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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

#431

Post by trevyn »

xyzelement wrote: post #130
norvvryo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently transitioned from long term NEET to full time work and this is hitting me hard. I just end up sitting at home alone playing video games all weekend anyway. What's the point of working the other five days? Especially if the work isn't enjoyable.

Maybe you can explain this to me because I never understand this "why work?" sentiment. How do you pay your rent, have food, etc. without working?

It is actually quite easy to find food and be alive without money.

This “rent” thing sounds suspicious, you do you I guess.

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

#432

Post by dukeofdoom »

dumpsterlid wrote: post #341
dukeofdoom wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution to this in Canada seems to be to allow a lot of immigrants from poorer countries, willing to live two to a bedroom. Fast food places, Walmart, and other places are now fully staffed thanks to that policy. I know for a fact that it's the case, because in my town it's a very large demographic change from recognizable ethnicity where 5 years ago there was almost none. Unfortunately Canada is a a very expens…

This isn't a solution, its just hurting people who have been so hurt other places that this comparative hurt is less bad. How twisted is it that you see this as a solution? The solution is workers joining together to enact leverage over the wealth horders in society and demanding better wages for everybody. The money is absolutely there in rich countries like the US and Canada.

If it eases your mind I do not support these policies. I think it's the height of hypocrisy that the leftist parties in my country support this. But it is what it is. Our leader has the support of office and managerial class in this country. It's not like I can change someones thinking, when they see themselves as God's gift to the world. Though, I leave, next time they try and mandate I inject myself with drugs to protect their lard-ass.

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

#433

Post by Mezzie »

dashundchen wrote: post #320
yunwal wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure this is true anymore. The median American will never be able to afford their own home at current housing prices. Sure, we have a higher gdp per capita, but it doesn’t buy us the things we actually need like housing, health care, etc. Perhaps what’s needed is to bring back family homesteads, but that doesn’t feel like much progress.

Do you know what life was like 100 years ago in the US? 35% of households had access to electricity. About 20% had some sort of indoor plumbing, running hot water would be even rarer. Most people heated their houses by shoveling coal or feeding wood fires. Society was even more racially segregated and legally codified and brutally enforced by the government. In warmer rural areas it wasn't uncommon for hookworm to be…

I'd say the difference between those times is the feeling of agency/possibility of a good life (defining good life by what that meant at the time). Objectively, material conditions were worse, but due to a variety of factors, the average person felt that society was getting better. We'll put up with a lot of shit if we think it's temporary or something that we could change.

And some people honestly liked living like that. My great-great grandparents lived until the 1980s (born in the 1870s) and refused to get indoor plumbing. People are weird and sentiment matters.

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

#434

Post by cudgy »

typest wrote: post #429

There is a take that consistently comes up in discussions like this (and indeed is prominent several times on this post), which says "the problem isn't a shortage of workers, it's that employers don't want to pay workers enough." This seems somewhat limited to me, and there is an alternate explanation I would like to explore. It seems to me rising cost of labor, while good for the people being paid that rising cost,…

Seems like you are forgetting about laborers getting more of the profits of companies and the inverse of non-profitable or barely profitable companies surviving on artificially low labor rates. You mention “society” as if it is distinct from the laborers, but society consists of these laborers.

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

#435

Post by andrewla »

ghaff wrote: post #375
andrewla wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, agreed, this method can work, but it isn't magic. I kind of lumped that in with "cost cutting", because in almost every case it results in a lower quality of service. Supply and demand operates on the margins; even though a lot of customers don't value the services, enough might to cut into your income, at least over time, and risk sacrificing some customer goodwill.

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

#437

Post by cultofmetatron »

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.

I'm pretty sure you an find places free of rats in the antarctic

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

#438

Post by dawnerd »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #311
dalyons wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

All the hotel brands offer best price guarantees where they will give you a discount if you are able to reserve with a lower price elsewhere. The reservation systems are setup so that the pricing that goes out to priceline and Expedia is higher than what is on the hotel brand’s website. https://www.marriott.com/look/claimForm.mi https://www.hyatt.com/info/best-rate-guarantee https://www.hilton.com/en/p/price-match-gu…

The problem with that is they don't honor most of the deals. A lot of the OTAs do the 'member only' 'mobile only' etc style deals which are not covered.

That said I would book direct from Hilton but every time I do they only allow pay later which in certain currencies, I'd rather not risk (Looking at Japan right now). I'd rather pay now and lock in the rate.

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

#439

Post by factsarelolz »

Mezzie wrote: post #416
factsarelolz wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Zero breaks

C'mon man. At least have a serious argument. You act like a person cleaning a hotel room can't stop to use the bathroom or take a few moments to collect themselves before starting on the next room.

Have you ever stayed at a hotel? The staff moves at a normal rate, there doesn't appear to be a rush, they aren't sweating through their clothes. I've seen staff in their phones, texting, changing their music.

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

#440

Post by hinata08 »

dumpsterlid wrote: post #338
xyzelement wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you can explain this to me because I never understand this "why work?" sentiment. How do you pay your rent, have food, etc. without working?

Some degree of support network, and when you get paid dirt and the cost to work is high itself (buying and maintaining a car being the big one) the tiny amount of money you get for a huge mental and physical toll just isn't worth it? You are likely still going to be entirely dependent upon that support network job or no job. Jobs that are available to most people dont generally pay a living wage anymore, is that not…

Nowadays, you can't make any demand if you don't work because of a choice of yours.

workers (should) have unions, the ability to go to strike, and the political position to ask better

The anger of the general public is moving on from high unemployment rates to low wage for workers.

- Have no job ? Nobody cares anymore since service industry needs a workforce (even if you're qualified in any other field)

- Have an underpaid job ? You can have a political impact nowadays.

Also, jobs allow you to have better jobs in the future. You build experience, and working in some companies, like Amazon, allows you to follow a university course, as mention in OP's article.

If you're not doing this for you, you should just have a job to be able to flip off abusive bosses.

>Jobs that are available to most people don't generally pay a living wage anymore

I don't think it can be a long lasting trend. Check out China, where ppl are protesting. And check out what happens at Amazon in the USA, where the high rate of resignation worries management https://news.yahoo.com/amazon-burns-workers-quickly-executiv...

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