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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

#231

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.

'Should be' yes, but you'd be surprised how many don't follow through on this, and not necessarily due to lack of policy. Cleaning staff have very tight schedules, being allocated only a few minutes to completely clean and setup the room for the new guest but if the old guest didn't follow through on the exact checkout time, then that throws of the schedule of the cleaning staff completely, meaning they often cut corners to meet their deadlines.

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

#232
The world needs big industrial vacuum robots. Why don't they exist? I live in a rather rich condo in Europe yet it's only once a year our vast underground garage is cleaned. In winter there are lakes of dirty water from the snow melting off the wheels, the rest of the year there are layers and tumbleweed-like balls of housedust (looks depressing). The floor itself is almost perfectly leveled and polished - ideal for a vacuum robot. I wish the bots would roam there and clean the mess. We have human jaintors but they only clean the stairs.

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

#233

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.

> But if a hotel starts letting people stay weeks without checking their room, ... Yet I think people regularly stay for weeks with Airbnb/Vrbo without any host inspection or cleaning. I agree with your conclusion (filthy guests who stay weeks invite pest problems) ... so if the big bad old hotel industry needs to market their advantages, maybe there's an Institutuionally Clean angle.

This is really the heart of the issue with all these new "disruptive" industries. They're cheaper because they avoid a lot of the regulation, but all that regulation exists for a reason. Whether you're replacing taxis with Uber or hotels with airbnb, you're saving money by allowing room for all the problems that made the regulation necessary in the first place.

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

#234
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.

I also doubt this. If the hotel has at least one star, providing towels is mandatory for them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_rating#European_Hotelsta...

Presumably, bed sheets are so basic that they aren't even listed in the star criteria. Even in youth hostels, you may have to put the sheets on yourself or they might cost extra, but you don't need to bring your own.

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

#235
post #166

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.

Even if there is some food lying around in a room on the 3rd floor, the cockroaches and rats won't just materialize out of thin air. Unless the hygienic conditions are generally bad anyway, but then the hotel has a bigger problem than one dirty room...

I once heard that nowhere on Earth you're ever more than 6 meters away from a rat. I don't think that's true, but it's probably still a bad idea to blindly assume that there's no vermin anywhere. You keep vermin away by not feeding them.

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

#236

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…

> 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.

What a strange statement. Could you give some evidence?

> It's not like people are going to starve to death if they don't work

Uh. They may not starve to death but most would certainly end up living in the street and die early in almost all developed country.

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

#237
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So if your friend says this, this implies that uncleaned rooms do happen from time to time, right?

This happens in 5 star luxury hotels too. People make mistakes.

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

#238
post #151

Hotels should start proposing discounts for not cleaning the room every day. If I stay in a place for a couple of weeks, I’d be happy to have the bedsheets and towels changed once and the room made like every 3 days at most. I mean, most of us don’t do more than that at home. Less room cleaning would save on staff and laundry et be a net benefit for the environment.

I've stayed in hotels that gave you a choice: a voucher for a drink at the bar or getting your room cleaned (except for the last night). Seems fair to me. I could decide each day if I really needed room service or if I'd rather get a free beer.

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

#239
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 never have to talk to anyone, if I don’t want to. I have seen this attitude at more and more people, where does it come from? Meaning not wanting to talk with other people. It's what makes us humans, talking with other people. The alternative is lots and lots of money paid on psychotherapy and the like further down the road, or worse. Because actively avoiding talking to other people it's like bringing your car f…

Some human interaction is essential for your mental health, but not all human interaction is good for your mental health. Especially if it involves waiting in line before subjecting yourself to bureaucratic drudgery. If they can make those experiences smoother, I'm all for it.

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

#240
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.

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