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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

#51

Post by heavyset_go »

refurb wrote: post #35
heavyset_go wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People had ~3 years to find new jobs outside of hospitality after the industry basically shut down. No one is sitting at home, they found new jobs. There's also the toll COVID took on the workforce, and COVID-related disabilities.

This is the most reasonable explanation. I even know a couple people whose jobs were affected by Covid took the time (and government support) to do a career change. It happened with the airlines too. When you're without a job for more than a year, people move onto new companies, new careers or just retire early. Singapore airlines continued to pay their pilots to not fly during Covid, knowing it would be tough as hel…

I've personally watched people go from the food industry into software development because COVID reduced demand for restaurants for years.

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

#52

Post by KennyBlanken »

missedthecue wrote: post #6
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 were able to adequately staff two years ago, and now 25% of a pay raise later they can't, there are likely some structural issues going on.

The primary structural issue is that low-income wages have completely stagnated if not fallen with the inflation over the last several decades while wages for mid-upper to ultrawealthy have gone up, dramatically.

The number of places in the US that you can get a 2BR home, rental or owning, on minimum wage is basically non-existent.

We're on the verge of large swaths of the US population effectively becoming serfs. Housing is being snapped up by corporations, banks are jacking their fees and making more and more people "unbankable" forcing them into non-bank situations like payroll-company-run quasi-debit-cards where withdrawing their wages costs money.

Consider this: Elon Musk at peak of his wealth had more money than all the residents of Massachusetts (itself quite a wealthy state) combined, by a significant margin.

We're at a stage where we have what amounts to feudal lords in all but name, complete with their own private security forces going around roughing up people.

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

#53

Post by alphabettsy »

realworldperson wrote: post #45
realworldperson wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Quoted post unavailable.

You have some good points, but I think you’re being downvoted because this comes across as unnecessarily hostile.

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

#54

Post by alphabettsy »

notwokeno wrote: post #46
matt3210 wrote: post #31

Its not a shortage of workers, it's a shortage of underpayable workers.

I'm actually not even sure that's it. What do you get with the tokens you're paid in? The ability to participate in society. There's no longer a society to participate in though as all the social institutions have been deconstructed. Marriage, land ownership, religion, tradition, real communities, family is still nominally there but there's little left of it. It's not like people are going to starve to death if they…

> Marriage, land ownership, religion, tradition, real communities, family is still nominally there but there's little left of it.

Curious about where you live and where you grew up? I ask because none of these rings true for me. Many of my friends have bought homes and started families, along the way, they’ve created their own traditions, and are part of communities where they know their neighbors. And this isn’t in just in one place in the country.

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

#55

Post by wenc »

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…

> In some Las Vegas hotels

Not just Las Vegas hotels. Any hotel (Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, etc.) with an app that supports digital keys via Bluetooth already have this.

I still like to check in at the counter though if it looks like it isn't too busy. I have elite status at these hotels, and they typically hand out free cookies or water at the counter, and I occasionally get a free discretionary room upgrade on the spot.

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

#57

Post by norvvryo »

notwokeno wrote: post #46
matt3210 wrote: post #31

Its not a shortage of workers, it's a shortage of underpayable workers.

I'm actually not even sure that's it. What do you get with the tokens you're paid in? The ability to participate in society. There's no longer a society to participate in though as all the social institutions have been deconstructed. Marriage, land ownership, religion, tradition, real communities, family is still nominally there but there's little left of it. It's not like people are going to starve to death if they…

I recently transitioned from long term NEET to full time work and this is hitting me hard. I just end up sitting at home alone playing video games all weekend anyway. What's the point of working the other five days? Especially if the work isn't enjoyable.

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

#58

Post by lifeisstillgood »

missedthecue wrote: post #6
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 were able to adequately staff two years ago, and now 25% of a pay raise later they can't, there are likely some structural issues going on.

Structural issues are basically the rise of AirBNB - hotels with far less regulation / staff coverage. Now probably 99% of that regulation provided real tangible benefits to the customer and or the staff.

I mean if suddenly a competitor arrives in your industry selling the same product, with near zero marginal costs, and half the time they cannot price correctly and are happy to see "any" income there might be issues for your industry.

Edit: oh Ok - structural in the supply of labour. In the UK that is hugely labelled Brexit, but it is interesting to see a problem elsewhere - As others say Covid shock is most likely as people re-evaluate what they are willing to tolerate.

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

#59

Post by notwokeno »

alphabettsy wrote: post #54
notwokeno wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually not even sure that's it. What do you get with the tokens you're paid in? The ability to participate in society. There's no longer a society to participate in though as all the social institutions have been deconstructed. Marriage, land ownership, religion, tradition, real communities, family is still nominally there but there's little left of it. It's not like people are going to starve to death if they…

> Marriage, land ownership, religion, tradition, real communities, family is still nominally there but there's little left of it. Curious about where you live and where you grew up? I ask because none of these rings true for me. Many of my friends have bought homes and started families, along the way, they’ve created their own traditions, and are part of communities where they know their neighbors. And this isn’t in…

Obviously there are plenty of individuals where this isn't the case (and there are plenty of people working hard) but the discussion is about the movement of the group and this does appear to be where things are going on both sides.

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

#60

Post by nitwit005 »

Aerroon wrote: post #37
nitwit005 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly as a lot of that is just keeping up with inflation. Many industries seem to prefer going bankrupt than pay their lowest level employees well.

If entire industries are going bankrupt then it indicates that the service they provide is not economically feasible. The end result is that consumers just have less choice due to reduced services.

To be clear, I mean they could make it work, they just won't do it for cultural reasons. Perfectly happy to pay management and consultants well, but unwilling to even consider it for the rank and file.

Some studies on minimum wage increases have compared businesses across state lines, where one state has increased the minimum and the other has not. At least some of the time, the increase appears to benefit businesses, as they had high employee turnover, and hiring does cost money.

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