Higher labor costs and staffing availability are just an excuse, because it's really about the property owners/operators seizing on an opportunity to increase their profit margins in a way that they were seeking to do even before the pandemic. And unfortunately, what owners/operators see in one market often ends up spreading more in other markets too as monkey-see-monkey-do is not limited to just domestic actors in the industry but also crosses boundaries internationally. [It's no coincidence that Marriotts' expansion in even high cost parts of Europe is increasingly about growing the "limited service" footprint.]

Unfortunately, this kind of dynamic with housekeeping is probably also going to end up meaning more resistance to giving and/or delivering complimentary late-checkout benefits. And after customers have been "schooled" enough by property owners/operators/employees by facing resistance when wanting late check-out, daily housekeeping or whatever else may even be a justified expectation for the stay, the customers demand it less and get it less. The customers lose long term, the owners/operators gain at least short-term, and the employees are in the hot-seat until the customer "education" campaign is completed.