Ένα ακόμη βήμα
παραπέρα, και σύμφωνα με το κείμενο, είναι η δημιουργία μικρών βιβλιοθηκών στα
ξενοδοεχεία, η επένδυση δηλαδή σε αυτόν τον τομέα, που με τον τρόπο αυτό θα
μπορούν να δίνουν μια ξεχωριστή υπηρεσία σε όσους τα επισκέπτονται, με την
βιβλιοφιλική τάση, ειδικά σε όσους επιλέγουν ένα ξενοδοχείο για να ξεκουραστούν,
να είναι αξιοσημείωτα ανοδική.
ASK many travellers what books are found in hotels, and
they will mutter feverishly about Gideons Bibles, Readers’ Digest hardbacks and
dog-eared Catherine Cookson novels. The very idea of a hotel library is enough
to send them running to their Kindles for some sort of digital experience, even
though a couple of well-filled shelves can provide a welcome surprise and a
decent source of local insight.
A decent library can mark a hotel out from its competitors, give it a
nicely intellectual feel, and supply guests with another reason to stay in and
buy a drink. It is perhaps a shame when hotels decide that a
task as fun and indeed personal as choosing their libraries' contents should
not be done in-house by someone familiar with the locale. But swankier
operations may be nervous about choosing inappropriately and tainting their
brand, and anyway they may not have a bookworm on staff. Thus it becomes
sensible to invest a bit of money—up to $30,000 in some cases—to ensure a bit
of professional nous is applied to the selection. Those hotels that use the
Ultimate Library's services do not necessarily let Mr Blackwell’s team get on
with the job unimpeded. “With one hotel,” he says, “we had to come up with 150
books and justify each one.”
So what books should you have? Ultimate Library aims
to choose texts for its hotels that provide a sense of place, adventure, purpose
and perspective. “The library should not look like you walked into a bookshop
in 2013,”
says Mr Blackwell. “It needs depth.” So the company sources from both the new
and the second-hand market. The location, the average length of time for which
guests stay and the hotel's amenities (is it a spa? a dive centre?) will also
affect choice. In some regions, it will refer to lists compiled by authors
familiar with the area: Kate Mosse suggests books on Languedoc ,
for example; Sara Wheeler does likewise for East Africa .
Locally set detective fiction is a particularly good
way to get under the surface of a new destination, says Mr Blackwell. He
recommends John Burdett’s crime novels for guests staying in Bangkok ,
and Jason Goodwin’s books set in 19th-century Istanbul
will appeal to visitors to Turkey
At a time when many councils in Britain
