[.ca] Hotel Management and Operations, Website, 3rd Edition (ISBN 0471370525)

Reviewing both 2nd AND 3rd editions of HMO:
As soon as Dr. Rutherford's 3rd ed came out, I continued to use his text book for two more semesters and 1 summer, under the same conditions described in my review of his 2nd ed. Hotel Management & Operations, 3rd ed is the premier hospitality reference for students, educators, professionals, and researches. The reservations I still have with the 3rd ed (see comments for 2nd ed) is that Dr. Rutherford did not have plans (confirmed via E-mail) for any of the following: an instructor's manual or workbook, a test bank of questions, an e-book version, and reducing the content on Marketing (almost double the amount of information in other chapters). It is great that Denney added a much-needed section on Information Technology. The great new additions include "As I see It", "A Day in the Life", and a variety of new articles for each departmental section. These articles, as are the original ones in the book, are also written by working professionals in the hospitality industry. There are now 536 pages vs 462 pages: the additional 74 pages are a good contribution to the 3rd ed. Educators should have no hesitation using Hotel Management and Operations, 3rd ed, but must ensure the actual text reading is appropriate for their target market. Students, educators, and hospitality professionals should continue to enjoy a favorable ROI on this purchase. With my ESL (English as a Second Language) student body, however, I was hard pressed to continue using this textbook. I decided to design such a CD-ROM workbook, Making Hotel Operations Work! (Summer 2002), and Dr. Rutherford wrote the Preface.

Hotel Management & Operations, 2nd ed:
My review is based on having used Dr. Rutherford's book the past consecutive 7 semesters (incl summer) at Hawaii Pacific University's Travel Industry Management program. The compilation of articles is ideal for us because chapters are short, but comprehensive and interesting enough to retain student attention. 95% of my students are foreigners, and my average class size is 30 students from at least a dozen countries. Chapters have numerous references, and all the chapters have challenging case studies except Finance. This particular construction lends itself to a variety of delivery techniques, as stated in the Preface. My wish list for the 3rd edition would include: an instructor's manual or workbook, a testbank of questions, e-book version, reducing the content on Marketing (almost double the amount of information in other chapters), and adding a section on Information Technology. Students, educators, and hospitality professionals will enjoy a favorable ROI on this purchase.