Jacques Levy-Bonvin is a well known Swiss expert in hotel management. In June this year he was in Moscow and delivered the lecture on technical comfort in the hotel, which we have covered in the magazine; hereby we continue the coverage and introduce Lévy’s book called „Technical Hotel Management".

The globe-trotting breed of people are forced to spend much time away from home, and they know better all the drawbacks in hotel management, both in chains and independent ventures. Too many good inns across the world suffer, of all things, from discomfort in their rooms! To begin with, many old hotels still operate obsolete models of individual AC units tormenting both travelers and hotel’s own technical maintenance staff. Or take other inns which can not guarantee their guests the safety of their personal effects stemming from the lack of will or insistence to replace the inferior lock system. Experienced globe-trotters pay attention to these things, even if they are not experts in hospitality industry.

Jacques Levy-Bonvin is not simply a profie; he is the ultimate authority on certain issues in the industry. For the last twenty years he has been heading the department in Staefa Control System Co., prominent in their meticulous Swiss-designed building sanitary systems. The corporation counts many renowned hotels among its customers, and Mr. Lévy has been one of its stalwarts.

Now this is only natural that having traveled so extensively over the years Mr. Lévy brought out to the world the book, „Technical Hotel Management", published earlier this year. As the author admitted in the preface, the book was borne through the inspiration when he has been dealing with numerous and miscellaneous technical problems, some of them insurmountable in many hotels for the simple reason of the absence of elementary information which is needed. Mr. Lévy was writing his book in the evening and on weekends (which are not too numerous in J. Lévy’s life) within the period of nine months. However, the result was worth the effort, and now the hotel managers have the unique 210-page manual, which reference is true even by Western European standards.

In the West, they publish lots of books on hospitality business, but for the most part they concern financial management aspects.

One of the main objectives of the „Technical Hotel Management" was „to bridge the gap between hotels and technical product suppliers", and to demonstrate to hotel managers the way to transform their hostelry in the integrated functional system.

The practice has demonstrated that the absence of necessity to undertake any reforms in hotels to upgrade comfort is the guest’s priority in evaluation of a hotel. Every person has its own notion of comfort, that’s why it will not be easy to satisfy all tastes. Even the simple parameter of the room temperature ought to be adaptable to personal predilections.

All four constituents of the overall comfort, i.e. thermal comfort, quality of air, technical perfection and monetary comfort, ought to be linked together and at the same time must be pliable enough, changeable in a centralized way and individually.

There is much for the hotel world in technological advance; you’ve got to have the knack in analysis of your errors and miscalculations and in the usage of opportunities. Jacques Levy-Bonvin’s book will be the gospel for those who are willing to learn how this is done. Hopefully, the „Technical Hotel Management" is going to be published in Russia as well.