Heads in Beds - Jacob Tomsky

Heads in Beds was my latest foray into the audiobook world, because it seemed to fit what I needed perfectly--something not too heavy, easy to tune in and out of without losing a major thread, and with a good narrator, who in this case was the author himself.  Tomsky has worked in hotels for years and, as he states in the beginning of the book, has disassembled them all and re-assembled them into two hotels for the purpose of the narrative.  One hotel is in New Orleans, and the other in New York City.  He's also changed names, including his own, and conglomerated some people, made up a few scenarios in order to demonstrate general rules of working in hotels that he might not have remembered a distinct incident to illustrate the point for.

Overall, this is pretty amusing.  Tomsky has worked in a few different areas of hotels, and in this book he talks about his time as valet, front desk worker, and a lower-level manager in housekeeping.  He suffers burn out, just like we all do, and it becomes clear in the end of the book that he pretty much wrote the book on a three-week bender in a fury after being fired from one position.  However, that doesn't eliminate the appeal of the rest of the book, which for the most part is written in a lighthearted manner...as long as you can be pretty sure that you're not one of the people he's talking about in the book, in specifics or in stereotype.  Having never actually checked myself into a hotel--geeze, I can't remember the last time I stayed in a hotel--I was pretty safe on that front, though now I have a handy arsenal of tricks filed away in my head for the next time I do have to stay in a place that's not mine or my family's or an Airbnb.  Hint: it involves carrying plenty of cash and being willing to give it out freely.  Allotting an extra $100 probably wouldn't go astray, in various denominations for doormen, bellhops, front desk attendants, etc.

Of course, many of the things that people suspect go on in hotels are confirmed--employees slurping from the minibars, discriminating against you because you booked via Expedia instead of direct, etc.  But he firmly maintains that some of the things that people claim happen really don't, such as housekeepers stealing from guests, and honestly, why would they?  His pictures of entitled guests and stuck-up management are spot-on, as someone who has worked in an extremely unpopular arm of service, aka the front desk person in a parking enforcement office. (Ask me about the time we honestly thought a guy was going to leave and come back to shoot up the place.  Go on.)  So no, you definitely don't have to have worked in hotels to empathize with this memoir; you really just have to have worked in any job where a portion of the population you work with feels entitled to treat you like garbage, which is pretty much every job.

Overall, an enjoyable listen.  Sometimes Tomsky does come across as an asshole, and I strongly suspect that he's casting aspersions on people who really didn't mean anything bad some of the time.  After all, not everyone is aware of "the rules" of staying in hotels, especially because those rules don't seem to have changed even while many of our other social contracts have.  I would not doubt at all that millennials are particularly egregious at this hotel stuff, because that's just not how we work.  But there are some good stories, some good lessons, and some good wince-worthy moments (yes, that's a thing) that shine, and this was definitely worth the time.

4 stars out of 5.