Pure diffusion? The great English hotel charges debate in The Times, 1853

Abstract

This article explores the role of nineteenth century national newspapers and their readers in disseminating management innovations to the English hotel industry. In September 1853, many well-travelled, knowledgeable customers spontaneously wrote letters to The Times complaining about over-priced, uncomfortable English hotels compared to lower-priced, more comfortable European and North American hotels. The letters and editorials from The Times and other national newspapers campaigned for English hotels to adopt international hotel management innovations. The article suggests that this is an early example of pure diffusion in communicating innovations.

Keywords:

• The American Plan
• diffusion of services innovation
• hospitality industry

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Editors of Business History, Ray Stokes and John Wilson, and two anonymous referees for their constructive and positive comments; and Mark Billings, Julie Bower, Mitch Larson and Simon Mowatt for their advice and encouragement at the Innovation and Technological Session at the Association of Business Historians Conference (Newcastle, June 2014). I claim full responsibility for the contents of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

David Bowie is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the Oxford School of Hospitality Management, Oxford Brookes University. His research areas broadly include hospitality and destination marketing, with a focus on international hotel branding and the historical evolution of the British hotel industry.

Notes

1. Newspapers in the mid-nineteenth century used the expression ‘English hotels’ throughout the hotel charges debate to include hotels in England, Scotland and Wales.

2. Von Hippel, “Lead Users.”

3. Mazza and Alvarez, Haute Couture.

4. Greenhalgh, Gelnn, MacFarlane, Bate and Kyriakidou, “Diffusion,” 601.

5. Ganter, “Changes”; Quek, “Globalising”; Walton, “Seaside Tourism.”

6. Source, Message, Channel, Receiver, Effect – see Rogers and Shoemaker, Communication, 20.

7. Taylor, Ritzy, 20/21.

8. Brock et al., The History, 12.

9. Ganter, “Changes.”

10. Rich, Bourgeois Consumption, 137.

11. Ganter, “Changes,” 440.

12. Denby, Grand Hotels, 111.

13. Ibid., 33.

14. Brock et al., The History, 15.

15. Denby, Grand Hotels, 33.

16. Brock et al., The History, 17.

17. King, “The First-class Hotel,” 179.

18. Ibid., 176.

19. Ibid.,

20. Brock et al, The History, 16–17.

21. Ibid., 26.

22. Ibid., 27.

23. Berger, Hotel Dreams, 190.

24. Ibid., 7.

25. The Caterer, Hotel Proprietor and Refreshment Contractors’ Gazette, 15 October 1888, “Running a Big American Hotel,” 390.

26. White, Palaces of the People.

27. “The Grand Hotel,” 1880, The Era, June 6.

28. Ibid.

29. Borer, The British Hotel, 184.

30. Taylor, Ritzy, 24.

31. Borer, The British Hotel, 164.

32. Ibid., 35.

33. Taylor, Ritzy, 37.

34. Simmons, The Victorian Hotel, 5.

35. “English and Foreign Hotels,” 1853. The Observer, September, 25.

36. Taylor, Ritzy, 39.

37. Several letter writers to The Times, like A Biffin, used a nom de plume. The nom de plumes adopted by respondents provides an indication of their education/occupation – or for some their extreme anger as a result of their stay in English hotels. Examples, such as M. A. Cambridge, Peregrinus – The Greek Cynic Philosopher, Viator, Economist, an MP, an Ex MP, A Country Clergyman, A Solicitor, A Lancashire Magistrate, A Commercial Traveller, An English Corn Merchant, A Soldier, A Tradesman, a Retired Tradesman, and A Commoner, suggest that the travellers included the well-educated; members of the clerical, political and legal establishment; the military; a variety of business travellers; retired business people and ordinary folk. Most respondents did not state their home address, but those that did showed that people from all over Britain, including London, Aberdovey, Brighton, Edinburgh, Jersey, Limerick, Liverpool, Manchester, Portsmouth, Tenby and Weymouth, provided examples of poor hotel standards which they had experienced in all parts of the country; and A. Biffin, letter to the editor, The Times, March 23, 1853.

38. A. Young Man, letter to the editor, The Times, September 3, 1853.

39. A Home Traveller, letter to the editor, The Times, September 10, 1853.

40. Viator, letter to the editor, The Times, September 9, 1853; and M. A., letter to the editor, The Times, September 21, 1853.

41. A. Retired Tradesman, letter to the editor, The Times, September 8, 1853.

42. Q.E.D., letter to the editor, The Times, September 17, 1853.

43. Fleeced, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 16, 1853.

44. Sitiens, letter to the editor, The Times, September 15, 1853; and A Commercial Traveller, letter to the editor, The Times, September 19, 1853.

45. A Commoner, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 15, 1853.

46. “The remarkable interest excited by the discussion.” 1853. The Times, September, 24.

47. Sitiens. 1853. “The Licensing System, As Connected With Hotel Charges.” The Times, September, 20.

48. Viator, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 9, 1853.

49. Economist, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 13, 1853.

50. M.A., letter to the editor, The Times, September, 7, 1853; and A. Victim letter to the editor, The Times, September, 9, 1853.

51. A Country Clergyman, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 23, 1853.

52. An English Corn Merchant, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 20, 1853.

53. T. K. Staveley, 1853, “Hotel Charges,” The Times, September, 21; and A Tradesman, letter to the editor, The Times, September 22, 1853.

54. Content, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 9, 1853; and Well-content, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 26, 1853.

55. William Smythe, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 21, 1853.

56. An Hotelkeeper, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 14, 1853.

57. James and Son, “English and Foreign Hotels”. The Observer, October, 6, 1853.

58. One Who Loves To Travel, But Is Deterred By The Expense In England, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 16, 1853; and Fleeced, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 16, 1853.

59. Victim No 1, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 16, 1853.

60. The Editor of the ‘Handbook for Travellers’, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 23, 1853.

61. Ibid.

62. Traveller, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 16, 1853.

63. Ibid.

64. Victim No 1, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 16, 1853.

65. One Who Loves To Travel, But Is Deterred By The Expense In England, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 16, 1853.

66. “How is it that Englishmen”, The Times, September, 9, 1853.

67. Ibid.

68. Ibid; and “In our impression of yesterday”, The Times, September, 15, 1853; “The hotelkeepers of England have furnished us”, The Times, September, 21, 1853; “The remarkable interest excited by the discussion”, The Times, September, 24, 1853.

69. “English and Foreign Hotels”, The Observer, October, 6, 1853.

70. “Hotel Charges”, The Era, October, 2, 1853.

71. “English and Foreign Hotels”, The Observer, October, 3, 1853.

72. “English and Foreign Hotels”, The Observer, October, 9, 1853.

73. “The remarkable interest excited by the discussion”, The Times, September, 24, 1853.

74. Ibid.

75. Katz, “Theorizing Diffusion”; Neuman and Guggenheim, “The Evolution”; Wejnert, “Models of Diffusion”.

76. Rogers and Shoemaker, Communication, 20.

77. Mazza and Alvarez, Haute Couture, 569.

78. Nohria and Berkley, “Whatever Happened.”

79. Greenhalgh et al. “Diffusion,” 601.

80. Ibid., 593.

81. Ibid., 593.

82. Bishop, Folkestone.

83. An American Traveller, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 10, 1853.

84. Traveller, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 16, 1853; and Sitiens, letter to the editor, The Times, September 15, 1853.

85. Traveller, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 16, 1853.

86. One Who Loves To Travel, But Is Deterred By The Expense In England, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 19, 1853.

87. A Victim, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 9, 1853.

88. Rogers and Shoemaker, Communication, 205.

89. Katz, “Theorizing Diffusion,” 152.

90. Defleur, “James Bryce.”

91. Ibid.

92. Katz, “Theorizing Diffusion,” 152

93. Ibid.

94. Mazza and Alvarez, Haute Couture.

95. Ibid., 581.

96. Ibid., 573.

97. “40,000 copies of The Times in 1850”. (1911). Encyclopaedia Britannica. Eleventh Edition. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1911. Vol. XIX, MUN to ODDFELLOWS. [Article on] Newspapers, p.557; and The Times, Past, Present Future, 19.

98. Ibid., 18.

99. Ibid., 22, 24

100. A Commercial Traveller, letter to the editor, The Times, September 19, 1853.

101. “The remarkable interest excited by the discussion.” 1853. The Times, September, 24.

102. “English and Foreign Hotels”. 1853. The Observer, September, 25.

103. “Hotel Charges.” 1853. The Era, October, 2.

104. “Hotel Charges.” 1853. The Era, October, 14.

105. “Adelphi Theatre.” 1853. The Times. October, 14.

106. An Hotelkeeper, letter to the editor, The Times, September 14, 1853.

107. William Smythe, letter to the editor, The Times, September 21, 1853; and Charles Cox Hughes, letter to the editor, The Times, September 21, 1853.

108. “Hotel Charges,” The Era, October, 2, 1853.

109. “Westminster Palace Hotel” advert, The Times, July, 30, 1857.

110. The Times, July 10, 1858.

111. Ibid.

112. The Observer editorial, November, 14, 1858.

113. Ibid.

114. Ibid.

115. Simmons, The Victorian Hotel, 10

116. Westminster Palace Hotel” advert, The Times, February, 24, 1858.

117. The Times, July 30, 1859; September 24, 1859; September 26, 1860; September 28, 1860; November 6, 1860; and November 8, 1860.

118. ‘The Modern Gigantic Hotel System’, The Era, November, 1, 1863.

119. ‘The Langham Hotel’, The Times, June, 12, 1865.

120. “The Grand Hotel”, The Era, June, 6, 1880.

121. “We printed on Friday an interesting letter.”The Times, September, 25, 1899.

122. “The Great Westminster Palace Hotel”, The Observer, 1858; “The Langham Hotel,” The Times, November, 14,1865; ‘The Savoy Hotel,’ The Caterer and Hotel Proprietors’ Gazette, September 16, 1889, 396 – 397.

123. ‘Highland Hotel Charges,’ The Times, 10, 12, 14, September 1868.

124. A. Young Man, letter to the editor, The Times, September 3, 1853.

125. One Who Loves To Travel, But Is Deterred By The Expense In England, letter to the editor, The Times, September, 19, 1853.