Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels

380 Pages·2007·1.37 MB·English

by  Rachel Sherman

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Class Acts
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The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution
to this book provided by the Frederick W. Hilles Publication Fund
of Yale University.
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Class Acts
service and inequality
in luxury hotels
Rachel Sherman
university of california press
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university
presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by
advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural
sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and
byphilanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions.
For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
Parts of chapter 4 are reprinted by permission of Sage Publications
Ltd.from Rachel Sherman, “Producing the Superior Self: Strategic
Comparison and Symbolic Boundaries among Luxury Hotel Workers,”
Ethnography6 (2): 131–58, copyright © International Society of Adaptive
Behavior, 2006. Excerpt from maid in manhattanappears courtesy
ofRevolution Studios Distribution and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Excerpt from ninotchkagranted courtesy of Warner Bros.
Entertainment Inc.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2007 by Rachel Sherman
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sherman, Rachel, 1970–.
Class acts : service and inequality in luxury hotels / Rachel Sherman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-520-24781-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-520-24781-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-520-24782-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-520-24782-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Hospitality industry—Customer services—United States.
2. Hotels—United States—Management. 3. Luxuries—Social
aspects—United States. 4. Social classes—United States. I. Title.
tx911.3.c8s54 2006
647.94068—dc22 2006003726
Manufactured in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on New Leaf EcoBook 50, a 100% recycled fiber
ofwhich 50% is de-inked post-consumer waste, processed chlorine-free.
EcoBook 50 is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/astm d5634–01(Permanence of Paper).
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For my parents
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Luxury Service and
the New Economy 1
1. “Better Than Your Mother”: The Luxury Product 24
2. Managing Autonomy 63
3. Games, Control, and Skill 110
4. Recasting Hierarchy 154
5. Reciprocity, Relationship, and Revenge 184
6. Producing Entitlement 223
Conclusion: Class, Culture, and
the Service Theater 257
Appendix A: Methods 271
Appendix B: Hotel Organization 287
Appendix C: Jobs, Wages, and Nonmanagerial
Workers in Each Hotel: 2000–2001 291
Notes 295
References 325
Index 341
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Acknowledgments
My greatest debt is to the workers, managers, hotel guests, and others
who participated in this study. I am especially grateful to the workers at
both hotels, who shared their workdays and their worldviews with me.
Though they had no control over my presence, the vast majority wel-
comed me openly and warmly; several became friends. Although I sus-
pect that this book is not what they expected, I hope they do not feel I
have misrepresented them or abused their confidence. I am also indebted
to upper-level managers in my sites, who permitted an inexperienced
worker and researcher to participate in daily life in their hotels, and to
their lower-level counterparts, who treated me on a par with other work-
ers. And I thank my guest interviewees, who took the time to share sto-
ries and sometimes very personal feelings about their consumption of
luxury service. Hotel managers outside my sites and other industry play-
ers were generous with their time and expertise.
I want to thank the staff at the HERE local at which I volunteered in
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