Originally Posted by
the810
I don't know what the service standard is (let alone in the US), but my experience is that every hotel offers the service, while many putting ridiculous restrictions on it (weekdays only, return the next day even if you submit it at 4 AM etc), to the point where I feel they're discouraging people from using them (which seems strange to me, given how overpriced they are). So my suspicion is that the hotels must provide it, but there's a lot of leeway of how it's executed. In any case, not delivering the service within the timeframe stated is wrong either way, service standard or not.
That's why I always assumed it was a brand standard to offer "something" -- I think the only places I've not seen it offered are the same kind of places you'd ask "is there a drycleaner within 100 miles of this place?" -- the road-side Hampton Inn in rural Oklahoma, three hours from Tulsa, OKC, or Dallas, and isn't much closer to anything else, for example... But based on this streak I'm wondering if it's something that hotels have "just done" and slowly are "just not doing"
Contrast it though to my recent stay in the Philippines where I was informed at check-in that the there were three pieces of laundry/dry cleaning
dailyat no charge -- something I haven't come across before (I think it may have been the corporate/group rate I was staying on and not an "all guests" thing -- but I still thought it was cool and would have had a different packing/wardrobe strategy had my hosts told me ahead of time
) "If you have it in by 9am we'll have it back to you before noon." "Oh, and after 9am the next day?" "No, no, no... Still same day but may take up to 8 hours"
I hear you on the "in by 4am"-type cutoff times; typically I just drop it off the night before and (when there isn't a failure) get it back by 6pm the next day with out issue.
Edited to add: In the 2010 edition of the HGI brand standards...
1003.00 Dry Cleaning and Laundry Services
1003.01 Minimum Days Offered
The property must offer same-day dry cleaning and laundry services Monday through Friday. A detailed laundry service ticket, including pricing and approximate return time and two laundry bags must be provided in each guestroom.
But that was obviously 15 years ago, so I guess the question is it
still a HGI brand standard (not having much luck finding a newer issue) that the hotel is flaunting -- which may be my impression since that's exactly what I found in the room -- or has Hilton corporate pulled this from some or all of its brands?