The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-08-09
A Letter to a Hotel Man.
~ Or. FRANK CRANE
tCoryrtght. 1915. by Frank Crane)

business was on the bum. You gave a
good many reasons for bad business.
such as the war, the administration at
washington, the tariff, and other gen.
eral and national things. The men with
you also talked wisely of this and that.
Permit me to offer my suggestion
here, as to what's the matter with your
hotel. l might have mentioned it to
you personally if it had not been that
the air you carry effectively prevents
any confidential approaches
What l went to your hostelry for, and
what nine men out of ten go there for,
is HOSPITALITY. And that's the one
thing We don't find.
People who lodge in hotels are away
from home. They are lonesome,
OF course they need food and shelter,
and you give them that; but most of all
they want a cordial welcome kindly
atmosphere and human warmth of feel
ing, and that you do not give them.
/ found two things at your inn: obse-
quiousness and Indifference.
The obsequiousness was displayed by
that portion of the help that was looking
for tips.
The indifference by those you couldn't
tip.
The porter was very anxious to carry
my little valise that weighed about ten
pounds. The cloak-room girl insisted on
checking my hat and cane, that | could
easily have taken care of myself. The
walters manifested lively interest in
my well-being only at the crucial moment
when was counting my change.
Venality and subservience stuck out
all over these persons. Their acts and
manners dumbly shrieked, How much Is
this fellow going to give US
The impression | got was not that
was there to be made comfortable, but
that | was there to be ileeced. | was
not guest. | was prey.
Your desk clerk was out of place. He
ought to be warden in penltentiary or
doorman at charitable association. he
seemed panied whenever | spoke to him
and appeared to wish | would go away
and let him alone His business appar-
emily was not to accommodate me, but
to fiddle around among his books and 70
converse with some friends of his.
got no information ! did not wiring
out of him. He volunteered nothing.
He knew nothing about the street car
lines. nor the theaters, nor the way to
$50 Main-st.
He was about as cordial as the man
at the bank window.
would respectfully suggest that II
you would get your employees together
once a week and drill them in polite
ness, courtesy and geniality, your busi-
ness might pick up.
| am nobody, and do not want SER
wants to kow-tow to me. | am Just one
of the great public, one of the poor boobs
that give up the money that supports
you and all public or quasi-public insti-
buttons. But | am human, and little
humanity tastes good to me.
So, if you would make your caravan
sary less like mausoleum or a states
prison, and more like home. and the
rest of the common herd might like your
place better.
There is nothing" wrote DR.. john
son. (which has yet been contrived by
man by which so much happiness is pro-
duced as by good tavern or inn.'
Archbishop Leighton went so far as
to declare that if he were to choose a
place to die in, it should be an inn.
And doubtless you know the lines Of
William Shenstone-l remember seeing
them in mosaic on the floor Of the Ponce
de Leon hotel in st. Augustine:
"Whoe'er has Travelled life's dull round.
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh 10 think he still has found
The warmest welcome at an inn
If you would get bit of this spirit,
and less of the ways and means Of a
highway robber taking toll of passers-