ABSTRACT
A critical difference between hotel chains and independent hotels is the reliance on professional managers. Hotel chains could not flourish until a supply of these managers was established. Establishing this supply required manipulation of institutional rules: the rules governing education became the subject of a political battle between early hotel chain operators and other interested actors. Complaints of a shortage of labor were one of the most common topics of discussion at gatherings of hoteliers in the early part of the twentieth century. In the European hospitality industry the apprentice system was used with great success. The European employees who were the foundation of the American hospitality industry prior to World War I were trained in that system, so obviously it was capable of providing qualified employees at that time. To analyze the efforts of hotel chain entrepreneurs to change the institutions surrounding education, it is useful to think of the effort as collective action.
