BigFishDave

Just wondering if others have been staying at Homewoods recently, and if they have been offering social hours Monday- Thursday? I know the covid nonsense has reduced some hotels from having them, but the last place i was at, the GM claimed "corporate" was limiting him to offering it only one day per week (for consistency). This was not related to covid restrictions.

smmrfld

I’ve stayed in several over past few months, and lounge days/hours vary by property.

BigFishDave

I agree, best case would be Monday-Thursday, I've had some only do Tuesday-Thursday. Never heard of only one day at Homewood.

smmrfld

I know of one in the Denver area that's just doing two weekdays.

ENG17

I was at a Homewood in Orlando last week. They only had the evening social on Wednesday evening. I didnt know it until I walked in and they were cleaning up...

MissJ

Well, COVID isn't nonsense but no, I have not seen limits to social hours. I was in two Homewoods in just the past three weeks and both had drinks and food while I was there (other than the Friday night I was at one of them)

Both had the nightly menu and everything just as expected.

loomis

In SW Florida, the website for the Bonita Springs HS says Mon-TH, but the two in Fort Myers say Wed only.

It looks to me like Hilton Corporation is giving Homewoods some choice on what nights to offer it now.

The Road Goes On Forever

Fwiw, plenty of Tri-State area HWS locations never resumed their evening social since beginning of the pandemic.

Hilton x number of years ago "forced" all properties to follow a menu rotation that they dictate. This was a combination of food costs savings for franchisees and a way to stop rogue properties from offering too much or too little.

No different than Marriott changing RI from 4 days a week to 3 a long time ago while also mandating a corporate menu versus each property doing what they want.

The Road Goes On Forever

After talking with the GM of the HWS I previously worked at, she said that Hilton's most recent standard from November-December is that all properties should be offering evening social only on Wednesdays. If they are still offering it additional days, they are not in compliance with current guidance from the brand.

smmrfld

If communication to properties regarding this standard is as clear as the F&B credit, it's hardly surprising that individual properties are doing their own thing.

s0ssos

I don't understand why people who work at hotels think that giving more to a customer means they are "not in compliance" with the standards.
So one Homewood Suites I stayed at had no hot items one morning for breakfast. Does that mean the next day they will have more? It seems the management only cares when customers are treated too well, and doesn't care when the customers aren't treated appropriately. Because the former costs money and the second doesn't?

DELee

FWIW, I stayed at the HWS in Asburn, VA last month and, while they accept reservations, they're shutdown as a hotel providing services - gotta walk across the breezeway to the ES to get anything - room keys, food, etc. And the ES staff don't care about anything having to do with the HWS.

So, no social hour or hours on any days at the HWS. No breakfast. Nada.

Oh, and both hotels are now charging for parking in a lot that's ungated and unsecured.

Just sad.

David

smmrfld

The reason is simple. They get dinged on corporate inspections for going above and beyond. Why are they dinged? Because corporate doesn't want guests to claim "well, X property gave me this, served me this, etc." and assume that is the brand standard and thus all properties should provide similar. Twisted logic, but it's all about "brand standards."

The Road Goes On Forever

Because in the literal, you're not in compliance by doing more when the document from the parent company instructs you to stop offering socials on days other than Wednesday if you still are. I mean sure, you could at the property level try and do more than what the brand tells you is allowable but I can't imagine the franchise home office will accept the extra expense for very long if they don't have to especially since this change, like the F&B credit, is 100% for their benefit. The ugly, ugly truth in thinking for most people in this industry is basically what is the incentive to do more especially when all of your competitors are doing different versions of the same devaluation?

The Road Goes On Forever

Initially it was designed to bring up the bottom performers but also suppress the top ones. Ten years ago the evening social offerings at HWS were all over the place. You might get the full soup, salad, entrée, sides and dessert all four nights at one location with great variety while another would put out the same salad and soup for three nights with entrees only showing up once a week. That's why the brand took over the menus in the first place. This is more about blatant cost controls. But like I said earlier, who knows how many locations stopped their socials at the beginning of the pandemic and never restarted them. You're orders with Sysco are also trackable by the brand so if they want they can figure out what you're doing well before any QA audits.