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Complexity and a focus upon operations characterize the modern hospitality industry, and this often prevents management from spending time on reviewing strategic business activities. This article argues that soft systems methodology can be a useful tool to understand and map complexity and to solve problems. This approach is demonstrated in practice through the use of a fictional case study of the Faraway Hotel, where soft systems analysis helped the owner to think more objectively about improving his business.

It is a commonly held belief that a well‐designed hotel can be a source of profitable operation but the evidence for this is far from conclusive. This paper considers the nature of “good” design and its potential link to higher sales and profitability. The concept of hotel product lifestyles and two techniques of space utilization are proposed, the grossing factor and the design efficiency factor. Includes tables, drawings and plans that demonstrate how these techniques can work in practice.

Explores the nature of action learning and its benefits. Looks at the importance of aligning personal learning with corporate objectives. Draws conclusions from the authors’ experiences of using e‐learning to support action learning within organizations. Uses case study examples from Whitbread, Granada, Interbrew and the Canadian School of Managementty ‐54 to enrich and illustrate these points.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a general exploratory review of perception and image in hospitality and tourism. The paper considers the nature of perception and image and how they can affect buying behaviour for hospitality and tourism products.

The authors use the literature to explore the nature of perception and image and how these can be manifested. A model is elucidated which might help to explain purchase decision making for hospitality and tourism products and services.

Findings supplement the authors' views about the importance of this issue for managing and marketing hospitality and tourism products more effectively. The model seeks to make explicit the stages in the process from image formation to purchase.

As both authors are working practitioners, this paper offers a model and a practical approach which will form the basis for a practitioner panel, from which the model will be refined.

There has been little research in an area which seeks to integrate image formation with practical implications for hospitality and tourism organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the way in which fiction written in English has portrayed establishments which provide accommodation and food: namely inns and hotels. This personal mental portrayal contributes to the image of hotels by readers of fiction and ultimately to hospitality and tourism buying behaviour.

The author reviews the increasing visibility of inns and hotels in fiction in the last 700 years and focuses upon six selected texts which the researcher considers important.

The paper offers some conclusions as to the way in which authors perceive the way in which inns and hotels operate: people, places, plots, products and principles.

There may be few direct practical implications which might follow immediately from this exploratory study. The paper seeks to explore some of ways in which the image of inns and hotels is expressed in fictional literature, so as to better understand and market hospitality and tourism products more effectively in future.

This is a topic which has, to date, been little, if ever, researched. Fiction is increasing in popularity and it has influenced the way in which readers think, feel and react. This paper addresses this gap and opens the field for more interdisciplinary research.

Teamworking is a multi‐dimensional concept which has gained recent popularity and some success in manufacturing, but there is little evidence that large numbers of firms in the service sector have espoused teamworking methods. This paper explores this dilemma by comparing academic perceptions of teamworking, through a review of the literature, with a study of the perceptions of practitioners. Although much has been written about group behaviour, the more recent literature on teamworking is inconclusive and is often derived from anecdotal rather than empirical research. Using information obtained from a recent study, this article suggests that the richness of the teamworking experience is not captured by some of the academic literature. It argues for a view of teamworking that is both grounded in the literature and which represents the views of managers and employees in the service sector.

Reviews the acquisition of Forte plc, the longest established UK hotel company, by Granada plc. The Granada Group, a television and leisure conglomerate, launched a £3.3 billion hostile takeover bid for Forte on 22 November 1995, in one of the UK’s most expensive takeovers this decade. This marked the end of family control of a hotel group created by Lord Forte in the 1930s. Identifies the factors underpinning Granada’s success and in particular managerial style and approach.