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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

#271

Post by phpisthebest »

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.

The problem here is when regulation moves beyond safety into protectionism, which I submit ALOT of regulation for both hotels and taxis is FAR FAR FAR removed from simply protecting health and safety and instead is more about preventing new entrants into the market and protecting current business models

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

#272

Post by phpisthebest »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #163
wenc wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Another app to install and leak my privacy. No thanks. I’ll wait in line for a key card.

I find installing the app likely means more Privacy

When I travel, and in the App I provide my Work address and contact info, not my personal info

When checking in at the desk they take my government ID, often scan it into go knows what system or what security, and then replace my Work info with my personal address in their systems

No thank you, I will take the app instead

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

#273

Post by nly »

supertrope wrote: post #89
Natsu wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. I dunno, my pay sure hasn't gone up by 25% in the past 2 years.

Would you work for $16/hr with no health insurance? Hotels are notorious for not only not offering steady 40 hour employment but sending staff home if room count is low or calling people in with minimal notice.

Man $16 USD/hr is 30% higher than minimum wage in the UK with a similar cost of living. We have the NHS though for what it's worth.

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

#274

Post by exhilaration »

robertlagrant wrote: post #257
lotsofpulp wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

While you are technically correct, NEARLY automatic weapons (binary triggers) are legal in most states, here's a random video for the curious: https://youtu.be/rOkAZkk__5g

And fully automatic (but illegal) weapons are easily available in the form of Glock auto sears https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkp8p8/glock-switches-auto-s... my buddy in Baltimore heard on of these being shot in his Baltimore neighborhood a few weeks back.

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

#275

Post by phpisthebest »

paganel wrote: post #176
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 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…

You believe that the interaction I have with the Hotel Front Desk person is a meaningful social interaction, whereby if I do not have it I would need to seek mental health treatment?

Really? That is your position?

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

#276

Post by dalyons »

fein wrote: post #102
dawnerd wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The one rule I learned while traveling over the years for work is to only ever book with the hotel directly. You open yourself up to much more annoying problems when dealing with third party booking regarding any sort of problem resolution with the reservation.

It pretty much always costs more going direct though, which is counterintuitive and annoying. Unless you call and negotiate which I ain’t doing.

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

#277

Post by phpisthebest »

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 the issue is just that hotels don't want to pay enough

No the customers (mainly businesses) do not want to pay enough.

Hotel prices go up, business travel goes down. Same with Vactations.

My company has a hard cap on per night hotel costs, and we have cancelled trips and destinations because the hotel costs at that time where over that limit.

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

#278

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#279

Post by cjrp »

hinata08 wrote: post #219
jltsiren wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yes ! As you mentioned, that's basically competition in both ways, for once : expecting more affordable hotel rooms and wage increase at the same time Macroeconomicaly, that's basically automating casual and repetitive tasks to focus on value, with more skilled and demanding workers. I'm glad that automation is becoming more effective for these jobs ! I mean, robot vacuum cleaners have been a thing for over a decade.…

> When visiting countries with a lower GDP in other parts of the planet, I was shocked by the madness of this cheap workforce : they cost nothing, so a lot of workers were working in pretty unproductive jobs.

Funnily enough I had the same thought when I arrived at JFK; compared to EU airports there seemed to be so many people just pointing you in a direction or yelling at you to get in a queue. It struck me that better UX and signage would make those people redundant (literally)

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

#280

Post by [deleted] »

hinata08 wrote: post #219
jltsiren wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yes ! As you mentioned, that's basically competition in both ways, for once : expecting more affordable hotel rooms and wage increase at the same time Macroeconomicaly, that's basically automating casual and repetitive tasks to focus on value, with more skilled and demanding workers. I'm glad that automation is becoming more effective for these jobs ! I mean, robot vacuum cleaners have been a thing for over a decade.…

[deleted]
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