more year out of hotel.
This used to be the prevailing opinion. In
olden times the inn keeper vas considered
a sort of a brigand or highwayman; when
the public became more charitable in its
views the hotel keeper was looked upon
as a kind of legaliZed robber who vas, as
a special dispensation of law and business
custom, permitted to extort money from
his unhappy victims. 1t is pleasing to
notice change. Now one occasionally
meets person who believes he gets the
worth of bis money at hotel quite as
much as he does in buying pair of shoes.
The truth is that hotel keeping has ar
rived at a condition where a Iampered
and spoiled public too often secures for
two dollars what should cost three. The
owner and lessee, one or both, pocket
loss. Over building hotels and open
competition has brought this about. The
public has come out a strong winner.
There are some towns to which these re-
marks will not apply; there are others
wherein the circumstances ere unmistak-
ably of this nature. In prosperous times,
when men often make money, scarcely
knowing how or why, hotel is sometimes
built that causes grief and anxiety to all
financially interested. 1.-THE Hotel.