I work for a hotel/property management software company now and never worked in the hospitality industry other than being a busboy at a Howard Johnson's when I was 16, so I bought this book to give me a better feel for what goes on in the heads of the people using our software. I was disappointed in my choice as soon I opened the package and saw how briefly each topic is covered.
There are plenty of pictures and short biographies of the great hoteliers, which were about the most interesting parts of the book. Many other pictures showed typical workers smiling as they did their jobs, taken right out of the archives from the major hotels. Each chapter also had a summary and review questions section which takes up a good portion of the book. Other than things I had no interest in, such as pages of checklists on the steps to efficiently cleaning a hotel room and sample franchise agreements that used up more valuable pages, there was very little depth to any of it.
It only glanced at the subject of the night audit and accounting functions, which is what I originally bought the book for, and it's coverage of PMS (Property Management Software) systems was limited to remarking that this is one of the biggest changes to happen in the past ten years. I wondered if the author had ever had any exposure to any of the popular PMS packages in use today, or even knew of any since he didn't list or provide references for further study on this subject. With a copyright date of February 2001 I assumed I would get the most up to date coverage but the few pictures and paragraphs of front desk automation were of ancient terminals circa 1985 or so and virtually nothing was mentioned of recent technology changes such as the Internet and online reservation systems now being integrated and handled in-house.
This book is listed as 400 pages but is actually only a little over 300, which was a blessing in a way, since I couldn't wait to get through it and get started on more substantial book on the subject. I'm used to buying computer books with list prices in the range of this book's price tag, and expect to get a comprehensive guide to the subject when I do. I was disappointed with what I got for my money on this purchase though, and couldn't recommend it for anyone who doesn't have to buy it for a course they are taking in school. As a book to keep around just for knowledge, review and reference it is of little value to me.
Joe Buchberger
