C17PSGR

I'm not a millennial and am well over 2000 nights in Mariotts alone. I have ordered room service less than 10 times during that time. It's a huge money loser for hotels ...particularly in places like the Baltimore Waterfront. There are so many better options in the Inner Harbor.

It's not a Marriott thing. Grab and go is an industry trend and if you think Starwood wasn't going down that road, you're wrong.

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/238306/Hoteliers-chase-profits-by-dropping-roomservice

So if you decide to switch hotel chains looking for high end room service, you'll be looking for a while.

Mister Nice

margarita girl

Marriott will be taking desks and closets out of the SPG properties because of the millenials??

Do millennials use fax machines too?

Beltway2A

I know it's fashionable to blame Millennials for all your complaints, as well as attribute all kinds of service degradations to us, but do you have any source to back up your wild claims?

Speaking as one myself, I've yet to meet a millennial who resembles the caricature that the octogenarians blame for all the decisions people of their own generation make.

ne52

As someone barely classified as a millennial, Fresh Bites doesn't bother me as much because there are so many better alternatives to room service today. With Seamless, UberEats, GrubHub, etc, etc, etc I've had to resort to the Fresh Bites menu just once in the US and that was in a snowstorm. Otherwise, you can get better food at almost any hour, just as fast and much lower price. I've asked for paper plates from all which hasn't been an issue and a nicer presentation than eating a $9 fruit side out of a box. I'd prefer the option to have full service but on the scale of hotel and Marriott annoyances, it's low on my list.

Outside of the US, yes, I don't want to try and figure out delivery in Gurgaon at 2am but domestically, a full room service is becoming more irrelevant for business travelers and I'd expect others to follow suit.

EuropeanPete

You do raise an interesting point: Email use is on a downward trend amongst Gen X. Maybe Marriott is actually ahead of the curve and is in the process of introducing system-wide Snapchat to everyone?

SkiAdcock

I'd have to find the thread (maybe it's the no desk one?), but MAR/Arne/Bill has gone on record in multiple interviews w/ the press saying that millennials don't want desks, closets, room service, hence why we're seeing less of them in renovation & new builds. FWIW - we've had millennials split in the threads where some say they don't need closets because they don't unpack their roll-aboards, some say they do need desks. As with all things, it's a mixture. It could be millennial research said no desks, closets, room service; it could be MAR is looking for ways to cheap out. Could be a combo.

Cheers.

yeunganson

I am in the millennial generation. Many things that millennial and baby boomers don't see eye to eye in North America from hotel culture to national debt. East Asian millennial are similarly worldly but don't have the exactly same North American millennial problems as parents pay for university tuition (so no student debt problem). Although income inequality is shared, and there was Occupy xxx movement, there's no diversity problem as there is race and cultural cohesion so no "xxx life matters' campaign. Jobs that North American lost due to free trade were given to East Asian millennial's parents and more recently to China. Luckily we got Bill Clinton in the 90s and not Trump or else we're as much screwed as the factory owners now in southern China.

Back to the point. I have ordered room service from time to time. I normally do that if I am extremely exhausted or jet lagged and just want to eat, shower and sleep. If it was a worst typhoon in history, if I am not exhausted, i can still pull myself to the hotel restaurant. Now if I am staying in a $250-$300/ night hotel, and I am ordering overpriced food, I really expect full service room dining. In North America, it's sad I know, but I learn to tolerate those big wooden tray that put the food onto my desk with a simple cloth table set-up. As a chew into the stereotypical breakfast with avocado toast (it really taste good! one of the best innovation after the Big Mac), I at see least everything is glass and metal utensils - a feeling of a sense of elegance after paying such high prices. What should happen if I am staying at $300+ hotel, is a full table setup like they do in Hong Kong or Japan. Like a full cart pushed into the room. The cart open up and becomes a table. The staff sets up the table. There are proper steel made forks and knives. Look, it's from England too! There is a single stem of fresh flower (!). If I am over-priced food, at least there is fresh flower to comfort my sorrow of those lost Big Macs I could have been eating instead.

There are comments that North American based users will not use room service and may use it if overseas. The reverse is true too. Non-US based members coming to USA may actually want room service dining at late night. I can say for a general East Asian society bias (especially against specific style of person of color). US has a lot of guns. We heard the famous phase "the night is long and full of terrors". Better not bring embarrassment to our governments by getting ourselves shot/robbed/injured because of lack of precaution wandering at night. The North American side of me tells me: Nah! I'll be more likely being asked for weed, cigarettes or cash handouts than being knifed in a back alley like Batman's parents.

Fresh Bites can't possibly be successful in luring millennial. More likely, it's just a cost cutting measure. The program totally go against a generational trend to become more green. Just look at how much plastic and paper a single order uses - all of which goes to recycle or tossed out to landfill (in developing nations). How is that better than the traditional cloth, clay plates, glass cups and metal utensils - all of those from can be washed and reused ?

Picture taken from Josh Gates on Twitter

EuropeanPete

prncess674

KRSW

Yuck @ the photo. That'd be alright if it was something I'm making for myself as a midnight snack...but paying money for such a thing, especially calling it dinner... that's just wrong. I know life on the road isn't exactly glamorous, but room service, real plates, real silverware, and real glassware go a long way to making life more civilized.

Beltway2A

I'd imagine, as with all generations, there's a mix of opinions across the spectrum. But I wouldn't be shocked if 86-year old Bill and 60 year old Arne are fulfilling the promise of their generation - "Leave everything I can in worse condition for future generations." Millennials are an easy target to blame for things like this, and it's news organizations love to gobble up "Millennials are Killing Industry X" stories like there's no tomorrow.

You can even see it in this thread. Some people (of varying ages) indicate that they do or don't use particular features. Nobody has said they'd pay the same (or a higher) price for a hotel room missing those features. But old Arne and Bill can easily pull the wool over peoples eyes by blaming the dread Millennial and charge more for less.

DJ_Iceman

And yet another "Marriott sucks; SPG had all the best hotels in the universe" overreaction. *sigh*

Am I the only one hoping all the spoiled, self-entitled, wool-pulled-over-their-eyes SPG blind loyalists leave Marriott as soon as possible and take their crappy attitudes to some other hotel chain where it will become their problem?

(And I say this as someone who dislikes "fresh bites" just slightly less than SkiAdcock, and who thinks it is a valid complaint against that particular hotel. But the brush being painted with couldn't be any broader...)

SkiAdcock

In fairness I wouldn't typecast all SPG folk that way, just as I wouldn't typecast all MAR folk as lesser than. There are some valid complaints (on both sides).

But do agree that there are a lot of, this is my first time, this didn't work out, I'm taking my millions of points to another chain threads, which I don't actually understand that much. If you have a sucky experience at a particular property, then don't stay at that property again (re: of chain). But to throw away millions of points when there are properties you do like, that I don't get. OVMV.

Cheers.

DJ_Iceman

I wasn't trying to say all the millions of former SPG members are like that, I was trying to say that I hope the ones who ARE like that leave for perceived greener pastures. Thanks for helping me clarify that!