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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

#371

Post by dahart »

robertlagrant wrote: post #327
exhilaration wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 we…

I think this is a stretch. Binary triggers are tricky to use, and aren't nearly automatic. They're slightly more automatic than semi-automatic, but much, much less usable. In terms of illegal weapons, yes. There are illegal fully automatic weapons in the US without taking your example into account. I'm talking about what's legal.

This sub-thread started on the Vegas massacre, where the shooter used a bump stock. It was legal at the time and pretty damn close to automatic.

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

#372

Post by andrewla »

dumpsterlid wrote: post #328
phpisthebest wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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.

No, the issue is quite clear here, hotels dont want to pay a living wage for labor. How much clearer can it be?

This is assuming that hotels are making enough money to be able to afford to pay more. If margins are thin, they have to increase prices or reduce expenditures in order to get more money. A hotel is not a license to print money; it has to come from somewhere.

This can resolve itself in many ways. The classical outcome is that some hotels go out of business, and the supply of hotel rooms drops to the point where the demand means that a more realistic price level can be reached.

The potentially better outcome is that smaller business that rely on non-wage workers (like family-run businesses) can effectively employ "workers" at a much lower rate in the hopes of outlasting the contraction of the hotel room market.

The worse outcome is that big corporations can allow certain markets to lose money, because they are drawing sufficient income from other markets, and wait out the first culling, which will disproportionately affect local hotels that both rely on wage workers and do not have a capital backstop.

Or, the market can just recover organically due to circumstances completely out of the hotel's control -- the local labor market could contract meaning that workers are willing to take a lower salary, or the tourist market could expand meaning they can book more rooms, or business expenditures for hotel rooms could increase faster than price levels overall.

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

#373

Post by ghaff »

dumpsterlid wrote: post #328
phpisthebest wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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.

No, the issue is quite clear here, hotels dont want to pay a living wage for labor. How much clearer can it be?

Hotels would be happy to pay everyone more if customers would happily pay more for a room. The parent is providing an example of how their company categorically won't pay more.

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

#374

Post by Scoundreller »

bell-cot wrote: post #365
barbariangrunge wrote: post #357

Again, it’s not a staffing shortage, it’s an entire population fleeing an industry due to a pay shortage

Yep. How many customers of the hospitality industry prioritize either cleaning staff pay, or how perfectly the room was cleaned, when they are looking at their options for a hotel and deciding who'll get their money ? Reasonable Assumption: Hotel management knows the answer, and makes their decisions accordingly.

Just a matter of time before the Hotwire and Priceline bookers get a lower level/standard of cleaning for their rooms.

(I don’t care for intermediate cleanings when I stay, just at the beginning personally).

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

#375

Post by ghaff »

andrewla wrote: post #372
dumpsterlid wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the issue is quite clear here, hotels dont want to pay a living wage for labor. How much clearer can it be?

This is assuming that hotels are making enough money to be able to afford to pay more. If margins are thin, they have to increase prices or reduce expenditures in order to get more money. A hotel is not a license to print money; it has to come from somewhere. This can resolve itself in many ways. The classical outcome is that some hotels go out of business, and the supply of hotel rooms drops to the point where the d…

You also have the lever demonstrated in this article. You institute more automation, self-service, and cut back on services (like daily room cleanings) that a lot of customers don't really value.

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

#376

Post by fundad »

tantalor wrote: post #360
barbariangrunge wrote: post #357

Again, it’s not a staffing shortage, it’s an entire population fleeing an industry due to a pay shortage

Fleeing to where? Are other industries paying better? Except for niches like tech, wages are stagnant across the board.

Catering, retail, call “center” (often remote positions).

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

#378

Post by zxcvbn4038 »

barbariangrunge wrote: post #357

Again, it’s not a staffing shortage, it’s an entire population fleeing an industry due to a pay shortage

Agreed! It’s not that people don’t want to work, they don’t want to work for $16 an hour, with no benefits, and get discarded on a whim to make the quarterlies look good. I don’t blame them.

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

#379

Post by ProllyInfamous »

ghaff wrote: post #301
EFreethought wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I was recently denied opening a PO Box because I no longer have a working phone number. This is apparently "required contact information" (by USPS regulation).

Parking in my town is largely paid for via an APP — which is frustrating for somebody not using a mobile phone. The coin-accepting meters are rapidly disappearing.

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

#380

Post by Scoundreller »

ghaff wrote: post #373
dumpsterlid wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the issue is quite clear here, hotels dont want to pay a living wage for labor. How much clearer can it be?

Hotels would be happy to pay everyone more if customers would happily pay more for a room. The parent is providing an example of how their company categorically won't pay more.

Sounds like the words of someone that overpaid for a business/property.

Or extracted too much capital when they could instead of paying down debt and got trapped under a rock when interest rates went up.

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