If it seems hotels have become better, they have. Maybe not the economy motels of the world, but from Holiday Inn on up, hotels seem to be performing better than five years ago. Nowhere is the reason for the ascent clearer than in the efforts of Affinia, a boutique chain where rates often hover in the $300 range, with seven locations in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Over the summer, the family-owned chain had body-language expert Patti Wood train about 600 employees on how to better interact with customers.

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