Just how badly do you want to find paradise? When Tom Finn is almost jailed for confronting two burglars in his own home, this taxi driver takes his young family to live on the tropical island of Phuket, Thailand. Phuket is all the Finn family dreamed of - a tropical paradise where the children swim with elephants, the gibbons sing love songs in the jungle, the Andaman Sea is like turquoise glass and this young family is free to grow. But both man-made disaster and the unleashed forces of nature shatter this tropical idyll for Tom Finn s family.

In this handbook on successful hotel planning, the authors present an in-depth planning aid for the design and construction of hotel property. In doing so, the requirements of both hotel operators and planners are considered. The book is addressed to architects, interior designers, property developers and hotel operators. Having implemented their own hotel projects, the authors are experts on this building typology. Accompanied by detailed drawings and explanations, this book is a true asset.

Loki the Viking trickster god has checked into the hotel and he's ready to have some fun - at the other gods' expense! The Hotel of the Gods has a new guest! Loki, the Viking trickster god, has come to celebrate Midsummer at the hotel. Everyone is excited about the new arrival - apart from Loki's old rival, Thor. Atlas and his best friend Maui find Loki and his shape-shifting tricks hilarious at first. But when Loki's pranks go too far, Atlas knows he has to get the Viking god to leave before the Midsummer party is ruined. There's only room for one trickster god at the hotel, and a battle of pranks ensues. May the best trickster win!

Vincent is the beautiful bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass-and-cedar palace on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. New York financier Jonathan Alkaitis owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it’s the beginning of their life together. That same day, a hooded figure scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: ‘Why don’t you swallow broken glass.’ Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune-Avramidis, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. Thirteen years later Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of a Neptune-Avramidis ship. Weaving together the lives of these characters, Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel moves between the ship, the towers of Manhattan and the wilderness of remote British Columbia, painting a breathtaking picture of greed and guilt, fantasy and delusion, art and the ghosts of our pasts.

Vincent is the beautiful bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass-and-cedar palace on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. New York financier Jonathan Alkaitis owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it’s the beginning of their life together. That same day, a hooded figure scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: "Why don’t you swallow broken glass." Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune-Avramidis, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. Thirteen years later Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of a Neptune-Avramidis ship. Weaving together the lives of these characters, Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel moves between the ship, the towers of Manhattan and the wilderness of remote British Columbia, painting a breathtaking picture of greed and guilt, fantasy and delusion, art and the ghosts of our pasts.

Vincent is the beautiful bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass-and-cedar palace on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. New York financier Jonathan Alkaitis owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it’s the beginning of their life together. That same day, a hooded figure scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: "Why don’t you swallow broken glass." Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune-Avramidis, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. Thirteen years later Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of a Neptune-Avramidis ship. Weaving together the lives of these characters, Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel moves between the ship, the towers of Manhattan and the wilderness of remote British Columbia, painting a breathtaking picture of greed and guilt, fantasy and delusion, art and the ghosts of our pasts.

From the author of Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel is the story of the lives caught up in two very different tragedies: a woman disappearing from a container ship, and a massive Ponzi scheme imploding in New York. Vincent is the beautiful bartender at the exclusive Hotel Caiette. When New York financier Jonathan Alkaitis walks into the hotel and hands her his card, it is the beginning of their life together. That same night, a hooded figure scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: 'Why don't you swallow broken glass.' Leon Prevant, a shipping executive, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. When Alkaitis's investment fund is revealed to be a Ponzi scheme, Leon loses his retirement savings in the fallout, but Vincent seemingly walks away unscathed. Until, a decade later, she disappears from the deck of one of Leon's ships...

When Swiss-born Hugues Martin sees a small, run-down hotel in New York for the rough diamond it is, he transforms it into a beautiful boutique hotel of impeccable elegance, run with the precision and attention to detail he learned through his hotelier training in Europe. Renowned for its unparalleled service, the Hotel Vendome soon becomes the ideal New York refuge for the rich and famous, as well as a perfect home for Hugues’ beautiful wife and their young daughter. But when his wife tires of his obsession for the hotel, she walks out on him for a notorious rock star, leaving Hugues a single parent to four-year-old Heloise. Heloise and her family live happily amid a colourful, exciting and sometimes mysterious milieu of celebrities, socialites, politicians, world travellers and hotel employees – and their inevitable intrigues. As unexpected challenges arise, the hotel is the centre of their world. And when Heloise grows us, she longs to follow in her father’s footsteps and one day run the Hotel Vendome. The lessons she learned at his side will carry her through it all, in a story no reader will forget.

Nella, daughter of millionaire Theodore Racksole, orders a dinner of steak and beer at the exclusive Grand Babylon Hotel in London. Her order is refused, so Theodore promptly buys the chef, the kitchen and the whole hotel. But when hotel staff begin to vanish and a German prince goes missing, Nella discovers that murder, blackmail and kidnapping are also on the menu. A rollicking murder mystery from one of the finest writers of the last century.

Welcome to the Overlook Hotel. Youll never want to leave... Danny is only five years old, but in the words of old Mr Hallorann he is a ‘shiner’, aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Danny’s visions grow out of control. As winter closes in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seems to develop a life of its own. It is meant to be empty. So who is the lady in Room 217 and who are the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why do the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive? Somewhere, somehow, there is an evil force in the hotel – and that, too, is beginning to shine...

Welcome to the Overlook Hotel. Youll never want to leave... Danny is only five years old, but in the words of old Mr Hallorann he is a ‘shiner’, aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Danny’s visions grow out of control. As winter closes in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seems to develop a life of its own. It is meant to be empty. So who is the lady in Room 217 and who are the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why do the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive? Somewhere, somehow, there is an evil force in the hotel – and that, too, is beginning to shine...

Welcome to the Overlook Hotel. Youll never want to leave... Danny is only five years old, but in the words of old Mr Hallorann he is a ‘shiner’, aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Danny’s visions grow out of control. As winter closes in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seems to develop a life of its own. It is meant to be empty. So who is the lady in Room 217 and who are the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why do the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive? Somewhere, somehow, there is an evil force in the hotel – and that, too, is beginning to shine...

Welcome to the Overlook Hotel. Youll never want to leave... Danny is only five years old, but in the words of old Mr Hallorann he is a ‘shiner’, aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Danny’s visions grow out of control. As winter closes in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seems to develop a life of its own. It is meant to be empty. So who is the lady in Room 217 and who are the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why do the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive? Somewhere, somehow, there is an evil force in the hotel – and that, too, is beginning to shine...

As one of the world’s most established industries, the hotel sector has remained relatively unchanged and unchallenged for decades. Yet traditional hotels have recently come under increasing pressure on two major fronts: from disruptors in the sharing economy such as Airbnb, and by a rising wave of modern consumers who have become re-educated by social media and hotel comparison websites. Can this traditionally slow-moving sector reinvent itself or will it become increasingly marginalized? Is it time for traditional hotels to check out?Increasing numbers of hoteliers believe that traditional hotels are on the brink of a resurgence in popularity. Global hotel chains are catching up to modern trends - adding technologized curation and personalisation to their offerings. In Checking Out, Katherine Doggrell interviews key figures in the hotel industry and draws upon various case studies to explore the ways in which this traditionalist industry can remain relevant in the 21st century. The hotel "experience" has been redefined, as guests now value fast Wi-Fi and mobile check-ins over room service and mini-fridges.Checking Out is an engaging investigation into the unprecedented challenges that face the hotel sector in the digital era and the strategies that are being employed by its leaders and innovators.

As one of the world’s most established industries, the hotel sector has remained relatively unchanged and unchallenged for decades. Yet traditional hotels have recently come under increasing pressure on two major fronts: from disruptors in the sharing economy such as Airbnb, and by a rising wave of modern consumers who have become re-educated by social media and hotel comparison websites. Can this traditionally slow-moving sector reinvent itself or will it become increasingly marginalized? Is it time for traditional hotels to check out? Increasing numbers of hoteliers believe that traditional hotels are on the brink of a resurgence in popularity. Global hotel chains are catching up to modern trends - adding technologized curation and personalisation to their offerings. In Checking Out, Katherine Doggrell interviews key figures in the hotel industry and draws upon various case studies to explore the ways in which this traditionalist industry can remain relevant in the 21st century. The hotel "experience" has been redefined, as guests now value fast Wi-Fi and mobile check-ins over room service and mini-fridges. Checking Out is an engaging investigation into the unprecedented challenges that face the hotel sector in the digital era and the strategies that are being employed by its leaders and innovators.

As one of the world’s most established industries, the hotel sector has remained relatively unchanged and unchallenged for decades. Yet traditional hotels have recently come under increasing pressure on two major fronts: from disruptors in the sharing economy such as Airbnb, and by a rising wave of modern consumers who have become re-educated by social media and hotel comparison websites. Can this traditionally slow-moving sector reinvent itself or will it become increasingly marginalized? Is it time for traditional hotels to check out? Increasing numbers of hoteliers believe that traditional hotels are on the brink of a resurgence in popularity. Global hotel chains are catching up to modern trends - adding technologized curation and personalisation to their offerings. In Checking Out, Katherine Doggrell interviews key figures in the hotel industry and draws upon various case studies to explore the ways in which this traditionalist industry can remain relevant in the 21st century. The hotel "experience" has been redefined, as guests now value fast Wi-Fi and mobile check-ins over room service and mini-fridges. Checking Out is an engaging investigation into the unprecedented challenges that face the hotel sector in the digital era and the strategies that are being employed by its leaders and innovators.