And Broummana was the journey's end... Upon this verdant spot my choice fell for spending my summer vacation — here, where the hills embrace one another to the far horizon, and where the green pines embrace, in the most splendid greenness of health and life! And where the air is mild and temperate, neither compelling the wearing of wools nor leaving bodies drenched with sweat...
This opportunity allowed me to enter a number of hotels, and before long a phenomenon caught my eye, one almost common to most of the hotel managements here: the activity of woman, and her taking of the reins of affairs... It seemed to me that this phenomenon deserved attention, especially as we are in a country that depends, more than on anything else, for the revival of its economy on the resources of summering!.. And I said: here are doors of livelihood thrown wide open before woman, and she can distinguish herself in them and win a certain victory — for the field is her field, the subject is the subject of her specialty, and she has only to seize the opportunity!
Long ago the summering countries, such as Switzerland, recognized woman's capability in the management of hotels, and paved the way for women in most of these tasks... Even in Lebanon we see that the small hotels that meet with patronage and popularity owe the credit for it to woman.... This woman may be hidden away in a kitchen, but she is, in any case, a watchful eye that secures comfort for her guests and meets their requests with open-heartedness! Otherwise, what is the secret of the summer guests' attachment to a particular hotel, to which they return every summer and for which they will accept no substitute?! Is not the philosophy of success the meeting of these small requests without fuss? Is not the management of hotels an art in its own right, requiring at bottom specialization, and taste, and forbearance?!
Mrs. Hilda Jureidini with her little daughter Adlette
One of the summer guests, the wife of Ustad Ahmad Annan,
on the roof of the Hotel Rossli,
where the green pines embrace
A front view of the Hotel Rossli
From Broummana itself I wanted to bring two models to illustrate what I mean: two small hotels whose success, and the summer guests' attachment to them, go back to woman's skill and her good management.
The first hotel is the Hotel Rossli, standing on a solitary knoll among the pine trees. Its owner was originally a Swiss man who sent his eldest daughter to Switzerland to specialize in home economics and hotel management, and her lot fell to a young Lebanese man. After her marriage, Mrs. Hilda Jureidini took over the management of the hotel in its entirety, and showed outstanding ability in preparing the kinds of dishes she had learned at school. She is the skilled cook on the day the cook is absent; she is the prompter and planner who draws up the menus and keeps the accounts; and it is she who personally oversees everything, distributing the work and going about among the guests to make certain of their comfort and their