Originally Posted by
The Road Goes On Forever
Pre-pandemic housekeeping is not something that anyone is going to be seeing at most limited service properties regardless of brand for the foreseeable future, if ever again. At best, places eventually transition to where at check in everyone is opted out unless you choose to opt in on a specific day(s), but the idea of having things opted in daily isn't happening because there is no staffing for it and the bulk of the travelling public does not want it. Daily housekeeping was already falling out of favor prior to the pandemic. Franchisees desire to make the labor savings permanent along with guests' continued COVID fear of not wanting people in their rooms during their stay equals what you get today.
FWIW, because of this thread I took a look at the real numbers at the HIS where I work and overall for February the percentage of guests who have opted in for service is around 3%, with some days a bit more and other days being truly zero. My place is not an outlier either. That's what most limited service properties are seeing. With that being the case, why would properties opt everyone in for something that the overwhelming bulk of the travelling public does not want? That would be a total waste of time and the limited resources that most places are already stretched too thin on.
That's your ongoing narrative and I'll respect that. But:
- The numbers from 1 single property out of thousands upon thousands doesn't give a true picture. Until we don't have a true survey with hard data from millions of the leisure and business traveling public we won't know the truth.
- COVID Fear?? If they're afraid of COVID, they shouldn't be traveling, IMHO. Anyway, why are they still afraid of COVID at this point when the majority of the population is vaccinated, cases are plummeting, and the current strain doesn't usually present with severe symptoms? But this all besides the point. Fear of COVID is no longer a good excuse to avoid housekeeping just to not run into people. Are these travelers otherwise locking themselves into their room while on vacation to avoid running into other people? And at limited service properties to boot?
- I can't understand why when people are on vacation or traveling for business they want to be busy doing their own housekeeping and cleaning up after themselves or alternatively coming back after a day out to a mess of a room. To me the whole point of staying in a hotel is having the opportunity to just get up and go out to explore the destination I chose to go to, and come back after a full day to a made up, tidy, and clean room. I don't want to spend the first hour or two of my day putting my room back together into the state I want to see it upon my return and I certainly don't want to come back finding my own mess there. And yes, maybe I'm OCD, but that's how long it would take me. That's what I do at home every day and am happy to do so, however when I'm vacation that's exactly what I want to be on - vacation. And when my spouse or I travel on business we are on really tight schedules so appreciate that the hotel is taking care of housekeeping so that we can focus on what we're there for.
Just my 2 cents
. I'll stick to the properties that offer housekeeping and there are thankfully plenty that have brought it back.