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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

#251

Post by rajamaka »

EFreethought wrote: post #144
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…

Where does this leave people who do not want to use their phones for literally everything? I do not want a lot of apps on my phone, and I do not want to install something just for one trip.

Honestly it's such a small minority of people that it doesn't make business sense to accomodate for this sort of customer

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

#252

Post by moffkalast »

EricDeb wrote: post #126

As long as society is taking care of people I'd much rather have robots doing this type of work than low wage people.

Yeah it's not like anyone exactly dreams to become a hotel room cleaner. Pointless menial jobs like these need to go. Unfortunately while I do see the profits from this getting taxed and going towards UBI-style services in some parts of the world, in the US it's just gonna be going to the owners with everyone else left to die on the street.

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

#253

Post by Dma54rhs »

EFreethought wrote: post #144
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…

Where does this leave people who do not want to use their phones for literally everything? I do not want a lot of apps on my phone, and I do not want to install something just for one trip.

To the place where it leaves people who don't want to use modern banking - somewhat possible but difficult.

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

#254

Post by MarkPNeyer »

mcv wrote: post #233
emptybits wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

There’s always a trade off between “cost” and everything else. If you’re wealthy enough they cost doesn’t really matter to you, regulation is fine because it leads to higher quality experiences in general.

But if you’re not as wealthy, saving money might be more valuable to you than having a room cleaned daily, or having a really nice tv, or a great mattress, etc.

Regulation involves a group of people picking one point on a trade off curve for everyone. Branding and reputation systems allow for multiple different spots on that reputation curve.

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

#255

Post by MarkPNeyer »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #212
rob74 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

> the cockroaches and rats won't just materialize out of thin air In practice, you can assume they do - it's a simplified but accurate model of reality when you're not researching the life of insects and rodents. Yes, life does not appear "out of thin air", but it constantly tries to get in, will exploit any crack in your defenses or attention to chase after anything that looks or smells like food or safety. It's sim…

We had a mouse problem once. The ended up being a small hole drilled in the side of the house to install a cat5 cable for a security camera. The hole couldn't have been more than 1.5 cm in diameter, and it had a cat 5 cable running through it - but apparently this was enough space for a mouse to squeeze through.

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

#256

Post by robertlagrant »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #231
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. '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…

This is undoubtedly true, but I don't think it affects the main point. Doing less room-cleaning (or charging more for each time it happens) doesn't mean inter-guest cleaning is affected.

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

#257

Post by robertlagrant »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #108
yardstick wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After the Las Vegas massacre, a lot of hotels will enter even if house keeping is always declined. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/las-vegas-shooting-hotels-revis...

Especially since the hotel and the hotel’s insurers ended up paying $800M: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/las-vegas-shooting-settlement-m... > Jim Frantz, whose San Diego-based law firm represents another 199 victims including Romo, said Thursday's settlement is a good first step. Now MGM must strengthen the security protocol at all their facilities, he said. >"I would assume a responsible business, after going through…

> As long as we have automatic weapons

But you don't, really. They're all antiques.

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

#258

Post by michaelt »

jltsiren wrote: post #155
matt3210 wrote: post #31

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

I've started to dislike this perspective, because it feels like an "if the only tool you have is a hammer..." kind of explanation. It's a valid perspective, but it's not the only one, and other perspectives are often more useful. Maybe the issue is just that hotels don't want to pay enough. Maybe there is an actual shortage. Then any single hotel can solve the shortage by paying more, but hotels in general can't. Or…

> Maybe there is an actual shortage. Then any single hotel can solve the shortage by paying more, but hotels in general can't.

Sure they can - by drawing workers from other, non-hotel sectors; and other locations.

You think all those people delivering for uber eats and making 1-hour amazon deliveries couldn't learn to make a bed?

And if your hotel's in the expensive city centre and your workers have to travel from the outskirts of the city by public transport, the more you pay, the further people are willing to travel. There's a lot more cleaners within 90 minutes commute of Manhattan than there are within 30 minutes - if the job pays enough that a 90 minute commute is worthwhile.

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

#259

Post by thfuran »

grishka wrote: post #220
pjc50 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a world of difference between "you could assemble by some rube goldberg mechanism a bomb out of 100ml liquid containers" and actual firearms designed for easy long range killing.

As a sibling comment said, what if that shooter rented an apartment instead?

I heard they took a bus once.

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

#260

Post by toyg »

mcv wrote: post #235
rob74 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> owhere on Earth you're ever more than 6 meters away from a rat. I don't think that's true

I see that as realistic, if we are talking 2D spaces. In urban environments, they live in sewers, and you have sewers under every building. In the countryside, they obviously live everywhere.

I can see that 6-metres rule broken only if going 3D, i.e. in multi-storey buildings with spotless maintenance of any nook and cranny, living on the third or fourth floor, you might be a bit further away than that.

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