The title of this recording is "Hotel Homo". It is described as: This documentary explores what its like to work in the hospitality industry. It was recorded in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand on the 19th June 1999. Hamish Allardice, along with other unidentified speakers, is speaking in this podcast recording.  Their name is spelt correctly but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 22 minutes. A list of correctly spelt content keywords and tags can be found at the end of this document. A brief description of the recording is: This documentary explores what it's like to work in the hospitality industry. The content in the recording covers the decades 1980s through to the 1990s. A brief summary of the recording is: This summary covers the key points from the documentary "Hotel Homo," an audio recording exploring the experiences of working in the hospitality industry in New Zealand, particularly from the 1980s to the 1990s. The primary speaker, Hamish Allardice, shares varied accounts, including their personal journey and the general experiences of gay individuals in hospitality roles. The documentary starts with a vivid recollection from Allardice that illustrates the demeaning attitudes some customers exhibit. They recount an instance of being ordered around by a patron and their retort to a condescending request, showcasing the interpersonal challenges faced in hospitality. Allardice further discusses the sector's duality, contrasting their professional persona with their personal life, highlighting the private struggles with identity and the facade maintained at work. Throughout the narrative, the speaker reflects on the notion of subservience in gay culture and its perceived compatibility with service roles in hospitality. It is mentioned that gay individuals are adept at recognizing and fulfilling customer needs - a skill attributed to the necessity of assessing environments' safety regarding their sexual orientation. Allardice delves into the employment structure of the hospitality industry, observing a high ratio of gay workers, driven by immediate job prospects post-school for those eager to leave educational settings. Their storytelling highlights the opportunity to enter the industry immediately upon leaving school, often without extensive training, which can be appealing for individuals who seek quick independence. The speaker also conveys personal sales experiences, emphasizing the value of the tactile and sensory aspects of hospitality service, particularly when showcasing hotel amenities to potential guests. Allardice projects confidence and wit during these interactions, using the opportunity to differentiate their establishment's offerings with humor and attention to detail. The struggle between the necessity of adapting one's behavior to achieve professional success and the weariness of maintaining a performative personality is candidly conveyed. While discussing promotions within the industry, Allardice notes that while initial progress can be achieved through diligence and charm, advancement beyond middle management can be more challenging, potentially due to industry biases. Instances of being propositioned by guests are recounted, emphasizing the rarity of such occurrences and the speaker's response to them, as well as strategies employed by some travelers, such as mentioning honeymoons, to receive upgrades or special treatment in hotels. Allardice notes the variance in guest treatment, stressing that those who treat staff with respect and kindness are more likely to receive favorable treatment or upgrades than those who express entitlement or rudeness. The discussion turns to stereotypes and misconceptions about gay individuals in hospitality, addressing both the supportiveness encountered within the industry and the occasional need to navigate guests' assumptions or inappropriate behavior. Female guests are recognized as typically more receptive to gay hospitality workers due to perceived non-threatening qualities. The documentary concludes by touching on the nature of service work and the peculiar juxtaposition between superficial requirements for hospitality roles and the authentic connections that can emerge from such interactions. The full transcription of the recording begins:  I remember waiting tables at Bo Bo ends restaurant in Oriental Bay and and the the Travel Lodge. It was called, um, some years ago and there was this really pompous, um Two couples came and sat at the table, and I mean, they were sitting there and they were ordering me round. And I mean, I can do serve. I can lick, I can scrape, I can crawl if I know I'm going to get a sale out of something or if I'm just going to make people laugh or make people happy. But I just hate snobby assholes. And this guy was just right up right up his own. And, um, he said to me, You know, he you know, can you pour the champagne? You know, So I pour the bloody champagne, and, um then he says to me in his pompous voice, Can you can you cork the way? And so can you cork the wine and let it breathe? And I'd already caught the bloody wine and let it breathe. And so I picked up the bottle gently in my hands and put my hand over the top of the bottle and shit out of this bottle of red wine and put it back on the table to his horror and said to him, Sir, after that little jaunt, I'm sure it will paint and spun on my heel and minced off. I've always wanted to look back and see the look on his face, because I'm sure he must have been devastated. But I was so sick of his pompous behaviour. And, um, I got told off that night, but I did have a floor limit at the Travel Lodge at that time for selling more booze than anyone else, so I was kind of a bit of slack. Hospitality, I suppose, lets me put up a a mask to other people. So the the the Matthew they see in the hotel and the sales and marketing role, or formally in the front desk role is not the same person that goes home and and watches television and eat soup and goes to the gym and things like that. Um, certainly when I I started at this hotel, um, I was dealing with the whole gay issue and didn't really want it to. I didn't want the fact that I was gay to have anything to do with my work. And it came up quite by accident. And I was really worried about the time that it was going to stop me from succeeding in the industry or getting my sales and marketing role that I could take anywhere else. You know, not hospitality. Um, so the the the mask and and being superficial was just so easy. Um, it it it meant that I I didn't have to have real relationships with anyone. I had working relationships with everyone. I'd be working ridiculous times of the day. I'd go home and, you know, talk to my flatmates and go to bed. And I'd get up in the morning, I'd be one person. I'd come home and be another person and go to my room and sort of be myself. But being myself was sort of a fairly lonely thing. I suppose if I was just doing it behind closed doors in gay culture there tops and bottoms, OK, and, um, I think we we do tend to do subservience quite well. I mean, every gay man is not a bottom. I think that's really important to put out out here at this point. but we can do subservience quite well. From that perspective, I think we're We're quite good at reading people and working out, Um, how people want us to be, Um, a lot of, um, straight men, um, would find it difficult to find out what someone's needs are in a restaurant. And a lot of straight men don't have the eye for detail that gay men have as well. Um, because of our nature. Um, well, some of us are in tune. Um, when we have to be in tune to read, whether it is safe to be gay in a particular environment. I mean, we have to do that all the time. I don't feel that I'm subservient. And I mean, certainly there are people that treat you that way. Treat you like you know you're a slave and you're there to wait on the hand and foot, which to a certain extent, we are. But then there are people that are just completely unreasonable about it. I think I think there's a much higher ratio of gays in the tourism industry, tourism and hospitality industry, because when when we when we're at school, um, well, I certainly wanted to get away from school as fast as I could. And I know there's a lot of young gay men we need to get a job. But you can't leave school and get, you know, you got to get a job straight away. Um, so the hospitality and tourism industry lends itself very well to leaving school, getting a job in a in a really nice environment, you know? I mean, especially if you can get a job in a five star hotel. Um, we can work with a glitz. You can develop a lifestyle around it. It has smatterings of success, which we're kind of like needing straight away. So because we we kind of leave school with, um, low education and we can get a job in the industry, Then I mean, sure, there's other people who go on and get fabulous jobs by going to university and everything else. But for a lot of young gay men, it's kind of a really good place to start my stock standard spiel when selling the hotel is sort of along the lines of walking into the room. III. I prefer doing a visual presentation rather than standing down at the desk and and trying to explain it, because it's always better when you smell, see and touch things. So I'll take them up to a room and sort of wave my arms around horrendously and say, As you can see, each of the rooms has a queen size bed. We have rooms with fantastic harbour views over our marvellous little city and harbour. Uh, you'll find our standard room in room facilities include tea and coffee making facilities with plunger coffee. None of that instant rubbish. And I'll add these little sarcastic comments. You know, other hotels don't have plunger, coffee, complimentary fruit, complimentary suites, stationary kit in your desks, bathrobes and in the bathroom. We've got a marble bathroom with a separate shower and bath, and the mirror doesn't fog, which is fantastic. And people just love. The mirror doesn't fog, but that just gets them. If nothing else does, the mirror doesn't fog. That's amazing. There's certain benefits for a gay man working in the hospitality industry. I mean, you can start off quite low in terms of waiting or housekeeping staff, and you can if you show, um, aptitude. If you show personality perseverance. Um, a certain amount of, um, for want of a better word as licking you can, you can actually get up in the industry and work your way up to middle management. From there, it's a little bit limited because unless you're, um, particularly good at, um, what you do, you may be not going to go so much further. But initially you can get, um, you can get to be wearing nice clothes working in, um, a nice work environment out the front. Anyway, if you're working in front of house, that is quite good. Um, and generally working in the hospitality industry, you'll meet other gay people, and, um, it can often be a supportive environment. It doesn't happen very often being propositioned and in the hotel. And certainly I've never taken anyone on the offer. I mean, certainly there have been guests that I've been like, Oh my God, and like melted at at the site of them. But one of the first experiences I had was a member of the US military, asking me where the gay bars were in in Wellington, and I was like, Oh my God and the the whole US and military thing and I was like, Oh, this is a little bit strange. And why are they asking me? Why are they asking one of the other four people on the desk? Do I Look, do I look that gay? And, um Then there was another guest who said So we said to go out in in Wellington and I was like, Well, what are you looking for? And he goes, Well, what do you think I would like? And I'm like, Well, um, and I mean, I didn't know he was gay. I just really didn't know anything about the guy. And and and I was like, Well, Courtney Place is always really good. There's plenty of things to do down there, lots of different types of bar and was being about as general about it as I possibly could. And he was like Matthew gay venues. And I'm like, Oh, OK. And as regards being propositioned by guests, I haven't really been lucky enough to have that. Maybe indirectly, maybe I was a little bit naive and didn't pick up on it at the time. That's probably what it was. That's what it'll be, Um, but gay guests, I think, are are rarer than gay hospitality workers. Um, especially in a corporate hotel, I think. I think perhaps if I was working in a more leisure orientated hotel, I may see a few more people. There was a guy once who, um, used to I shouldn't use his name, but he used to come to a travel lodge bar all the time, and he was a particularly, um, wealthy gay man. But he was also hideously drunk. And there's nothing worse, I think, than a a gay man who's drunk. It's nothing more unappealing. And he was always hitting on me. And I used to, um, have to try and flirt with him to maintain the business, but at the same time, just make sure he kept his filthy hands off me. And one day, um, I was trying to get through the bar, the travel, the travel lodge bar with a whole tray full of glasses. I must have had about 22 glasses on this tray. And, um, he was there and I tried to avoid him, and I backed at the wrong time and my tray just flipped. It just flipped. And there was this horrendous crash and here. He was sort of drawing all this attention to the fact that he was lunging at me at the same time. I just completely lost the tray. I hated being front line after a while. I mean, at first, the people contact was amazing. It was fantastic. I loved it. But I just really came to hate people because it was also superficial. And I mean, a lot of of what we do is superficial. Anyway, a lot about me is superficial, but just the the monotony of it. And even though it hurts and, um, just being jolly, this is the 10/1000 person you've checked in this year and still giving them the same old spill. Here's your room here in room 506. It's around to the right on the fifth floor. Enjoy your stay with us. But imagine I was saying that sort of more along the lines with more inflexions and welcome. It's so good to see you. And I'm so stoked to have you here. And, um, I've never had a guest quite as fantastic as you before in in that sense to check in. Yeah. So, um, I I came to loathe front line, even though I would always get kiss comments, cards saying He's fantastic. He's wonderful. He's just so helpful, so charming, well presented and all these things and and for my employer, that was fantastic. They were getting a lot of goodwill out of the fact that I was front line, but I was dying at the same time. I remember going to going to Noosa, and, um, I was going to stay at the youth hostel, but my my new husband decided that we were going to stay at the Sheraton. So we cruised into the Sheraton, and, um I mean, we had literally flown from New Zealand where we had been wedded. And, um, we're standing at the lobby, and I was being quite coy because I used to work for Sheri and was terrified of, um, you know what what people might think. And, um, my husband, my new husband, brazen as hell waltzes up and, um, starts to starts to negotiate for a, um, accommodation, which I would have thought I would have been better at doing. But he was really good. And he, um he got us a non-smoking room and a non smoking floor, which is what we wanted. Then he presented with the fact that it was our honeymoon and that, um, he wanted to know, um, what that would mean. Well, we got champagne in the room. We got upgraded to an even nicer room on an even better floor, and we had the most wonderful room. So I think, um, that if you want to get upgraded and you're travelling as a gay couple, just tell them you've just been married. But it really does help if you have some nice shiny rings. As we were afforded it on that occasion as well, with gay guests checking in, I wouldn't give them preferential treatment. I don't think that would be that would be wrong, but I probably am a little bit more. Um, we have a little bit more to talk about, I suppose, than than your average guest who will just sort of want their key and be on their merry way. These people generally want to know a little bit more about the city they're in. Um, quite often they're international guests. Um, they want to know a little bit about the scene. They want to know about you and things like that. Another way that you could get upgraded is to, um just to ensure that you make them feel incredibly uncomfortable when they realise that they've put the two men in a twin room when you really wanted a double room. And, um, I have known it to happen where people have. There's no other doubles available in the in the the establishment. So they end up in a suite at the same price to their twin room. To get upgraded in hotels is there are There are people that probably go their whole lives staying in hotels sort of three or four months out of the air, and they'll never get upgraded once. And they are always the people that when they come and stay with you. Look, I stay so many times and I never get upgraded and bitch and moan and carry on about it. But then you get the other people who come to the desk and check in, and they, you know, even though this is their first time staying their demeanour towards you, they don't treat you like you know the staff. You know so often, people, Would you know, treat you as a receptionist. You are just a receptionist. You know, file your nails outside of office hours and watch Street, which I do. But, um, they there are people that are just absolutely lovely and treat like a human being and use your name and insist on you calling them by their first name. And people like that as soon as I check, they gonna be like, Oh, you're upgraded just like that. And then you'd get the people, um, who bitch and moan. And because they bitch and so much moan so much I will upgrade them just to get them off my back. And, um, if they come back the next time a happier human being fantastic. I'll, you know, probably treat them like a real human being. But if they come back and bitch and one again, that's it. They're on my blacklist. They'll get a back room, no view, no window. The real way to get upgraded in any establishment is just by being poisonously nice. I don't think I don't think people need to be assholes to, um to get looked after and taken care of in the in the accommodation industry um, by name. Dropping is really not a good idea, but just by being yourself and being natural to yourself and your culture, I mean gay people, we don't have to be bitches. We can just be nice to people and and let our endearing natures come through. And, um, if you're working reception in a busy hospitality establishment, you love it when people are just themselves and, um, and afford, um the the benefit of, um of just being nice Gay men. We don't have to be, um, hostile or stumpy. We don't have to be stumpy queens to get anything. I'm superficial as a general rule anyway. And I've always been a very materialistic person, and and working in a hotel is fantastic because you've got all these sumptuous surroundings and, um, rooms and rooms and people everywhere and and fun toys to play with that aren't yours and driving people's cars, things like that. Um, as a duty manager, you'd sort of have first dibs on on the cars that pulled up on the driveway. And I'm I'm not a big car person, But if it was a you know, a Porsche Boxster or a little Ferrari or something like that. It was like, stay back port of this one's mine, you know? And it'd be like that. This is what I aspire to to one day have one of these vehicles. I don't know if it's because I was gay or because I was, um, particularly good with, um, doing the weddings. But for a period of time, I did all the weddings at the Sheraton, and I was the, um I was just a banquet head waiter was my title, but basically, you were the the shift manager and ran any function that was required. And I always did the weddings, and I had a great time doing the weddings. And I found this wonderful thing that if you got in with the mother of a bride, you could basically do anything you wanted. If you did anything wrong, you were forgiven. But I, I loved the experience of people getting married and doing the whole wedding thing and, um, going through it with them and really making sure that everything just went off fabulously. And, um, I found that the often if a mother was if a bride was on her own and she didn't have a husband there. It was that time when she missed him the most. So he'd give her that just that little bit of extra attention. And just make sure that that that was kind of acknowledged because it seemed as though families always talked around it. But no one ever talked to the mother of a bride about the fact that you know, he wasn't there. And he was a great part in the the, um, the whole thing of us all coming together. So I always made sure I took the mother of a bride into the banquet room and did the did the room with her and gave her an opportunity to talk about those kind of things because the it's just such a sad time for for a lifetime partner to have to, um, your lifetime partner to miss it. Weddings, weddings are a glorious occasion and to share it. And we used to have so much fun, they were always so glamorous. I remember once another time there was a scrap. Um, because the, um the, um, families weren't that happy. I think it was a, um, a mixed cultural wedding. And, um, they weren't very happy about this couple getting together and getting married. And the bridesmaid had to whip off halfway through the the the wedding breakfast to go to work. She was a nurse at middle hospital or something, and she had to whip off to go to to the, um, to go to work. And the, um there was some concern that the father of the bride was going to flog all the money and disappear. So we were always having to keep an eye on him because everyone gave money for the wedding and we were terrified that he was going to rip off for money. And, um, and the bride was breastfeeding at the table at the head table, which I thought was particularly interesting. Especially when, um, from the lobby of the Sheraton, you could, um, see the elevators. And here's this bride in full white wedding dress with this babe in arms and two Children and this very handsome young man who was her husband to me getting in the lift to go up to the bridal suite, and I'll never forget that. It was just I just thought that was just gorgeous. I found probably that female guests are more receptive to gay hospitality workers as as opposed to sort of straight ones or even female hospitality workers. Because I mean the whole cliche non threatening gay male type scenario comes into play. And I've always found it really easy to give people, especially of female guests, bad news because they just tend to take it so much better. Because I can say, Hey, look, you know, I'm really sorry, but we've sold your room to someone else and we're going to have to bump you down the road to like the Backpackers, and they're like, Oh, that's OK And I can even find myself being quite nasty and vindictive to these people and then still walking away loving me. And that's just at first I found it really hard to take. I was like, OK, I'm taking the piss out of you as you tend to do after all, well, given good service at the same time, just being completely over the top and the guest walking away with a happy experience. The full transcription of the recording ends. A list of keywords/tags describing the recording follow. These tags contain the correct spellings of names and places which may have been incorrectly spelt earlier in the document. The tags are seperated by a semi-colon: 1980s ; 1990s ; Aotearoa New Zealand ; God ; Hamish Allardice ; Job ; People ; Travelodge Hotel (Wellington) ; Wellington ; Youth ; accident ; bars ; being yourself ; benefits ; bottom ; cars ; children ; coffee ; culture ; design ; disappear ; dog ; drawing ; education ; environment ; face ; fruit ; fun ; gaming ; gay ; gym ; hate ; healing ; hell ; hit ; homo ; hospital ; hospitality ; hotel ; lifestyle ; love ; marketing ; marriage ; mask ; military ; nature ; news ; nurse ; opportunity ; other ; programme ; proposition ; queen ; reading ; relationships ; sad ; school ; smiling ; smoking ; straight ; subservient ; success ; support ; time ; top ; touch ; tourism ; travel ; treat ; university ; walking ; wedding ; wine ; work. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/hotel_homo.html. The master recording is also archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand.  For more details visit their website https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.1089131. Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.