Originally Posted by arlflyer

Well, for starters:

1) Consistency of product - knowing what you're going to get if you've stayed in that property before. If you get to know a property and it runs RS well, you can rely on consistency. I don't think most people would buy the argument that hotel food is more consistent than a good restaurant. But as you state, it can happen, and is specific to each property.
2) Delivery time / quality variability - when a delivery service goes wrong, it goes very wrong. And when they mess up an order, they really mess it up. Plus the food tends to show up cold / smashed / possibly eaten by the driver. This can also happen at a hotel. My food has never shown up smashed when I order delivery. Possibly a few fries are gone, but I can't know...same goes for room service delivery.
2) Escalation channels / service recovery - if the order doesn't show up on time or is wrong, a lot easier to call down to the front desk than to deal with big nebulous tech middlemen who says it's not their problem Fair point, although I guess most of us assume food delivery will happen as planned, as it does 99% of the time. I don't plan for 1% error rates for small things like dinner.
3) Time - yes, using an app is quick, but dialing down to the desk is quicker. Sure. Although I have more flexibility...I can see menus online, hundreds of times more choice, and could actually order on my way to the hotel from the back of the airport taxi if I get in late.
4) Hassle - some properties give delivery drivers a hard time, meaning you have to come down and meet them, which can be 10+ minutes in a property with slow elevators, etc. Agreed, although I see that changing as UberEats and others become more prevalent. I don't mind taking 5 mins of my time to get out of the room, but I understand that some people may have reason not to.
5) Points - at Hilton right now I'm earning 50+ points/$ so a room service dinner at $60 is 3000 points; 10 dinners is a free night somewhere. With MR it's less but still points. I'd prefer a good meal over points, but that's just my preference. Uber now gives points for food deliveries, although the rewards are not nearly as valuable as Marriott.
6) Food itself - a lot of properties do in fact prep RS out of the restaurant and share the menu, and when it's good it's very good. For example the RS at the JWM Miami comes out of a Daniel Boulud place; not too shabby. Not every place is boring slop. Agreed, although I think you'll probably agree that this is not the norm. There are always exceptions. And again, I'll state that if I'm going to enjoy a meal from Boulud, I don't think a hotel bedroom is the atmosphere I want. It's marginally better in a suite. But I'd rather take the time and go to the restaurant. You may not, that's ok.

But I get it, you seem to prefer ad hominem arguments and name-calling to educated discourse and diversity of perspectives.