1929 - 1949
On 11 November 1929, Hotelschool The Hague (HTH) opened its doors at the Gevers Deynootweg 27. The curriculum back then was not as elaborated as it is today. However, it covered already 15 to 16 courses including: service and cooking, business correspondence, corporate finance, hotel administration as well as modern languages such as Dutch, English, French and German. The students also followed butchery classes at the butcher shop ‘Streng’ in the Niewstraat. Throughout the history, HTH has kept its principles simple. The experience and skills are gained through ‘doing yourself’ and a large focus lays on discipline.
During World War I, one problem became more visible although it had been there for a long time already. The hotel industry couldn’t find educated employees. Some Dutch men then, decided to change it and opened a course in 1919, which would train one into a true hotel employee. The men mainly focused on those already in the hotel business. The course was held in the evening at the Kurhaus, from January to April, and turned out to be a huge success.
Despite of the success, some couldn’t resist giving, often unreasonable, criticism towards the course. The course stayed popular and had a lot of requests, but in the end the criticism caused the organisation to stop it.
The idea of the foundation of a professional school came soon after that, from the leading man in the Dutch hotel industry, Mr van Hanja, who in an article in ‘’The Haagse Association of Hotel-Café- and Restaurant owners”- magazine, stated:
“Because there is a huge shortage of well-educated employees in our line of work”.
In 1929, Mr. Th. N. van Stigt questioned the foundation of a professional school in a meeting of ‘The Big Companies’. However, he did more than discussing this matter. He provided the companies with a clear and solid proposal for the establishment of a professional school. After presenting the plan to the Board and getting their approval, 2500 gulden (1.135 eur) was made available in order to execute the plan.
Mr J.J. Maat was named Director of Hotelschool The Hague (back then it was called the Horecaf Vakschool). The boarding school was situated in Hotel Mathilde Maria on the Gevers Deynootweg 27, in Scheveningen. To attract new students, an appeal was made in ‘The Dutch Hotel Industry’. The first 17 students, were welcomed by Hotelschool The Hague. Most of them where sons of the Horecaf members.
The tuition fee was 160 gulden (72 eur) per month, which was used for students living costs and their stay at the boarding school. Horecaf didn’t only pay for the school equipment, such as textbooks and ink, but also for the lecturers from the Berlitz School of Languages and the Institution ‘Pont’.
1931, HTH moved from Hotel Mathilde Maria to Hotel Klerk at the Gevers Deynootweg 9. That year, Mr J.A. Dalloyaux took over Mr J.J Maat’s function as a Director and the government brought down the student grant, from 160 gulden to 75 gulden (34 eur) per student, per month. 17 March 1932, the alumni foundation ‘Vereniging Oud Leerlingen’ (V.O.L) was founded, with a chairperson Mr van Oudheusden.
In 1933 the financial crisis complicated the recruiting of new lecturers and students. Still the programme of 1933 started with 25 students, of which 22 graduated. 1934, the situation was a bit different. 14 students started, 4 of them just did a few courses and 10 participated on the final exam, which 9 of them passed. 1934, it was proposed to close the vocational school, however the V.O.L managed to prevent that.
During the 30s, HTH gained more and more recognition from abroad. The first scholarships were provided by Lloyd Rotterdam and C.V.G.
In 1938, the first female students attended Hotelschool The Hague. It began as a test, to see if it would work. The test proved to be successful; one of the two students, Miss De Blêcourt was not only the first one to pass the course but also did it with the best results of that year. A year later, the programme started with 35 students of which 8 were women. Each year more women would attend HTH, often ending up in the ‘Top 5 Best Succeeded Students’ of the course.
In 1940, new courses were introduced in the programme. Swimming lessons at the Mauritskade, butchery classes and a new language: Bahasa Indonesia, which is part of Malay-language. While the financial crisis was easing in the US and John Lennon was born, HTH was going with steam ahead. 1941, Hotel Plaza was taken over due to World War II, the classes were cancelled during the winter period. In 1942, a new location for the boarding school was found. The students would live in Hotel Aurora at the Assendelfstraat, sharing rooms with 8 other people. The lessons were still given at the old location and the course was extended with two and half months.
In 1944, the course would have started on 18 September, but it was cancelled, and there were no classes during this year. This year, the ‘Hunger Winter’ started which would not end until 1945.
During that time, the Board was making plans for a curriculum of two years. Miss Korevaer became Head of the boarding school. Although being extraordinarily strict, she managed to become dearly loved by the students within a short period of time. Despite that the following years were tough for HTH and that the world was changing, the school managed to come out stronger than before.
