The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution to this book provided by the Frederick W. Hilles Publication Fund of Yale University.
Class Acts
SERVICE AND INEQUALITY
IN LUXURY HOTELS
Rachel Sherman
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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 by philanthropic 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,” Ethnography 6 (2): 131–58, copyright © International Society of Adaptive Behavior, 2006. Excerpt from MAID IN MANHATTAN appears courtesy of Revolution Studios Distribution and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Excerpt from NINOTCHKA granted 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 of which 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).
For my parents
Contents
Introduction: Luxury Service and the New Economy
1. “Better Than Your Mother”: The Luxury Product
5. Reciprocity, Relationship, and Revenge
Conclusion: Class, Culture, and the Service Theater
Appendix B: Hotel Organization
Appendix C: Jobs, Wages, and Nonmanagerial Workers in Each Hotel: 2000-2001
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 welcomed me openly and warmly; several became friends. Although I suspect 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 workers. And I thank my guest interviewees, who took the time to share stories and sometimes very personal feelings about their consumption of luxury service. Hotel managers outside my sites and other industry players were generous with their time and expertise.
I want to thank the staff at the HERE local at which I volunteered in 1995-97 for introducing me to the hotel industry and its workforce. Margaret Hunt, K. O. Odsather, and Mary Jo Martin intervened in indispensable ways at the beginning of the research. I am also indebted to the following sources of funding for the dissertation on which this book is based: the Clair Brown Graduate Study Fellowship from the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California, Berkeley; the Institute for Labor and Employment of the University of California; and the National Science Foundation's Dissertation Improvement Grant. I am also grateful for prior funding from the National Science Foundation and the University of California and for the assistance of the Frederick W. Hilles Publication Fund of Yale University, which supported the publication of this book.
I was lucky to work with an extremely supportive and helpful dissertation committee. Readers will see that I am indebted intellectually to Michael Burawoy; what they cannot see is the personal debt I owe him. Michael engaged enthusiastically with this project from beginning to end, reading and commenting on everything from my first tentative memos about the hotel industry to the conclusion of this book. His generosity with both his time and his ideas is a model for me as a teacher and adviser. Kim Voss and Raka Ray have been both insightful teachers and good friends. Kim helped me to stay grounded in my data and to link my findings to other research in the field. Raka shared my fascination with questions of entitlement, class, and subordinating interactive labor, and talking with her helped me develop my thinking about these issues.
In graduate school, I was fortunate to have the input of many wonderful fellow students, including Amy Hanser, Bill Hayes, Linus Huang, Anna Korteweg,