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Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

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Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#21

Post by missedthecue »

crooked-v wrote: post #15
missedthecue wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This can't be the explanation. If it were true, the workforce participation rate would be steady. Changing jobs doesn't raise or lower that figure. A person is employed whether they scrub toilets or do brain surgery. But it's not steady. Literally millions of people have stopped working and looking for work since 2020.

Well, about 1,245,000 of them died [1], and I'm sure there were a substantial number of older working-age people who went for early retirement to reduce the chances of dying from public contact. [1]: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

1.2 million people in the workforce died?

70% of covid deaths were over the age of 70 years.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2006392117

Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#22

Post by Gigachad »

heavyset_go wrote: post #4

> It's not for lack of trying. Hotels have raised hourly wages by 25% since early 2020, and employers are offering greater flexibility in scheduling. Still, workers are nowhere to be seen. 25% of minimum wage isn't much.

There are other limits they are pushing against. I haven't used a hotel for a while now because it just costs more than I can afford. They can put their wages up higher but if it starts cutting in to their sales it's an issue.

Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#23

Post by lotsofpulp »

crooked-v wrote: post #19
lotsofpulp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would want any hotel I stay in to have mandated at least weekly hotel room cleaning, or at least weekly inspection. Too many people are sufficiently dirty that it can easily cause pest issues, as well as other damages.

I would assume the reputable but cost-cutting hotels would still be doing a full clean between guest visits, just cutting down on the daily room cleaning while a guest is still there.

Every single hotel or motel should be doing full clean between guest visits, otherwise it should not even be allowed to operate.

But if a hotel starts letting people stay weeks without checking their room, they will inevitably end up with hoarders and people that keep food lying around and then comes cockroaches and rats and odors, etc.

Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#24

Post by c4ptnjack »

missedthecue wrote: post #9
lotsofpulp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The structural issue is that Covid allowed for the activation energy for people to find better jobs. And possibly cut down on supply of people willing to work hotel cleaning jobs for low pay. It is probably among the least desirable work. Volatile hours, busiest times are weekends and holidays, literally cleaning up anything from bodily fluids to garbage and dealing with smells. No one outside of large unionized hote…

Why has the workforce participation rate cratered? If people simply changed to a better job, that figure would hold steady. Instead it shows us that millions of Americans decided to stop looking for work.

It has actually rebounded to 1 percent less than it was prepandemic, and health risks were legitimate reasons for people to not work for a period. Really it shows since 2002 the rate has gone down fairly consistently, show overtime it's worth less and less to work.

The main factor in choosing a job is pay in the end and that's also the main variable when choosing to work or not imo.

https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-lab...

Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#25

Post by crooked-v »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #10
missedthecue wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why has the workforce participation rate cratered? If people simply changed to a better job, that figure would hold steady. Instead it shows us that millions of Americans decided to stop looking for work.

I do not think it has cratered in the US. https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-lab... Just 1 percent, 63% to 62%, which could just be aging demographics since a greater and greater proportion of people in America are going to be too old to work, especially for hard labor work like cleaning hotel rooms. Also, hotels (and other low pay to quality of life at work ratio employers) were already struggl…

Also, excess deaths during the pandemic account for 0.38% of the entire US population at the start of it.

Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#26

Post by mensetmanusman »

heavyset_go wrote: post #4

> It's not for lack of trying. Hotels have raised hourly wages by 25% since early 2020, and employers are offering greater flexibility in scheduling. Still, workers are nowhere to be seen. 25% of minimum wage isn't much.

If they go higher no one can afford to stay.

Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#27

Post by mensetmanusman »

missedthecue wrote: post #16
drewrv wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over a million people died of covid. Many more have become permanently disabled. Many of them were retired seniors but among the people who were not, they were disproportionately service workers who couldn’t wfh.

The average age of a covid death in the US was 80 years old.

He wants the greatest generation back on the clock!

Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#28

Post by echelon »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #20
missedthecue wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look how much the workforce participation rate has varied over the last 20 years. Only a few percentage points even through massive global recessions. Small percentage changes in this statistic can easily deceive the layman into thinking it's not a big deal.

I do not understand why a change from 63% to 62% is a sufficiently big deal to be able to claim “millions of Americans decided to stop looking for work”, especially when we know a greater and greater proportion of the population is elderly who cannot work.

I would really love to see these statistics broken down by industry, salary band, age, etc.

Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#29

Post by ETH_start »

What this labor shortage indicates to me is that a significant number of people are willing to reduce the goods/services they consume, in exchange for having to work less. I'm not certain how COVID/lockdowns precipitated this change, but I'm fairly certain they were directly or indirectly the catalyst.

Re: Hotels turn to robots and room cleanings every 4 days to ease staffing shortages

#30

Post by notyourwork »

codazoda wrote: post #2

In some Las Vegas hotels I no longer need to stop at a counter or stand in a line and it’s 1000x better experience. I can walk directly to my room and scan my phone. I can scan my phone for parking. I can grab extra keys at a kiosk, if I need them. I never have to talk to anyone, if I don’t want to. I also select the option not to have my room cleaned each day. I’ll ask someone in the hall for towels if I stay long e…

> I also select the option not to have my room cleaned each day.

This has always been an option. Put the DND on your door.

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