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Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels
University of California Press
January 2007
On Sale: January 17, 2007
373 pages
ISBN: 0520247825
EAN: 9780520247826
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
In this lively study, Rachel Sherman goes behind the scenes
in two urban luxury hotels to give a nuanced picture of the
workers who care for and cater to wealthy guests by
providing seemingly unlimited personal attention. Drawing on
in-depth interviews and extended ethnographic research in a
range of hotel jobs, including concierge, bellperson, and
housekeeper, Sherman gives an insightful analysis of what
exactly luxury service consists of, how managers organize
its production, and how workers and guests negotiate the
inequality between them. She finds that workers employ a
variety of practices to assert a powerful sense of self,
including playing games, comparing themselves to other
workers and guests, and forming meaningful and reciprocal
relations with guests. Through their contact with hotel
staff, guests learn how to behave in the luxury environment
and come to see themselves as deserving of luxury
consumption. These practices, Sherman argues, help make
class inequality seem normal, something to be taken for
granted. Throughout, Class Acts sheds new light on the
complex relationship between class and service work, an
increasingly relevant topic in light of the growing economic
inequality in the United States that underlies luxury
consumption.
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