Hospitality and Related Services - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 136

hospitality personnel via online learning, distance learning courses, videos, seminars, textbooks, and
study guides. Visit the AH&LAWeb site at www.ahla.com and the Institute Web site at www.ahlei.org .
The International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IH&RA), located in Geneva, Switzerland, is a
global network for the hotel and restaurant industry in over 100 countries. It represents, protects,
promotes, and informs its members. IH&RA research reports provide members with valuable
information on the global hospitality industry, careers, taxes, and technology. Visit its Web site at
www.ih-ra.com .

Lodging Information Sources

For more than 20 years, Smith Travel Research (STR) has been the recognized leader for lodging
industry benchmarking and research. In 2008, STR combined its non - North American operations with

the two international leaders in the benchmarking arena, Deloitte s HotelBenchmark and the Bench,

both based in London, to form STR Global (STRG). STR continues serving the North American market,
which it has been supporting since its foundation in 1985. STR Global brings the bene its of the well-
known STAR reports to a truly global audience. STR and STR Global track supply and demand data for
the hotel industry and provide valuable market share analysis for all major international hotel chains
and brands. With tens of thousands of hotels, representing over 5 million hotel rooms, participating in
its hotel performance surveys, it is the world

'

' is foremost source of historical hotel performance trends.

STR s family of companies also includes Hotel NewsNow.com, RRC Associates, and STR Analytics.

Visit its Web site at www.strglobal.com .
PKF Consulting is another information source. Its Trends 1 in the Hotel Industry is an annual
compilation of unit-level hotel financial statements. Since 1936, PKF has collected year-end operating
statements from thousands of hotels across the nation. From these statements, the rm extracts 200
speci c revenue and expense items and then puts the data into a uniform format to ensure equitable
benchmarking. The Trends 1 database is the oldest source of hotel financial information in the United
States. Visit www.pkfc.com .
Ernst and Young examines key in uences affecting the hospitality sector such as the global credit
crunch, the scarcity of capital, green building, and shifting demographic trends. It publishes a Global
Hospitality and Leisure Outlook and a U.S. Lodging Report. Visit www.ey.com . PricewaterhouseCoopers
and the U.S. Census Bureau also provide lodging information.

'

THE FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY

Early Food Services

Like the lodging industry, the is a very old business. Such service came out of

the early inns and monasteries. In cities, small restaurants began serving simple dishes such as soups
and breads. One such restaurant, le restaurant divin (the divine restorative), opened in Paris in 1765.
(Like tourist, restaurant is a French word.) The famous English taverns provided food, drink, and lodging.
In the United States, the early ordinaries, taverns, and inns typically provided food and lodging.
Good examples of these can be found in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Politics and other concerns of
the day were often discussed in such taverns.
With the development of stagecoaches, taverns began providing food and lodging along the early
roads and in small communities. Some believe that these roadside taverns were really the beginnings
of the American hotel industry. As cities grew, so did eating establishments. Some names of historic
restaurants in the 1820s in New York City were Niblo

food service industry

s.
French service was often used in these early restaurants. In French service, some kinds of entrees
are prepared by the dining room captain right at the guests

' s Garden, the Sans Souci, and Delmonico '

' table, sometimes using heat from a small