Hilton’s CEO was first out of the gate publicly declaring that guests should no longer receive daily housekeeping at full service hotels in the U.S. as a cost-cutting measure he believed people would accept after the pandemic. The goal is to charge people more, deliver them less, and improve margins.
A guest at the Hilton Brentwood/Nashville Suites shares what that looks like in practice.
This dirty laundry in the hall is just nasty. It took Hilton 24 hours to collect these nasty dirty towels and sheets that someone just tossed out of their room .
Published with permission
Marriott’s CEO is on board with eliminating housekeeping services, too. And I’ve already shown you what that looks like at the TownePlace Suites Outer Banks Kill Devil Hills.
Reducing housekeeping staffing isn’t just about turning a premium hotel experience into a dorm. It also means lacking the staffing to clean rooms and make them available for guests, when demand does materialize. It’s how one Marriott guest wound up sleeping in a room that hadn’t been cleaned since the previous guest despite Marriott’s “Clean Commitment.” You can’t talk about a commitment to clean without housekeeping services. Remind me what differentiates a full service hotel from Airbnb again?
Cue the “Daily Housekeeping” filter on the OTAs… :rolleyes:
Trend seems pretty clear to me – this will continue and escalate. Status with these hotel chains will be even more worthless than it has been last couple of years.
I only hope Hyatt will be the ‘Jetblue’ of hotel chains (well, what Jetblue used to be at least…) and be the one chain still providing more service. Until they won’t as well of course. Inevitable (but since I’m doing a Hyatt fast track offer one can hope…)
Are these on Twitter? Someone needs to start a #HiltonisFilthy hashtag (along with #MarriottisDisgusting). Public shaming is the only way anything will be done — well, public shaming plus calls to health inspectors.
Just wait for the “housekeeping”/“cleaning” surcharge to get housekeeping service during a stay, or perhaps such surcharge even for the customer not doing the “proper” cleaning of the room themselves as a condition for checkout without the additional (cleaning) charge.
Wow, AirBNB is looking better and better now
Makes me think buying ABNB stock is not such a bad idea.
Also, this idea will never go over in Europe or Asia.
Just stayed at my regular Hyatt at lax. Housekeeping in full force, 2-3 people on my floor bough days. Rooms as spotless and sheets as crisp as always.
If my hotel had service like in those photos I assume I would be walking away with a reduced rate and tons of bonus points in my account to make up fir the experience.
Wait for the rats and mice to move in. Then call the health department.
Solution
Drop the towels and the pizza boxes at the front desk and see how quickly they take it
We dont need to take this bs
Stayed @ the Embassy Suites Louisville Downtown a month ago-yes, hsk is ‘on request’, but hsk manager very proud of the fact that they’ve been fully staffed for a year & want to make sure there is daily hsk (which we asked for & received). Hotel was spotless, full breakfast/evening reception, valet parking, etc-it CAN be done but it’s clearly up to the individual property as to whether they WANT to provide these services. I would absolutely recommend this property when in the area.
You don’t pay enough to justify all the expenses a hotel incurs…if you want all the bells and whistles, be prepared to pay. Owners/investors have an expectation of profit and they will cut until they get it. Marriott and Hilton lost control when they divested themselves from actual hotel assets
Not only is this mast but also a safety issue for fire departments and emergency medical services.
Airbnb cleaning fee is no joke. $175 on a $350 booking for 2 nights. Yeah …
Well, there’s one hotel chain off my list. At this rate, they’ll soon be no different than Hotel 6.
The funny thing is that throughout the pandemic I’ve been getting more housekeeping at Hilton Grand Vacations Club properties than Hilton Hotels. HGVC timeshares have kept service at every 4 nights.
@Mon
Thank you for bringing up the point that cleaning fees for AirBNB are often outrageous. Unless spread over a week or longer stay, they make AirBNB non-competitive often.
No housekeeping in my room during a stay is a positive. The hotel not offering it makes it easier than me turning it down each stay. So that part is a plus.
The lack of attention to the overall maintenance and cleaning of the common areas is, of course, not.
Cheers.
I don’t charge a cleaning fee for my Airbnbs. You can’t make a blanket statement about Airbnb fees since they aren’t standardized. You can see the overall price of a stay before booking.
Goodbye, Hilton!
Like the airlines, all the divesting and acquisitions have lowered the product. Greed prevails and also makes for fast track to Third World.
I just finished a two week stay at a Hilton for a mix of vacation and remote work. Housekeeping was upon request and you had to request by 10am morning of, and I loved it. I didn’t have to worry about housekeeping trying to come in when I was on a work call, I could leave my stuff around the room if I was in a rush in the morning, and then I could just ask for what I needed and request housekeeping the couple times I needed it. I know this isn’t gonna be a popular opinion, but I actually prefer it to the everyday housekeeping.
The two tiny trash bins that used to be emptied daily failed to hold my normal stay 3 day trash. If you aren’t going to provide just trash service ( I can use the same towels for 3 days) at least five me a full size trash bin Mr. Marriot
Since they can’t use COVID as an excuse for the lack of housekeepers now they are just going to show they’re true colors of greed. Can’t wait to use my Hilton points, close this surpass and move on from them.
If everyone simply requests housekeeping everyday during their entire stay than this along with many other silly proposals will go away. I personally don’t mind requesting this everyday as I can do so on my own schedule. The hotels are counting on people to forget to make these requests as a cost cutting measure. I will not stay at a property which does not give me the option to choose daily housekeeping. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t, but I want the option. As Nancy Reagan used to say “just say no”.
I absolutely abhor workers coming into my hotel room when I’m not there. I feel like I need to keep all my belongings packed away completely and out of sight. And that’s so irritating because I’m either on a business trip and don’t have time to meticulously keep everything folded and put away, or am on a vacation and DON’T WANT to spend half of it folding & refolding every time I change clothes. Either way, I just want privacy and don’t want housekeepers in my stuff.
Unless you’re in a rock band, you don’t need daily house-keeping. Why pay for something you don’t need? I think the best solution is to specify DURING THE RESERVATION PROCESS which days you’ll want housekeeping… then the hotel can schedule adequate staff in advance. If that becomes a “housekeeping fee”, so be it. At least it keeps rates lower for customers who don’t want to use that service every day.
Given how Marriott blindly follows Hilton continuing to dig a hole is another perfect reason why Starwood should have remained independent in respect to its superb history as Fairmont; before that, Canadian Pacific.
Holiday Inn, Arlington – room was fine, staff was good, shuttle service appreciated but housekeeping as described in this article so i too left towels and bagged trash at my door with a note asking for replenshments. Later a large plastic bag was in my room with towels, shampoo, soap, coffee. . Pretty bare bones level of service – four day stay with a reunion group. This leftover pandemic practice will remain unless competitive pressures and complaints bring back normal services.
Instead of just leaving it outside your door, perhaps dropping it in the middle of the check in area as new travelers check in will begin getting the point across. Garbage too. And then take pix and post with your suggested hashing.
Sorry but you overly entitled uber elites that get no guaranteed late check outs and scraps for breakfast want FREE housekeeping? Hopefully the tooth fairy will assist you
BTW our over generous breakfast benefit will soon be 2 dollars a day for your complimentary breakfast.Oh and no housekeeping helps keeping things sanitary during the variant plague
Conrad Hilton is spinning in his grave hearing about this
Thanks for your loyalty folks!!
Housekeeping has always been the whipping post of General Managers (GM’s) for decades.
GM’s always look at getting improved housekeeping efficiencies, which in short makes the room less clean. As it is, housekeepers are usually the hardest working, lowest paid people on the property.
Cutting back on housekeeping is something they will continue to do. In many cases I don’t drink from the glasses at a full service property but prefer the cheapo pre-wrapped disposable cups at the lower end brand. The glasses are usually cleaned by hand using the same stuff that cleans the sink, and the disposable ones are sterile.
To me, I’m not sure that changing my sheets daily on a 5 day stay is something needed anyway, but what most hotels seem to miss is setting expectations. If we all know what to expect at reservation then we will make an educated decision. If we don’t know and we’ll think worse about the brand and go elsewhere. Property owners aren’t stupid, and will vote their wallet as well. The amount of hotels changing away from the larger brands is pretty impressive.
Motel 6 has been doing this for years. Eco friendly they call it…..
Greed is king. Bet they don’t lower the room rates. The answer is simple. Cancel your Hotel Membership and tell them why. E-mail and send letters to management and slime the chains on social media. DO not just complain. Oh, and SELL your Hotel Company stocks. That’s the way to get the message across.
Minimum wage laws in action, which have made hiring housekeepers more expensive than their expected return for hotels. Government mandated unemployment.
As long as I get fresh towels everyday I actually dont mind the bedding not being changed as often. But I do believe the customer should be able to choose on the app.
I do believe that there will eventually be a housekeeping “fee” included.
I remember when SPG(pretty sure it was SPG) gave you the option of going with the “green” choice and getting extra points by forgoing housekeeping, or opting in. I pretty much always chose the points. If it was added as a fee, I’d just grab towels from the desk – and save the cash.
Pure money grab.
And how is someone in a wheelchair or walker supposed to get down the obstacle course of a hallway pictured above?
Expect them to give you a few quarters and tell you to use the washing machines yourself
Been a hotel free agent for some time now. I like IHG Intercontinental where they exist. Often will seek out independent hotels. I 86’ed Hilton a long time ago.
I think what really irks me about this is that they’ll cut services in the US because they anticipate we’ll take it. But they’ll keep things more upscale in Asia because it’s expected.
I think I will avoid the new Hilton dumps. Seems a Motel 6 would be an improvement.
Have larger trash cans in the room and perhaps a hamper or basket for linens. I always leave the room neat, trash is in one place, strip the beds and put dirty linens in the tub to make sure the bed is changed. I always leave a tip. That hall was disgusting.
Worked in hotels on and off for 20 years, they treated housekeeping horrible. They would always clean these last 10 rooms at 6/7pm or you are fired. People never going back to cleaning 30+ rooms a-day for 9 dollars an hour or less. I use to give them a manager meal to keep them cleaning late at night or order out for them. It’s either 15 an hour or walmart who you think they are going to choose to work for.
Corridors will look like NYC sidewalks in a trash collectors strike!
I went to college in the 60s and my dorm hallway never looked like that because we had no housekeeping, just machines in the basement that took quarters. On the other hand, the dorm hallway was a mess after a Friday night of partying (but sheets & towels were not the problem!).
I can accept the idea of a cleaning free with airbnb, since some stays are for one night and others for a month, and there is no expectation of housekeeping except for once at the end of the stay. It is only fair that the short term guest pays more (per night) for the service than the long term guest, since the host incurs more cost per night with them in terms of labor or hired cleaners.
In the case of hotels, the standard has been nightly service, with cutbacks due now primarily to unwillingness to hire people at a rate of pay that will make the job attractive to them. It’s true that some people are willing to forgo that service in exchange for lower room rates. The trick is to find the mechanism that differentiates among customers in a way that satisfies the desires of both those who want nightly service and those who don’t require it, while being transparent about price and services. The problem, of course, is that they are likely to try to get away with being anything but transparent.
STOPPED STAYING AT THESE HOTELS WHEN THEY STARTED WITH THE COMMUNAL SHAMPOO/SOAP CONTAINERS IN THE SHOWERS. ICK. NOW THIS? WHY IS IT ALWAYS A RACE TO THE BOTTOM? HOPE THESE FILTHY PLACES LOSE BUSINESS.
how many hotels in the world and you show a couple of examples of bad practices and describe it as Hilton and Marriott, what a load of garbage, #fakenews, do some research dude ( it’s been an issue for quite a while, your posts are very shallow ) , you’re becoming old, tired and very jaded and being overtaken by better bloggers like #godsavethepoints etal. I have just spent the past 8 days in Marriott’s and Hilton’s and the Housekeeping has remained impeccable, the service is spectacular, so stop showing us some hick town USA hotel as an example of what they are doing, it’s not true #fakenews
Good idea to strip the beds before leaving to insure the sheets are changed
Oh, o,no,no, no Hilton canot obstruct the hallways with dirty linen.
In fact his is a fire hazard and is obstructing peoples exit access in case of a fire.
I have written two two Fire Chiefs and both of them sent fire inspectors to notify the hotel that in fact you cannot leave garbage bags and junk in hallways, you cannot obstruct the hallway with dirty lined, it is a fire hazard.
I am on a trip so Gary please reply back to your reader and ask them to look up the Fire Chief for Nashville this information is always on the internet and to drop theChief an e-mail with a photo. Just posting here on VFW is not the response that will change this behavior. I did two already myself just as a reader, hopefully gentle reader will take the literal 5 minutes it takes to contact the fire chief. If they do not want to identify themselves to the fire chief who could possibly pass it on to Hilton, then say something like, “Our daughter and her husband recently stayed at… ” and sign it from a family member, could be from your dog, LOL! Please post with what the fire Chief responds with.
Did someone spill yellow paint on the hall carpet at the TownePlace Suites? No, wait…