Arthur Hailey’s "Hotel" Summary

Written in 1965, the novel is a production drama that meticulously uncovers the inner workings of the five-star St. Gregory Hotel in New Orleans over the course of five working days. The narrative exposes the hidden workings of a major hotel business through the intertwining stories of employees and guests. In 1967, the novel was successfully adapted for the screen by director Richard Quine, and the Warner Brothers film of the same name attracted a wide audience.

Monday

At eleven o’clock in the evening, Deputy General Manager Peter McDermott is trying to restore order in the vast hotel. Head of Security Ogilvy has disappeared without a trace. In the presidential suite, the Duke and Duchess of Croydon are having a row over spilt sauce on their trousers. Elderly waiter Sol Natchez insists he was deliberately bumped in the arm.

The owner’s secretary, Christina Francis, rushes to the fourteenth floor. Albert Wells, a regular guest, is suffocating in the stuffy room 1439. Christina breaks the seal on the sealed window. Resident doctor Uxbridge administers a life-saving injection of aminophylline, and mechanics bring a technical oxygen tank. Peter personally carries the weakened old man to the spacious room 1410.

In room 1126, drunken students attempt to assault nineteen-year-old Marsha Preyscott. The owner’s valet, Aloysius Royce, comes running after the screams. A young black man gets into an unequal fight. Peter arrives, drags the trembling girl away, and places her in the back room.

Later, McDermott is having an omelet at Christina’s house. On the way there, the police are checking cars due to a fatal crash on the Champs-Élysées. During their conversation, Christina confides, "Curtis O’Keefe is arriving tomorrow morning."

Tuesday

Early in the morning, the staff begins preparing hundreds of breakfasts. Hotel owner Warren Trent suffers from sciatica and is tormented by thoughts. His two-million-dollar mortgage is due four days later.

Hotel magnate Curtis O’Keefe arrives at the hotel with his companion, Dorothy Lash. He intends to take over the failing St. Gregory. Master thief Julius "The Skeleton Key" Milne, checking into room 830, stalks the wealthy guests using the keys he’s stolen.

Peter summons the perpetrators of the night’s riot for a chat. Stanley Dixon is rude on the phone, but McDermott forces the hooligans to appear in person. The Duchess of Croydon frantically reads a newspaper article about a late-night hit-and-run. Detective Ogilvy demands twenty-five thousand dollars from the terrified dukes, promising to secretly drive their wrecked car north of the country.

That evening, Peter and Christina stroll through the French Quarter. Peter shows his companion what he considers the ideal New Orleans Royal Hotel: "Everything works for them — history, unusual style, modern factories, and imagination." They kiss in her hallway, but Peter decides not to force the issue.

In a tavern on Bourbon Street, a dancer coaxes a key from a drunken patron and promptly sells it to Skeleton Key for ten dollars.

Wednesday

At dawn, Skeleton Key enters room 1062. The drunken guest, asleep, feels nothing. The thief takes ninety-four dollars, a ring, a watch, a gold cigarette case, and cufflinks, quickly hiding the loot in a secret compartment of the country motel.

That morning, clerks in the lobby refuse to book a reservation for Dr. Nicholas, a Black man attending a dental convention. Dr. Engram, president of the association, is outraged by the discrimination against his colleague. A photographer from the New York Herald Tribune manages to capture the scandal.

Ogilvy receives a ten-thousand-dollar advance from the Duchess and written permission to drive the car out of the garage. The detective replaces the broken headlight.

Trent exposes head bartender Tom Earlshore for massive, systematic embezzlement. The bartender leaves cursing. Shocked by his old friend’s betrayal, the owner calls the corrupt leader of the day laborers’ union and offers a deal for two million dollars.

At the restaurant, customers are complaining about the chicken. Young assistant chef André Lemieux explains to Peter the cause of the spoiled fat. In the kitchen, grates are found worn down to the brass.

McDermott later forces Dixon and his friends to write confessions incriminating senior bellhop Herbie Chandler as pimps.

That evening, Peter dines at Marsha Preyscott’s mansion. Suddenly, she proposes: "I’ve decided I want to be your wife." The shocked manager tactfully avoids a direct answer.

That night, Ogilvy takes the Croydons’ Jaguar out of the garage and speeds towards the state line.

Thursday

In the morning, the union boss refuses to give Trent a loan because of the newspaper coverage of the racial scandal at the hotel.

A closed meeting of dentists is taking place in the Salon du Dauphin. A Time journalist sneaks into a ventilation duct and takes notes on the speeches. The delegates adopt a compromise resolution and refuse to leave the hotel, after which an outraged Dr. Engram immediately resigns.

Banker Emile Dumer makes Trent a surprise offer to purchase a controlling stake on behalf of an unknown investor, while maintaining the hotel’s independence. Trent happily signs the preliminary papers and triumphantly sends away the enraged O’Keefe.

In Lakeview, Skeleton Key burglarizes a wealthy mansion after finding a set of keys with a car tag on the street. He then obtains a duplicate key to the presidential suite from a locksmith and, that evening, steals a suitcase containing fifteen thousand dollars in cash.

Peter McDermott accidentally witnesses the funeral of a woman and her daughter who was hit by a car at St. Louis Cemetery. Combining the words of the Natchez waiter, the damage to the Jaguar driven out at night, and Ogilvie’s disappearance, he deduces the true culprits of the collision. Peter calls Police Captain Yolles.

Tennessee police apprehend Ogilvy on a highway near Nashville. Meanwhile, at the St. Gregory restaurant, Albert Wells stuns Christina and Peter with a confession: "I just bought this hotel."

Peter goes down to the boiler room and asks garbage man Booker Graham to look for the Duchess’s discarded note. That night, McDermott comes to Christina’s home, and they become intimate.

Friday

At half past seven in the morning, Peter is having breakfast with Marsha on the gallery of her house. He gently explains that there will be no wedding. The maid, Anna, admits that she has never been married, and that Marsha simply made it all up for theatrical effect.

Elevator number four at the hotel is malfunctioning. The steel pushrod in the rooftop relay has become dangerously loose from its threaded socket.

Wells’ representative, Charles Dempster, announces Peter’s appointment as vice president and general manager of the hotel. McDermott declares he will accept the position only if racial segregation is completely and unconditionally abolished. The audience freezes. Albert Wells unexpectedly supports the young manager.

Booker Graham brings Peter a note the Duchess found in the trash. McDermott calls the Croydons. The Duke decides to surrender to the police and leaves the room.

At ten minutes past midnight, Skeleton Key, carrying a suitcase of money, Dodo, the senior bellhop Chandler, and the Duke enter elevator number four. The mechanism malfunctions. The car plunges downward. The walls of the car shatter on impact with the blocks, and the men fall into the gaping hole in the shaft.

The Duke of Croydon, an elderly lift operator, and a married couple fall to their deaths. Worker Billyboy Noble dies in the rubble. Dodo suffers a severe head injury, and Chandler is left paralyzed and crippled.

Master Key miraculously escapes and hurries to leave the city by car, but is caught by Patrolman Clancy due to a burst tire and stolen fur coats forgotten in the trunk.

O’Keefe is on duty at the hospital with the wounded Dodo and decides to marry her if she survives. In his office, Peter discusses the Duchess’s arrest with the police and drinks martinis with Royce.

That evening, Peter finds a note from Christina in his pocket with the words, "P.S. I love you." The manager runs down the stairs toward a new life.