How to Run a Great Hotel: Everything you need to achieve excellence in the hotel industry [Paperback]

I co-own a small resort in Thailand, which was created from scratch 3 years ago, and has evolved more through large amounts of passion, than by proper business planning, into an establishment that is listed in Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, and has made #1 on Trip Advisor.

I was drawn to the title of this book, as excellence is what we are constantly aspiring to.

Having read the book, I can say it offers exactly what I was looking for in terms of sound, easy-to-read advice on the business theory aspects of running a hotel, and in clear language that is easy to explain to the team on site. We have made particular use of the Tools & Resources section, in particular the check sheets around guest expectations, which is all content that you sort of know, but don't necessarily focus on properly and systematically in order to drive to be the best that you can be. Mr Larkin was kind enough to send me soft copies of all the appendix templates as well. The author clearly understands business theory and it's practical application to the hotel sector.

I like the way that the book provokes thought, by posing questions about your business that need answers if you aspire to be the best. Obviously you have to tweak all this to your own environment, but you'd expect that anyway. It makes you take a step back from the all-consuming operational day-to-day running, and think about your establishment as a proper business, what you want to achieve out of it, and the key aspects of strategy and planning that will help you achieve that, which for us were largely ignored in the excitement and "lifestyle" focus of setting up a business in paradise. The section on the linkages between your Vision/Mission, Goals, Strategy and Actions to take in the next year was very useful to me in establishing proper operational targets for the on-site management, that help me achieve my objectives as an owner.

In summary, I highly recommend this book.

For further practical reading, I also found Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth Revisited (Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It)" very useful for the small business/(hotel) that wants to make the next step up the ladder of success.

Having read the authors previous book the promise of common sense appealed to me and if you're after practical, results driven advice, this book delivers! It gave me a really helpful reminder of the building blocks of good management as well as raising a few smiles as I recalled all the things I know, but have stopped doing! Since reading it I've put more structure back into my everyday management and it has reminded me to access what really works and all importantly, to pass this on to those around me. I would recommend this book to new or experienced managers, who like me, could benefit from some renewed clarity and direction.

As a hotelier with a 30 room hotel, I found this book remarkable. Not only does it provide in-depth advice on the practicalities of running a great hotel it provides food for thought for the arbitrary aspects of the culture of hotels and provides clear and achievable markers for success.