CHAPTER 4

Uniqueness of the Hospitality Product

There are many elements of the hospitality industry that make it unique from other industries. The hospitality product is part product and part service. The service element is often intangible, with the customer a key part of the service component. Hospitality products and processes are highly perishable, and often location-bound. The product and process generally cannot be outsourced.1

Part Service, Part Product

E.M. Statler, the father of the hotel industry, said “A hotel has just one thing to sell. That one thing is service.”2 The hospitality industry delivers a product that is part service and part physical product. They are inseparable. Service pervades every facet of the hospitality industry. ...

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