Proper room service is dying and that’s horrible. Many hotels dropped it entirely. Thirteen years ago the Hilton New York eliminated it, the largest hotel at the time to do so. That saved them 55 positions (!) and they argued they had a grab and go market so you could still easily get food on property. Transferring the burden to the guest to go for the food, wait for it, and return to their room is not the same thing.
Where room service still exists it may be limited hours (even Park Hyatts don’t all have 24 hour room service, and those that do may not even offer coffee before 6 a.m.). Room service delivery, where it exists, may be in a paper bag.
A Philadelphia guest finds herself deeply disappointed ordering room service breakfast, “I just don’t understand why when I wanna be an adult, nothing is nice anymore.”
I’m thinking they’re gonna bring the cart to the front of my room with the carafe of coffee and the croissants in the basket. Which is what I love so much about staying at hotels.
She shares what breakfast delivery actually looked like – no trolley, just plastic containers – and asks “Is this late-stage capitalism?!?”
@thisblackreader This is at a JW Marriott mind you. Is this late stage capitalism?!?
Here’s what a J.W. Marriott considers room service, and they pretend to position themselves as a premium brand:
This is what $110 in “room service” at the Indianapolis JW looks like. Cocktail napkins! You can’t even give me real napkins? They add a 22% tip and $5 delivery charge.
Room service can be expensive, yet is often a loss leader because it’s expensive to provide – staff costs for kitchen and running to rooms; trays and plates and cutlery that doesn’t always return – this is doubly so in heavily unionized big cities.
When hotels try to save on labor, guests complain that delivery take too long. The food may not be good, and ordering off an app might be better.
- But ordering off an app can also be less reliable, given the need for a driver to go to the restaurant and challenges with traffic in getting the food.
- And Uber Eats may only offer better food in the best food cities, and when you’re staying in the areas with best food. (Many dishes also do not travel well in any case.)
- And that’s just a reason to present in an elevated fashion, to distinguish itself from Uber Eats. Too often they fail to even deliver plastic forks which is why I have to carry them in my laptop bag.
Offering convenience and comfort is a service that makes life better for guests who choose to order it. Limited-service properties don’t need to offer it, and hotels that can ‘get away with’ less service because of their location or other features that cause them to fill up make it possible to drop the offering.
For really premium hotels, room service is a necessity. Those that do it well can really earn outsized guest loyalty by creating an emotional connection. What more powerful way is there to do that than food? Yet this completely takes away from that experience:
Room service isn’t for everyone, especially those who find it too expensive but there are plenty of situations where it can be worth paying a premium for even outside of a resort context.
- I’ve had many room service meals where it was super convenient to just have food brought to the room when each of my kids was very young.
- And I’ve ordered breakfast in the morning when I wanted to work, rather than go down to the hotel’s restaurant or to my conference. I’m not ready to run into anyone and get stuck in a conversation. Food comes to my room, and I can eat it while going through documents and getting dressed.
- And sometimes you just want a proper pot of coffee, not the dreck that comes out of in-room coffee machines – and with real cream, not powder or shelf stable chemistry.
You’re paying a premium to have the food ‘just show up’ and where you can be dressed more casually than going down to pick it up yourself. I just wish more hotels made it clear whether the service charge covered a tip.
How good is this though? How many Hyatt Globalists stay at the Park Hyatt Vendome Paris for the emotional connection and indulgence of included room service breakfast?
Take a lesson from airlines, most plane food isn’t very good but soups perform exceptionally well when they’re reheated. Stick to easy items that don’t have to be eaten the moment they come off the cook top, and that don’t take a lot of precision in preparation. One of the really great joys I think is ordering nasi goreng in the middle of the night!
Hotels have been cutting back on amenities across the board, including basics like housekeeping, so it doesn’t surprise at all the room service gets degraded or eliminated but then what’s the difference between a hotel and an Airbnb, besides cleaning fees? Premium brands – like a J.W. Marriott, a Conrad, or Park Hyatt – need room service. This doesn’t just set a hotel apart from Airbnb, but a premium hotel from a merely ‘upscale’ one. And once you realize that function, the presentation still needs to be a premium one.
Umm, roof service has been rough for years and years. Maybe it was seen as a luxury in the 90s. Yeah, might as well use those Amex Uber or Grubhub credits instead.
Whoopsie! Yeah, raise the ‘roof’!
Working late at night a few weeks ago in Asia and ordered room service dinner from the Shangri La Manila. Proper service and presentation! Never disappoints.
Weird, room service has still been a treat at a couple of mid-range hotels my wife and I tried it at recently. The Hotel Indigo Downtown Los Angeles is kind of shabby, but the room service arrived hot in metal trays/real plates on a cart with condiments, silverware, and flavor. Similar experience with the Crowne Plaza HY36 Midtown New York during a blizzard, and they were happy to mix me a Manhattan as well. I’d be pretty upset to receive the meals pictured, given the premium you pay for room service.
This is definitely the case in the US. Even at Aria in Vegas, one needs to order at least $250+ to get a proper room-service experience (plates, silverware, delivery by cart). If not, they will deliver it in containers. Sad.
Better to save money and just order via UberEats instead within the US. Save in-room dining experiences for when you’re outside the US.
It’s an Anerican problem. Room service at the W.A. in Doha last year was impeccable. Delivery… they even set a table (properly). The cart had one of those food warmer ovens underneath it so that the food wasn’t even a single degree cooler than what it should be. The pride they exhibited was impressive and a handsome cash tip to both servers was happily handed over.
@CHRIS — This’s Anerica!!
When traveling alone it is an amenity I’ll not do without. Proper heated cloches, plates, napkins and silverware make it a meal you can nibble on for hours while taking care of other chores. So rare, I verify the level of its continued existence before check in. Expensive yes but don’t feed me from a paper bag and call it dinner.
Good article, Gary. In theory, room service could be a win-win-win for Hotels, Unions and Customers with this 3-step process: 1) Hotel drops unionized room service. 2) Hotel waits a year or so for data (either evidence that their own booking rate has dropped off, or generalized industry data which points to higher occupancies for the hotel properties with world-class room service). 3) Hotel proposes to the Union that they can re-initiate room service by using a non-union outside provider. The Hotel wins through higher customer satisfaction, occupancy and revenue; the Union wins by increased job opportunity related to the occupancy; and the Customer wins from a world-class room service experience. Of course, it only works this way with a data-driven logical Union (rare for sure, but the UAW has actually shown hints of this).
Many US hotels do not have room service any longer but some provide a decent fridge size and microwave. I usually walk/uber to a grocery store and by food to stock the fridge and reheat in the microwave. Save money too-as travel is on my dime.
Gary – you are one old school entitled person. With food delivery and ability to find restaurants pretty much around the clock in every major city there is no need for room service. It is a feature of the distant past that, rightfully, needs to die.
@ J Vegas has fewer hotels giving room service because they want guests out of the room as much as possible. Why? Gambling makes you a much more valuable guest!
Its just so sad. I remember being a child and staying at the Westin St. Francis and experiencing my first ever proper room service. Nowadays you can only find this special amenity at Tribal resorts.
Absolutely. Over the years, I can count the number of times I’ve ordered Room Service on the fingers of one hand. Given a choice, I’d rather get out of the room and find food Somewhere Else, especially for breakfast.
I would like to know where she stayed at a J.W. Marriott in Philadelphia?? Doesn’t exist.
As one who travels only for pleasure, it’s not an issue for me. Indeed, I can’t remember the last place that had room service. But, I’m in a serviced apartment near a grocery and restaurants. If I can’t get those nearby, I’ll stay elsewhere.
BTW as soon as I hear someone use “late-stage capitalism,” I start to tune out.
Imagine a world with Star Trek’s food replicators in every suite.
What a wonderful world this would be.
I’m old school as well – I expect room service to be the same service I’d get in the hotel restaurant. If I wanted grab & go or “carry out”, then I’d do just that. This is one reason I’m adamently against these “service fees” – I’ll reward based on service. Give me actual plates, flatware, and glass cups and you WILL get a bigger tip than if you deliver me foam/recyclable containers with plasticware.
In my road warrior days at the turn of the century, I would use room service in Europe because (1) after trains, planes and meetings all day I was too tired for anything else, and (2) I was too busy dealing with New York issues to waste time for any other kind of culinary experience.
For domestic travel, I found even then room service took too long, was ridiculously expensive and arrived cold. Better to have a burger and a beer at the hotel bar or, if I had access, to nosh at the executive lounge.
@This comes to mind – “Late-stage capitalism,” is one of those terms that needs to be grabbed by the scruff of its neck and flung forcefully from the vocabulary.
The hotel Marriott is the worst. There food is so gross. Room service food is so bad and over priced order somewhere else. Im serious.
@ Gary — If someone delivered the above-picture crap to my room without disclosing this “presentation” in advance, I would refuse the food and bill. Remind me again, why would anyone stay at a Marriott?
It (was) one of those things that you only use with OPM (other people’s money) -OR- you were handed a fortune you didn’t earn by yourself -OR- you just got laid or about to for the first few times with a new girl.
Otherwise common sense and respect for your hard earned money should kick in. The same (way fewer) items are coming out of the same kitchen, are marked up a few dollars over the downstairs menu, a ridiculous % surcharge, a delivery fee and then a line for more tipping is thrust at you.
Maybe used it 10 times in 25 years of weekly travel. I recall when the (once great) Marriott Burger crossed the $10 line and we were outraged.
Somehow its gotten (way) worse? Devalued again? A fool and his money… Glad I’m retired.
Some hotels deliver room service via UberEats already lol. At this point there isnt much of a difference.
@This comes to mind, @Denver Refugee — Be honest, it wasn’t the phrase, it was the speaker that determined you’d be it tuning out…
(Besides, This comes to mind says it doesn’t read what I write anyway. Not reading must be an Ohio-thing.)
What I don’t understand is that most hotels gauge guests ordering room service what with overpriced menu items, fat service fees, mandatory gratuities, etc.. How can this not be a huge source of revenue for most hotels?
You should be clear that this is happening only in that cesspool of the US, accelerated by the current policies.
Just last week I had an amazing breakfast delivered (included in the rate) in Italy, and in Asia the service is as good as ever.
I’ve come to terms that the only way I’m going to experience room service is by way of uber eats, grub hub etc .. And it still can be expensive.
I’d like to add that this is mostly a US problem. I was pleasantly surprised in my trips abroad (anecdotal, I know) that full room service was a thing — and also the price you pay is the the price on the menu, no service chargs or tips added.
As I mentioned, I essentially never in a hotel with room service any more. But, I have to admit, this topic makes me nostalgic. As a young traveller it was such a decadent idea.Twenty-five years ago (not young any more), I was in Auckland for the first time,
and the exchange rate was crazy (about US$0.45 = NZ$1), so their room service prices were actually quick good (net of low add ons). I suspect now I would be so turned off by the prices (net if everything) that I’d not have to suffer the disappointment lof presentation or quality Gary talks of.
@This comes to mind — Wow, you really have been Down Under a lot.