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According to the author, the purpose of this book was to &dquo;develop a simplified, unacademic, understandable explanation of what marketing is, what it can accomplish for us [the accommodations industry], and how to go about establishing and operating a plan for our own operations.&dquo; Although the &dquo;academ-ic&dquo; reader will find numerous statements with which to disagree (e.g., &dquo;marketing is applied management principles&dquo;), the market for which the book was written will find it to be an important tool that will help them attain their profit objectives.Although I doubt that it is &dquo;a complete guide to profitable hotel/motel operational planning&dquo; as advertised in the subtitle, the bookprimarily a collection of articles that have appeared in the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterlyprovides a wealth of information of immense value to the practicing manager. The reader will find it to be a combination textbook and how-to-do-it manual written in an easy, informal style which assumes little or no previous knowledge of marketing.Reader interest is promoted throughout by the presence of numerous examples-ads, short case histories, etc.-illustrative of substantive issues communicated in the text. Of special importance is the presence of a large number of checklists covering matters large and small related to the development of a plan for profitable operation. These lists are intended to serve as guides for management not only in the design of a marketing plan, but also in executing the programs and campaigns that it produces. This feature alone establishes the book's value as a reference work-one that will (or certainly should) be on the desk of any manager of a hotel/motel property.The theme that runs throughout the book is that the long term goal of any hotel or motel property is profit maximization. To achieve the goal, an organization must create and operate to a comprehensive marketing plan. This plan requires the identification of the markets to be served and the design and delivery of a total product that meets the needs of the individuals who make up these markets. Taken in the broadest sense, the elements of the plan are the elements of marketing, which provide the basis for the structure of the book. Termed the 5-p's of the marketing mix, these elements are people, product, packag-ing, price, and promotion. The treatment of the product, packaging, price, and promotion elements leaves little doubt that each must be designed to satisfy the market (people) and that these interrelated elements combine to produce the total product which either does or does not satisfy the needs of a number of people sufficient to enable the firm to meet its profit objectives.The first of the seven major sections introduces the concept of marketing and relates it to the accommodations industry. Personal identification for the professional reader is established by providing a means for him to assess the results of his own operation. In addition to identifying and describing the major marke...