adambadam

I consider daily housekeeping to be a standard hotel service. It is something that differentiates it from a random AirBnB at the very least. At a stay in April, at the Hyatt Place Austin, upon checkin, they told us they were only servicing rooms every 5 nights when we got there, there was no option to opt into something more frequent. Not very useful on a weekend stay.

After that stay I wised up and decided to ask. For a stay coming up at the Hyatt House NY Chelsea apparently they are only servicing rooms every three days. The current disclosure on their website of affected services conveniently doesn't seem to think that would be something a guest would care about (the HP Austin similarly did not disclose anything). Why is Hyatt letting hotels get away with not disclosing key service impacts?

coleslaw

I agree it’s pretty annoying. It’s also mainly a US thing. Outside of the US, e.g. in Mexico, properties are either still doing daily housekeeping by default or offering guests an option at check in for less frequent housekeeping.

For select service brands I wouldn’t be surprised if this reduction in housekeeping services becomes the new norm even after COVID.

adambadam

Yeah, I can see the standard becoming that it will be less frequent, although I think you will retain the ability to request it more frequently. But I also think right now you have a staffing issue disguised as a COVID safety precaution -- this is even more true in the last month or so as access to the vaccine opened even wider. I just think places that shut down have had a hard time getting ramped back up and it is annoying they are masking it in the name of safety and not being more transparent about the current service level.

For what it is worth, I have stayed at hotels domestically in MA, LAX, and FL and have continued to have the option of daily housekeeping. So saying it is entirely US I I think is a little unfair and I think it would be easy enough to note on a website.

coleslaw

Yes, I didn’t mean to imply that it was a problem across all of the US, just that it seems like it’s more of a problem in the US vs internationally.

AndyKehn

Hyatt and hotel websites do a terrible job at disclosing amenities (pool, breakfast, shuttle) and service. I always call ahead of time to ask what is available and make my decision accordingly.

writerguyfl

It's a logistical problem that's not unique to Hyatt. All hotel groups (Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, etc) have similar set ups.

Basically, there's an office at Central Reservations or the Corporate Office that control the information that appears on the website. The hotel will submit changes to those folks for review. If approved, they will publish the information on the website.

Using a gatekeeper is smart because the wording can be standardized and anything confusing can be fixed. Additionally, anything questionable can be reviewed by the legal department. And, the system stops disgruntled employees from a hacking the hotel website right before they get fired.

However, the system is not nimble. When I worked in hotels, it would take 1 to 2 weeks for any change to get approved and published. As I understood it, most of that time was waiting for the right person to approve the change. Given the fact that COVID resulted in most hotel groups losing money, I doubt any of them were adding (or re-tasking) employees to make changes to the website.

Note: The above information is an explanation of why updates to the website aren't as simple as it may seem to an oursider. It is not an endorsement of how it works nor is it how I would run a hotel group. Without question, this is an area where all hotel groups fail miserably. There's no excuse for not having accurate information on the website about basic services like housekeeping.

hp12c

Interestingly, when I stayed at The Forester (Hyatt Place in Lake Forest, IL) a few weeks ago, I was given the option of daily housekeeping specifically due to my status. Otherwise it would have been every three days or something. That’s a pretty interesting model, but not one I think survives a whole lot longer - it’ll be tough to convert new guests into repeat guests when they get zero services initially.

Matt4200

Every Hyatt hotel I’ve been to be it a HP, HH, HC, PH or other has offered me daily service during the pandemic. It actually shows up in my app as saying “Offered Only to Elites”.

So I’m a bit thrown to head this, on top of that I’ve never even used service during the pandemic. If I need towels I’ll call and they’ll drop more off that’s all.

eqeqeqx

It's because Hyatt's medical expertise believes you and its other elites are not only immune to covid-19, but also, possibly via the same magic, unable to infect room cleaning staff.

Kacee

In this particular case, the property has no incentive to disclose its cost-cutting practices, since they might cause prospective customers to book away. Expect this trend to continue, with properties continuing to blame covid for decisions that are at this point purely economic.

jameswes

I've seen this as well, across a number of brands (Regency, Place, House, Andaz, Unbound). Typical I've seen is every three days, unless you're globalist in which case they'll service the room every day if you request it.

I can definitely see this becoming the standard even post-covid for all but the upper brands (a PH really better be servicing the room every day based on service expectations for a "luxury" brand).

coleslaw

I can sort of understand this change happening as "select service" properties - but doing having this as a longer term strategy at JdV, GH, HR, etc would be pretty poor form.

MSPeconomist

At true luxury properties such as PH, I would expect evening turndown service to be offered too. Some hotels send housekeepers to tidy up the room/suite a bit every time the guest leaves the room/suite.

OTOH, at the moment, I don't want anyone entering my hotel room during my stay. If I need towels, toiletries, etc., I expect them to be delivered to my door, contact free.

Matt4200

I think it’s more like the properties want to save money so they hire less staff to work less hours.

I read on another thread where an Elite requested housekeeping and none were available a manager went and did it, because they had so little staff.

GrayAnderson

I think this is especially true in areas without a lot of repeat business (since the hotel that "surprises" me with weekly housekeeping, or no housekeeping, on a lengthy stay is also probably one that goes on my "naughty list").

I'm going to take a counter position here and point out that the hotel chains have had over a year at this point to, say, design an applet with checkboxes that could be altered by hotels (e.g. "Which of these are totally cancelled, limited, or normal?") with a confirmation email to be sent to a specific point of contact (whether it's the manager or the franchise owner), either for 2FA or so they can step in if something hinky is put up on the website. A checkbox for management to indicate that standard housekeeping is daily, every-other-day, every three days, or less often would also be useful.

The bottom line is that, even knowing that the crisis wasn't going to be over quickly, they chose not to develop/implement a solution, and that belongs entirely on their heads.

And in Hyatt's defense, they're (generally) better about handling this than Marriott is. Nobody's good on the housekeeping front (I've mused about the utility of a website handling a few major metro areas and just spending time calling hotels every few weeks to document this stuff), but with the exception of the HR New Orleans in March I have yet to hit a Hyatt that's at less than every-third-day. Hyatt's "pluses" mattered, but Marriott's screwups went a long way towards having me migrate most-to-all of my discretionary business elsewhere.