New-York tribune., 1908-07-27
HOTEL RECEIPTS GROW
RAROMETERS OF TRADE.
Citys HostIeries Feel the ImproUe-
ment an Business.

As day to day barometer of business condltiohs
in the United States the receipts Of the big ex-
pensive hotels In New York City are considered
among the sensitive to be found. In them
the pleasure seekers of continent spend their su-
per1uous cash generously not as the case may
be- but always generously If the times are good
And ii is that weight is placed the announce
of the propretors and managers of some of
the ctys most famous hostleries that the tide OF
financial depression has surely turned.
I'VE are doing a bigger business than we did
year ago at this time said Mr.. Foster manager of
St. Regis. TT IS interesting to see how sensi-
tive hotel receipts to the returning financial
optimism The business depression has been felt by
the hotels now-that Is, up to a month ago-for
about year and half. for. although the panic oc-
CURED as late last October, the economies OF
guests in preparation for it could be months
before. 1t is astonishing how the summer patron
age has improved in the last few weeks.
'Tn a time of depression the big hotels suffer
more than the small ones. think. The latter even
benefit by it extent. for those patrons
many of them, who when business booming
were in the habit of staying at the large houses
have been rerenching by going to the smaller ones
That situation will now soon be reversed"
London hotel managers have been quoted recent
ly saying that the hotel situation there was just
now the subject of much anxious thought. Lord
Bessborough. in the report of the Gordon Hotels
Company, has said that London, except for a few
weeks in the year. has too many hotels. Another
manager says that large hotels there species
of white elephant. The moderate sized hotels, he
says, erected IN the last ten years. have taken all
the best custom principally because they can select
their patrons with better discrimination, taking in
only Americans whose names appear in The Social
Register other foreigners who bring Wallets
Mr. Kramer. manager of the Carlton, agrees with
Lord Bessborough that wine drinking among Lon
don guests has fallen OFF considerably since the
South African
These opinions quoted to Mr.. Foster at the
St Regis.
THE first class New York hotel he said, ''is
much democratic institution than the same
hosiery could afford to be In London While New
York hotels careful to use discrimination In
the choice their guests, their problem is greatly
simplified by the good old American attitude that
one man is as good as another as long as ne be-
haves himself, keeps clean and pays his bills And
that's good reason why the big hotels pay the
best In New York City. Again, where London man.
ayers invaded by horde OF Continental tran
sients whose customs are heterogeneous and often
unpleasant to Anglo-Saxons, we here have only to
cater to Americans whose tastes are very similar
So there also the wedding out is done for US.
II can see very little difference in the consurnp-
ton wine by guests. That has Decn aLiect-
ed only in the same proportion as the consumption
of other hotel commodities by the hard tunes.
The authorities at the Hotel Manhattan, when
seen yesterday, were also positive that New forh
big hotels the best paying A sood hoteI
here" said official. has very little uouole
from undesirable patrons. Americans are much
moro nrone to seek their own level than are the
mass of people In country dominated by an arls-
tocracy We get only the class OF people we cater
to lust because the others don't care to come TO
u.s. And as our class of patrons is large, 1t pays
us much better to large rather than small
hotel"
The Manhattan has felt small falling off in Its
receipts from the consumption of wine. but not as
much as had been expected as a result Oh the
business depression This has been counteroal-
anced the officials thought. by the increasing
luncheon trade due to the steady movement up
town of the high class shops He said the Man
haitian was getting not only much of the trade
formerly obtained by the hotels in lower Fifth ave-
nue. but was increasing its receipts daily from the
looser pursestrings of returning prosperity.
At the Hotel Astor 1t was said that no such
thing as business depression existed any longer
and as proof of the mangements commence IN the
altered conditions the large addition to the hotel
now under construction was pointed TO- This also
answered efectuay the question whether the Dig
hotels we're the best paying The Astor mas no"
about five hundred rooms This Will be doubled
when the new part is completed. making II ana
the Waldorf-Astoria two of the largest ShOteis IN
the world The biggest London hotels average from
four hundred 20 six hundred rooms