A more important fact is that hotels are all about hospitality. Then does this logic hold true that hospitals are all about hotelity? Does this word even exist? The squiggly little red line in MS Word tells me that Microsoft doesn’t believe it does. However, with a single right click it is added to my dictionary. If hospitality is about service in terms of the friendly treatment of guests or strangers; then it seems to hold true that hotelity is about the physical space and process where people can spend the night, have food delivered to their room, and have access to certain key amenities including a private bathroom, phone and television. While hospitals try to be customer focused, they are all about healing the sick and providing health care. Hospitals are not about a comfortable bed, good food or good service. It is hotels that see to provide these services as a central tenet to keep a guest happy and have them return again at a later date.

So, after a very long day of joy and cheer welcoming our new bundle of joy, I grew very groggy. As I prepared to sleep in the little and extremely uncomfortable recliner chair in the hospital, I begin to wish that the hospital had true hospitality versus hotelity.