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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

#411

Post by illegalsmile »

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #396
fishtoaster wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some do, some don't. On the margin, higher pay incentivizes people to compromise their preferences. As a silly example, imagine if all hotels started paying $200 an hour to their cleaning staff. I think we can probably all agree that they would be flooded with workers and have no shortage at all. Given that there is a shortage now, we can infer that there's a pay point between the current prevailing wages and $200/hr…

Benefits would help - the quickest way to get royally screwed in the US is to need medical help without insurance.

Even with benefits you're probably still going to get royally screwed if you're a housekeeper or anyone with a low paying job that offers benefits. When your deductible is $6k or more and max out of pocket is sky high you're screwed when it comes to a health emergency especially if you're already living paycheck to paycheck. Even with the most basic insurance the US health care system will rake you over the coals and leave you with debt.

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

#412

Post by fourthark »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #406
barbariangrunge wrote: post #357

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

That's still a staffing shortage... If people aren't willing to work at the wages hotels are looking to pay then their job will be replaced by robots.

So people have been saying for 70 years. If a robot exists today that can make a bed and dust every surface, it probably costs $1M.

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

#413

Post by skybrian »

I recently stayed a couple nights at a nice “boutique” style hotel in Philadelphia that has no staff there most of the time. You get in with a keycode or an app (the app didn’t work). It’s sort of like an airbnb, but a hotel.

Presumably they do have staff to clean the rooms, but only between visitors as far as I could see? We never saw any staff. There is a number to call.

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

#414

Post by forgotusername6 »

bbbobbb wrote: post #138
SoftTalker wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Source? Because that's definitely not unheard of let alone common. In fact, as a European I've literally not heard something like that.

The only places I've heard of that do this are the most budget of holiday parks in the UK. The type of place where the TV is bolted down and you have to pay for your own electricity.

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

#415

Post by tracker1 »

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'm the opposite... I honestly get frustrated with kiosks, usually the interface staff has is better/faster and I prefer the human contact. Even though I work with technology and generally like computers, I'm the type of person that I'll go to my desktop to do things I could do on my phone, but far more annoying on the phone.

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

#416

Post by Mezzie »

factsarelolz wrote: post #354
enumjorge wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we ignore the low pay, physically demanding work, bad benefits and and unpredictable work schedule, then yeah I guess these jobs sound great for moms.

Physically demanding? What's the difference between cleaning a hotel room and cleaning your house or bedroom? There's absolutely zero heavy lifting. You change the sheets, vaccuum and wipe down everything. I would option to say taking care of kids is more physically demanding than cleaning. If it's just supplementary income it wouldn't really matter about benefits as the spouse would already have benefits.

Zero breaks, for one. And no ability to take sick days/stop doing it if you're injured. Doing work for 1-2 hours a day or a few hours a week is very different from doing it for 20-40 hours a week. (Much like there's a difference between taking on a project or two for a small team that requires some programming and being a full time dev). Oh, and you can't sit. That's like saying anybody who mows their lawn would have no difficulty in a landscaping position.

And the kid thing it strongly depends on the age and type of kid. Kids at the most physically exhausting ages also tend to take naps which gives the parent a respite. You can also trade off with the other parent/other relatives if you're tired. Can't do that with work: Your coworkers aren't going to do your job if you have an off day.

The physically demanding part is in the demand for physical consistency.

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

#417

Post by notwokeno »

fundad wrote: post #398
notwokeno wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Even in Silicon Valley there are more churches than libraries.

If it's anything like the rest of the country most of those churches are dead and/or irrelevant. Showing up on Sunday, singing, and giving money to poor people isn't religion.

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

#418

Post by paganel »

krisoft wrote: post #206
paganel wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're equating someone's wish to not have to wait at a check out counter to being anti-social...come on. Yes, 10 minutes waiting in a hotel lobby, which is by definition a societal space, is, well, social. Actively wanting go avoid that is, well, anti-social. Anyway, it's a losing battle at this point.

> Actively wanting go avoid that is, well, anti-social. Ah the epitome of social interactions. An underpaid and overworked service worker mis-hears my name, pretends to not find me in the system then gives me a card. Well worth queuing for! But you know it is a must, since if I continue the conversation with my travel companion uninterrupted all the way to our room then I am actively tearing apart the fabric of socie…

Yes, it hurts me to see the social fabric tearing itself apart. It’s on us, people of “today”, to try to keep it in one place as best as we can and to pass it forward to those that will come after us.

> ince if I continue the conversation with my travel companion uninterrupted all the way to our room then I am actively tearing apart the fabric of society.

Yes, the social norms (of the past, at this point) say that you should interrupt the discussion with your travel companion and engage with the person from the other side of the counter (the hotel receptionist in this case).

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

#419

Post by sixothree »

tracker1 wrote: post #415
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'm the opposite... I honestly get frustrated with kiosks, usually the interface staff has is better/faster and I prefer the human contact. Even though I work with technology and generally like computers, I'm the type of person that I'll go to my desktop to do things I could do on my phone, but far more annoying on the phone.

Especially work travel. They always forget to do something important that you need a human for.
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