Now,finally I want to consider the psychologyunderpinning the traditional holiday hotelindustry.As a hotelier,how do you go aboutattracting people to give up the security of theirown home and entrust themselves to staying in acompletely strange place and sleeping in anunfamiliar bed?Firstly,hotels exploit people's needto escape the predictability of their everydaylives.For a few days people can pretend they arefree of responsibilities and can indulgethemselves.Secondly,there is something verypowerful in our need to be pampered and lookedafter,it's almost as if we return to being a baby,when everything was done for us and we feltsafe and secure.And not far removed from this is the pleasure in being spoilt and given littletreats - like the miniscule bottles of shampoo and tiny bars of soap,the chocolate on your pillowat night - and we actually forget that we are paying for it all!
Next week,I'm going to look at eco-hotels,a fairly new phenomenon but increasinglypopular...