Zach Griff over at The Points Guy says hotels will eliminate room service to cut costs, and he’s fine with that. For someone that’s three years out of school, without kids, that doesn’t surprise me – he experiences one style of travel that’s not the target market – but I don’t think we should overgeneralize from that experience to what’s best in travel.
Zach makes four arguments:
- Room service is too expensive
- It can take too long to be delivered
- The food isn’t very good
- Ordering off an app is better
However 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 feature.
In an environment where every guest matters, with rooms that are empty, the high cost of room service is going to be an expense that fills rooms at the margin. Each property will have to figure out how many extra rooms they fill this way, because they’re looking to lose some business to hotels that still make room service available.
And for really premium hotels, understand that room service is a tremendous indulgence. 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? (Well, maybe pets which is why there are hotels that have offered room service for pets!)
Room Service Ain’t Cheap – Except When It Is
The cost of room service can vary a lot depending on the property, how food is served, and the dishes they’re offering. There are absolutely expensive room service meals but I’ve had plenty of “burger and fries” type of meals delivered for less than $20 all-in.
If necessary to retain room service, offer it in disposable packaging.
Big city hotels find it easier to drop room service because there are so many competing opportunities for food, while resorts have you captive on property and want you to stay.
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 my daughter was less than 14 months old.
- 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.
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.
But Isn’t Room Service Slow?
Hotels that find room service too expensive to offer can save costs by understaffing in this area. And huge hotels with a lot of room service business may find themselves slammed at peak times, and the distance from kitchen to room on the other side of a property can take time too.
Of course app delivery can be slow – a restaurant gets backed up, traffic is bad, or there aren’t enough delivery drivers and it takes time for one to get to your order. Plus if you’re staying in a large property that’s time you have to go get dressed, schlep down to the lobby, and wait.
Sacrificing Quality For Convenience
Delivery from the best restaurants in town, well-packed, promptly delivered will be more enjoyable than a mediocre meal delivered soggy on a tray from a mediocre hotel kitchen, but that’s a straw man.
I’ve had some amazing room service meals. Of course there’s breakfast at the Park Hyatt Paris – with fabulous fruit and french pastries, eggs to order, and great cheeses. The pho I had from the Sheraton Saigon was pretty unbeatable, too.
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!
By the way the arguments Zach offers against room service could just as easily be made against airline food: the food isn’t very good, you can eat better on the ground (or even in the airport), and the economics of feeding passengers is bad.
The food is expensive when it has to be provisioned on a plane. It’s disappointing when it gets to you, so maybe just drop it altogether? And then you realize with banked hubs and short connections you may not have a chance to eat for hours on end without inflight meals and realize it can be worth the cost which is why people still value airline meals even though they used to be the butt of late night comic jokes.
App-Based Delivery Isn’t Perfect, Either
You’ll probably be able to find better food via app than you will from a hotel kitchen, though it depends on the hotel kitchen. Of course that also requires research if you’re not a regular in the area. Where do you order from?
Ordering off an app is too expensive, too – with the addition of a delivery charge, service charge, and tip. It can also take too long, in fact the food has to get from the restaurant to the hotel, since it doesn’t begin life in the hotel itself. And depending on how well packaged it is from the restaurant, quality may degrade substantially on the way.
Do you know how many times I’ve had food delivered to my hotel without disposable utensils, and then I have to get utensils from the hotel still? Plus at many hotels the delivery driver can’t just appear at your room. You’ll often have to go down to the lobby to meet them. You may even need to help them navigate to the hotel, and go out into the street.
I say that app-based delivery can be too expensive, but at the same time it isn’t expensive enough – delivery companies generally lose money and charge restaurants too much even as you’re paying perhaps 50% more than in the restaurant. That’s pretty bad economics, so if Zach wants to say that the economic value proposition of room service is flawed, I’m not sure this is the solution?
What surprises me is that the hotels out in an otherwise empty field at an Interstate exit are always Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn, without a restaurant. Meanwhile the Crowne Plaza or Hilton downtown – on a block with more than a handful of restaurants – have at least one on-site restaurant.
That being said, I do prefer staying where I at least have the option of having a decent meal delivered to my room, especially if there turns out to be foul weather during my stay. The only downside I see to room service is having to cart the full tray through the automatically-shutting door to the room and out in the hallway when the meal is finished.
Gary, thanks for adding the bit about economics of food delivery services at the end, because I 100% agree with you on that. Quite frankly, I abhor the app based services, mostly because it’s all an economic slight of hand. Restaurants get the shaft, delivery people get the shaft, and customers are left having to guess at how much the delivery person should get paid. In a strange city, when I’m hungry, the last thing I want to do is guess at whether I paid the delivery person correctly. F’ing pay the guy something appropriate, and stick that surcharge on my bill. My biggest beef in figuring out what to tip delivery drivers is that there’s really no personalized service involved. They’re going to Point A, picking up something, and delivering it to Point B. That’s a commodity, and should be priced accordingly.
Until the actual economics are straightened out and more transparent, food delivery apps will never be a “better” choice for me.
Excellent arguments, and this was a great article to read.
Also. Ouch.
What I’ve never really understood is why hotels charge so much. Usually, a business can go after one of two strategies: low price, high volume or high price, low volume. Room service is most definitely in the high price, low volume category, so if it is still just a cost center for hotels, why haven’t they tried the other strategy? I’ve honestly never had room service because the prices I’ve encountered are at least double surrounding restaurants. I suspect there are many people who might pay a premium for the convenience, just not the premium hotels try and extract.
Love it! The TPG article wasn’t speaking to the luxury or high-end business hotel markets, which need to continue offering (good) room service for all the reasons you mentioned.
Glad I’m not the only one who likes breakfast delivered while getting ready for meetings in the morning!
I love room service because it is very convenient. After a long day touring, it’s nice to have everything delivered to your room. Sometimes I just just want good comfort food instead of searching for a place. Room service usually has “American” food which can be appealing if you don’t care for the local cuisine.
I never understand why people are so cheap on vacation. For 2 weeks out of the year you should enjoy yourself as much as possible and not nickel and dime over room service costs. You are paying for convenience on a vacation. I’m not going to fly 4000 miles to save a few bucks on room service. I feel the same way about accommodations. I’m not going to fly 6-12 hours to stay in a cheap hotel that is not as good as my own home. 4 star is a minimum but 5 star is where I stay 90% of the time. For two weeks out of the year I want to stay in a hotel and room nicer than my own apartment building and apartment.
If talking about 3 star hotels and below, I understand not having room service. But anything 4 star and above requires room service.
@Andy 11235
I think it’s similar in nature to laundry service, in that these hotels feel they have to offer the service to “be competitive” but really want to discourage people from using it. With hotel laundry, they often charge more to wash a pair of socks than it costs me to replace them outright. This leads me to conclude that the hotel does not, in fact, want to wash my laundry and would prefer I do it elsewhere. I’ll wash the odd pair of jeans through the hotel and pay them $10 when I really need to, but usually I’m searching out a place that will charge by the kilo and drop off a bag.
I suspect the same holds true with room service. They don’t *really* want you to use it, but they have to offer it.
@Jackson Henderson
Not everybody shares your view of things. For one thing, some of us get more than two weeks of vacation every year, so less money spent = more place to go. I only go to places where the local cuisine has some appeal, because in my view, what’s the point of going somewhere if you’re just going to order an American hamburger off the room service menu? Me, I’d rather be eating dinner out in town.
But yes, as a fellow apartment dweller, I share your desire for accommodations nicer than my apartment.
As a cabin crew member, sometimes I have to resort to buying room service, and occasionally app delivery. I do understand if a hotel has to drop room service as it can be a cost center. Sometimes I find menus aren’t even in the room. It does get tiring of eating “American,” on these room service menus though.