News and notes from around the interweb:
- Housekeeping at this Hilton remade the bed using Mongolian barbecue-stained sheets, and when the guest asked about it they were met with “Oh, did you want a full service room cleaning?”
Stayover housekeeping is too often a ‘light refresh’ – a way for hotels to save on labor costs even as they brought back service after the pandemic. They tell guests they’re getting housekeeping service but they aren’t really… just emptying the trash, picking up towels and making the bed more or less.
Oh, did you want a full service room clean?
byu/BuddyRoux inHilton - Resorts World Las Vegas layoffs
- Just how bad is the Aeroplan devaluation of Etihad and Untied awards?
- Hyatt is offering 777 bonus points per night at 20 casino hotel properties, for stays completed April 10 – June 9, 2025. This includes Rio Las Vegas (midweek stays for Globalists who don’t pay resort fees become extra lucrative); Grand Hyatt Macau which I love; Hyatt Regency JFK because it’s attached to Resorts World casino (and is my go-to airport hotel there); and a bunch more.
Hyatt Regency JFK at Resorts World - A lot of travelers use Blacklane for car service. It’s pricy, but convenient to have an app that works around much of the world to set up cars when you need them rather than sorting through local providers. And it’s nice to have someone meet you at baggage claim and help with bags, especially when traveling with a family.
But a premium service is supposed to make things easier – here’s a case where Blacklane in particular went off the rails.
By the way, in London, Paris and Dubai I’ve had pretty good luck (and better pricing) with Wheely. They’re only in those cities at the moment, though.
- Air France is introducing Sofitel mattress pads in business class starting in July something sorely needed, to be honest. I’ve flown Air France’s business class many times, including last week, and lack of mattress pad has been a real gap.
- A couple of weeks ago I noted that GHA Discovery was offering a discount buying their Discovery Dollars. I’ll be more inclined to purchase in the future – you used to redeem only on-property, and therefore had to book a more expensive cancellable rate to use the currency against the room cost.
They now let you redeem points against prepaid stays during the booking process at about half their brands. You’re still giving up your earning on the rate you redeem Discovery Dollars against. But you don’t need to pay a higher rate in order to do so. I just did it this week and that was really helpful, as much as I usually avoid prepaid.
- Rotana’s 80 hotels are joining GHA Discover next year, expanding GHA’s reach in the Mideast, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Turkey. Pretty soon GHA could be as big as Hyatt? They just need a meaningful presence in the United States.
The fish rots at the head, once again. When our leadership can play ‘semantics’ and get away with whatever atrocities they wish, expect your airlines, hotels, bosses, employees, everyone to try the same. We can do better; we deserve better.
Yes, I blame Trump for housekeeping remaking the bed with barbecue sauce stains on the sheet, who else’s fault could it be?
Although I usually agree with 1990 and his defense of unions and workers, his cut and paste answer to every problem is tiresome.
Sometimes, it’s just as simple as a bad employee or an employee having a bad day!
I started declining housekeeping when offered any points to do so. The pisspour housekeeping “refresh” at US hotels is not worth the 500 points or whatever they offer. I’d rather track down the housekeeper for fresh towels or help myself to whatever I need from her cart. Plus I’d rather not have housekeeping in my room when it can be avoided. Overseas especially in Asia, housekeeping is really housekeeping and I look forward to coming back to a neat and fresh room. Not so in the US.
But more to the point, this guy is the one who got the sauce on the sheets in the first place, and is complaining about the housekeeper not proactively changing them? I see his point, but personally whenever I (or more often my wife or kids) do something like that I immediately wipe it off with soap and wet washcloth so there is no question of getting charged for damage. This guy should have cleaned up his own mess or if it’s too much of a problem to him then leave a few bucks and a note for the maid or chat her up in the hallway and ask for fresh sheets. I don’t think a low wage worker who normally doesn’t change sheets every day will necessarily notice or care about every stain.
If you came into a “fresh” room and had what you HOPE are Mongolian BBQ stains on the sheet, that’d be pretty nasty. But I don’t wash and change my sheets every day or two at home and I don’t expect a hotel to change the sheets while I’m staying in a room for several days either. I mean, they CAN, but frankly I don’t expect more than the trash being emptied, and perhaps ‘spent’ soap and towels being replaced.
But personally I also leave my room tidy, trash is in the trash bin, my stuff is in my bag or bags (so I don’t forget anything when I leave!) other than like computer and phone if I’m using that. And a bit of cash tip on the table. I must admit to have eaten ribs and Indian food at various hotels but…. I was careful to keep juices in the container, and to have PLENTY of paper towels (one included wet wipes as well..) so my hands were non-saucy before I touched anything else. They’re just lucky they didn’t get some additional charge for BBQ’ing up the sheets.
I was not aware of the “refresh” issue.
Question: How/when do you request full housekeeping every day?
America never stops to amaze me as to how badly services are over there.
Yes, but are we willing to pay better? That, as the saying goes, is the question.
“America never stops to amaze me as to how badly services are over there.” I’m in a hotel outside the US for more days than I am in the US every year. I get equally good service in the US as outside. Some non-Americans never stop amazing me with hiw quickly they want to jump onto a topic to bash things here, typically with no “big pucture” sightlines.