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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

#61

Post by midoridensha »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #23
crooked-v wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

The keyword here is "should". I don't have much faith that hotels will actually do this.

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

#62

Post by nunez »

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…

Marriott does this!

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

#63

Post by dawnerd »

wenc wrote: post #55
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 sp…

They need to let their phone check in work with OTAs. I just stayed at a Hilton and couldn’t use my phone as a key because I booked through hotels.com and the front desk refused to add my hhonors info to set it up. I know you can call in but not something I want to deal with after traveling all day.

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

#64

Post by vkou »

midoridensha wrote: post #61
lotsofpulp wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Every single hotel or motel should be doing full clean between guest visits, otherwise it should not even be allowed to operate. The keyword here is "should". I don't have much faith that hotels will actually do this.

Even bad hotels do this, because people lose their shit and do chargebacks if they end up in an uncleaned room.

Source: a close friend works at a really bad hotel.

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

#65

Post by bachmeier »

missedthecue wrote: post #7
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 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.

Interesting piece of data that's seldom cited:

Sep 2015 labor force participation rate: 62.4%

August 2022 labor force participation rate: 62.4%

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART

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

#66

Post by makeitdouble »

missedthecue wrote: post #3

I wonder where everyone has gone. The lazy answer is that companies aren't paying enough. But how is it better to sit at home making $0 than working and having an income? How do they afford rent or electricity or pay for car insurance? The workforce participation rate is still well below pre-pandemic levels. Millions of people just up and left the workforce. It's not as if they are looking for work at the right wage,…

> But how is it better to sit at home making $0 than working and having an income?

I had that very discussion with a co-worker leaving. They told me working wasn't worth their time, and they'd better care for their home, family, themselves etc. instead.

And it wasn't that they were rich or their partner had a high paying job, more that the cost of daycare, private teacher, eating outside every day, work related stuff (clothes, commuting etc.) and their general health and mental impact made it a net negative for them. Working a job they didn't enjoy just didn't make any sense.

The interesting part to me is that the calculus didn't change overnight, it's more because one day they stopped for a while and thought long and hard about their life, and came to that conclusion that was there for a very long time already.

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

#67

Post by SoftTalker »

mc32 wrote: post #41

Some cheap European hotels are made like the expensive toilet booths where they basically just hose them down —-no fancy carpeting. All surfaces except the bedding are washable. Makes for easy cleanup and quick turnaround. It’s not for everyone of course.

In Europe it's not uncommon (or at least, it isn't unheard of) to need to bring your own bed sheets and towels from home.

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

#68

Post by firstplacelast »

missedthecue wrote: post #3

I wonder where everyone has gone. The lazy answer is that companies aren't paying enough. But how is it better to sit at home making $0 than working and having an income? How do they afford rent or electricity or pay for car insurance? The workforce participation rate is still well below pre-pandemic levels. Millions of people just up and left the workforce. It's not as if they are looking for work at the right wage,…

Anecdata…I took a new job for a decent raise at the beginning of the year. The inflation this year ate up 1/3-1/2 of the raise.

I quit a month ago as the money wasn’t enough for me to move forward in life (VHCOL area), management was all older and I felt they do not want to adjust to 21st century processes, and I wasn’t getting any opportunities to really grow.

I have not applied anywhere yet, I’ve taken a couple trips, been spending time outside, and doing a lot of thinking and a little studying/research.

I have no debt, a decent savings, but not enough for a mortgage or to have kids. Employers don’t have a lot of leverage over me because I’ve never made enough to buy-into those adult things that keep your finances constrained.

I can not work for the next two years pretty easily, although I doubt it will last more than another month or four.

I’m not in FAANG and find most companies don’t have much to offer me compensation wise (in terms of letting me grow in my personal life). Not interested in wasting my life working for all these things in the middle.

If you can’t have what you want in life, that’s acceptable. But why get on that career treadmill for a bunch of stuff that won’t make you happy ?

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

#69

Post by SoftTalker »

ETH_start wrote: post #29

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.

They spent weeks on end at home, and realized it didn't suck as bad as they thought it would.

You can save a lot of money by not eating out, going out, etc. and just staying home and playing a board game with the family.

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

#70

Post by lotsofpulp »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #52
missedthecue wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Ho…

>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.

There is no way this is anywhere near true. The list below alone is probably $100B, and there are 7M people in Massachusetts, including many with net worths in the millions.

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/these-are-the-16-riches...

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