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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

#341

Post by dumpsterlid »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #114
matt3210 wrote: post #31

Its not a shortage of workers, it's a shortage of underpayable workers.

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.

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

#342

Post by eastbound »

matwood wrote: post #305
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.

I’ve always thought that hotels mandated daily cleaning just to check you are not performing illegal activities (abduction, drugs, sharing the room, prostitution), having a heart attack or stuck and need help.

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

#343

Post by nicbou »

tartoran wrote: post #318
nicbou wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm concerned about an economy where the different strata never interact with each other. It's all too easy to lose compassion for the people who keep the world running for you if you never see them. If you have a delivery driver brave the elements to bring you food, you should have to face them. However it's nice to do things on your own sometimes. For example I love McDonalds self-checkout because it speaks my lang…

It is concerning indeed, and what’s more concerning is an economy where tech pushes out most jobs. Where will it lead to? What are non tech people supposed to work?

On one hand, you can't artificially preserve jobs that are not needed. You can't keep mining coal to protect the coal miners.

On the other, automation concentrates wealth in the pockets of those who finance it. Automated checkout machines do not benefit fast food workers, only investors. What happens when you automate a third or a half of the workforce like that?

I hope that we can share the spoils of all this innovation, because the future will be very bleak otherwise.

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

#344

Post by ghaff »

scarface74 wrote: post #335
ghaff wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I don't see the disadvantage with Marriott or United with my company booking agency. I do prefer to book directly in general but I'm not traveling a lot now and also prefer to generally adhere to travel policy when there's not a good reason not to.

I’m referring to this statement; > There's no particular disadvantage to me booking Marriott through Amex There is a big difference between booking through Concur and booking through the Amex portal.

We use Egencia which is owned by Amex. And it has all my loyalty program info.

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

#346

Post by dumpsterlid »

supernova87a wrote: post #186
Renaud wrote: post #151

Hotels should start proposing discounts for not cleaning the room every day. If I stay in a place for a couple of weeks, I’d be happy to have the bedsheets and towels changed once and the room made like every 3 days at most. I mean, most of us don’t do more than that at home. Less room cleaning would save on staff and laundry et be a net benefit for the environment.

This causes unexpected problems. Depending on how it's implemented (and in a "fair" way or not), the housekeeping / cleaning staff object to this sometimes on grounds that they're being deprived of hours of work. So in fact I have experienced at some hotels (off the books of course), the housekeeping staff asking you to not accept the points-for-no-housekeeping option. It's kind of like the situation I heard a where…

Ok but I'd still rather have a building built with a bunch of useless copper pipes than have the plumbers union annihilated and then have plumbing get gutted as a good paying job and life... and then have plumbing systems everywhere made by people who hate their job and get paid shit?

That sounds like a recipe for a literal shitstorm.

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

#347

Post by artificialLimbs »

matt3210 wrote: post #31

Its not a shortage of workers, it's a shortage of underpayable workers.

It's not a shortage of underpayable workers. The workers are still there. The problem is that it's illegal to hire them at all because of minimum wage. They've been priced out of the market and low margin employers can't afford them. Many at the bottom are unable to do anything except beg for help from others if they're not employable at wages that employers are willing to pay.

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

#348

Post by eastbound »

IncRnd wrote: post #266
grishka wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you just love how our society "fights" terrorism? Someone used something to kill someone, so let's ruin that thing for everyone, forever! Also see: air travel. I was a kid in the 90s and so I didn't fly before 9/11, but people say it was a much more enjoyable experience.

Pre 9/11 to now for air travel is the difference between day and night. It's not even close. This pretend, fake security we have today imposes so many burdens and costs on people who wish to travel. The least suspicious would easily think that the changes were meant to federalize a big portion of many people's lives.

Plus they’re not banning mobile phones or computers, and the best way to get something on fire is to shortcut a Li-ion battery - how much energy does a macbook contain.

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

#349

Post by krab »

joekrill wrote: post #314
francisofascii wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They do. And they have for a very long time! At least with Avis I've been doing this for years. The app tells me where my car is located and I just walk to it and the key is in it.

Mind blown, thanks! Next time, I'll look for this option!

I don't mind hotel check-ins but the car rental process has never, ever been pleasant for me.

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

#350

Post by scarface74 »

ghaff wrote: post #344
scarface74 wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m referring to this statement; > There's no particular disadvantage to me booking Marriott through Amex There is a big difference between booking through Concur and booking through the Amex portal.

We use Egencia which is owned by Amex. And it has all my loyalty program info.

Ahh. You’re not talking about the public AmexTravel portal.

Your company pays the booking fee instead of the hotel. On that case, you’re probably directly charged by the hotel and Egencia charges the company/end user the fee.

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