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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

#301

Post by ghaff »

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.

Increasingly marginalized and having to go through time-consuming hoops. There are a lot of things you're not technically required to have in the US like credit/debit cards, bank accounts, and government issued ID. But living a typical middle class lifestyle without them is... difficult.

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

#302

Post by weberer »

cjrp wrote: post #297
weberer wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you landed during a slow time of day, but JFK is usually packed and those people are definitely needed to help new arrivals navigate customs.

I've arrived at other airports at busy times (e.g. the return to Heathrow) and it's not comparable. Perhaps there are more non-English speakers arriving at JFK?

It's possible. It's the airport with the most international arrivals in the USA.

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

#303

Post by scarface74 »

ghaff wrote: post #295
scarface74 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a big difference between booking business travel through Concur and using hotels.com. You get all of the benefits of booking directly - points, nights count toward status, your credit card is charged directly by Hilton - ie I get 14 points per dollar by paying with my Amex Hilton Aspire.

You're essentially saying there are different tiers of travel agents. But you're right. There's no particular disadvantage to me booking Marriott through Amex than directly other than an (expensed) booking fee for work travel.

There is a huge disadvantage. You don’t get loyalty points are status upgrades.

In the case of Hilton, that can be worth from 24% to 38% back in loyalty points per dollar spent.

When Hilton isn’t running a special, I get 34 points per dollar at around .7 cents per point:

- 10x base points

- 10x Diamond bonus (automatic for having the Amex Hilton Aspire)

- 14x Amex Hilton Aspire card

But Hilton ran a 3x special May through September (54x total) and now they are running a 2x special (44x) through March 2023.

The other advantage from booking directly is that it’s easier to change or modify a booking.

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

#304

Post by francisofascii »

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…

Hopefully the rental car companies will soon have a similar feature.

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

#305

Post by matwood »

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…

Even pre-pandemic I never liked people coming in my room during my stay. First thing I always did when checking in was put the 'DND' placard on my door. All these changes just fit with how I operated for years.

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

#306

Post by gtowey »

MarkPNeyer wrote: post #254
mcv wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 poi…

> 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.

The problem is that without regulation there is little incentive for business to be honest about the quality of service you're getting. It becomes a race to the bottom as they charge premium prices for cut-rate quality. It's hard for people to take your business elsewhere when you need a place to sleep and arrive late at night to a room that isn't what you expect. They just have to make their dispute process hard enough to keep customer money.

And if you day that's fraud, sure it is, but fraud is only something you can charge a business with because of regulation.

IMO regulation isn't perfect, but we should aim to fix it instead of throwing it out the window entirely

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

#308

Post by francisofascii »

fzeroracer wrote: post #143
notwokeno wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Where exactly is this movement you're seeing? I'm seeing a lot of speculation with no actual facts or data to back it up.

Not OP, but I think the term "movement" was meant to mean the percentage of people who are starting families, keeping their religion, owning homes, etc. is moving downward. Pew Research has plenty of evidence for this movement downward.

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

#309

Post by ghaff »

michaelt wrote: post #258
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…

> 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 th…

With hotels, worker shortages have probably exposed that many hotels were doing things like in person checkin and daily room cleanings that guests would often just as soon not pay for. At some hotels, cleanings were already optional in exchange for giving you some points (or even explicitly charged for). Hotels can certainly pay more. But automating or eliminating unvalued services makes sense too.

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

#310

Post by matwood »

joenot443 wrote: post #290
supertrope wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My first job was for $8.90/hr and I was beaming when I got first paycheck. $16/h was more than a single person at the whole restaurant was making.

My first job paid $5.25/hour, but that has no bearing on what that same job should pay today.
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