The Secrets of Asia’s Five-star Hotels and their Guests

If I’m not staying with friends, then I usually stay in hotels during my regular travels around Asia. They tend to be the sort of hotels in which business travelers stay, indeed, the sort of hotels in which you as a reader of this book probably stay. I often take the time to chat to the staff. Hotel staff are an excellent source of information on the state of the local economy, which big local business families are intermarrying (the receptions are usually held at large hotels), and about the activities of other hotel guests. Several in Asia have become friends and I have interviewed them intensively about their work. What they have to say provides a fascinating insight into how big hotels in Asia operate, as well as on the differences in the habits of hotel guests in Asia according to the countries from which they come and how those varying habits affect hotels’ costs.