Luxury Service and Distinction Work: A Qualitative Study on Luxury Hotel Employees

Abstract

Since Hochschild’s groundbreaking book, scholars have explored various aspects of service work. Yet, luxury services, which serve affluent customers who have more social and economic power than the service workers, have received less attention. These workers strive to make their customers feel special, performing works that affirm their elite status. This study proposes the term “distinction work” to describe these practices. By identifying a unique type of work in the luxury service sector, this study enriches the service work literature, which has traditionally examined different kinds of work (e.g. body work, care work, aesthetic work, etc.) in each service sector. This paper conducts a qualitative study to analyze the distinction work of hoteliers in luxury hotels. The researcher worked as a temporary worker for 5 weeks at a restaurant in a 5-star luxury hotel in downtown Seoul and also interviewed 32 hoteliers from 6 luxury hotels. The data was analyzed following the grounded theoretical method. The hotelier recognizes who each customer is, anticipates their needs, and fulfills them even before they ask. Moreover, the hotelier takes on the physical burden of the customer, which reinforces the customer’s privileged position and entitles them to make any demand to the employees. The discussion section highlights the theoretical importance of distinction work in the service work literature.