First hotel job was at a Hilton franchise. It was run by a foodie who sold catering business to the locals, and get this, all the money was cash. Right, the customers, HAD to pay in cash. The Ass't F&B ditto. I can remember him pocketing piles of cash in his desk drawer. I, fresh from the airlines, and naive as hell, didn't know the difference. The bar waitresses spun in and out of the cocktail lounge, upstairs with the local businessmen in shifts, back onto the floor after a half hour, the cash drawers loaded with checks. Checks! ! Who the heck pays for drinks with checks, large ones. The owner of the hotel, a franchise operation, frequently drunk out of his mind, owned a hotel in Miami, got bombed one night, was found the next morning by a maid, naked, dead, and robbed. Two hookers were arrested a day later.
This was my first exposure to hotels. Later, in another famous chain, at an airport, I was treated to the "merry bank of 5" local hoods who sat in the bar, flocked with fur. Think a sophisticated Badda-bing. Better English, no Tupperware breastages. As the Director of Sales, one of da' boys asked me to prepare a Suite for a Mr. Capone, arriving that night.
I quit, moved across the street to a competitors hotel and was threatened by da boys. I went to the DA's office who threatened them, I was there, and was warned to forget ever working there. Happily I complied. I moved to Arizona to protect my wife and children, now grown and gone.
Since then, I have worked in hotels for Indian owners, drunks, warped and weird megalomaniacs, one Nazi, a five foot high crippled sociopath and several top level management types that would make Hitler seem a gentler sort.
I have learned that women managers are a different sort, more suspicious, far less trusting than male superiors, far quicker with the blade. In the hotel business, it is all an ego driven business, a modern day serfdom. In my capacity as a medium to top level marketing and sales manager I had made millions for the owners and operators of hotels and resorts for every type of hostelry I could think of - yet, very little for me. Each had a way of carving my class out of the pie.
One General Manager said, " they don't want to pay sales people that kind of money." Amazing, eh? As an after thought, I regret it all, the hotel business. Statistically, it is the highest employer for non-skilled labor, and as the therapist community has reported, for low-self esteemers. What a waste of time.
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