Many changes have come about from COVID, but many more were just opportunistic. This Hampton Inn in Orlando is one of the hotels using COVID as an excuse to give up on service.
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***Update***
Suzanne Herr, General Manager of the Hampton Inn Orlando near Universal Boulevard/International Drive, reached out to me by email and we arranged a call. She and I spoke at length about the event. She acknowledged the hotel participates actively with the Hilton standard policy for housekeeping at this time. There is no requirement to call down the morning of requested housekeeping, and we talked about the industry struggles in general.
She was the epitome of class, she owned mistakes that were made, apologized and invited us back. She’s a fantastic GM and the a property that recognizes a mistake was made and corrects is a welcome sight.
COVID As An Excuse
We have seen just about everything over the course of the last two years. From genuine needs for better health practices (anyone that’s worked in the restaurant business will gladly remind you to wash your hands) to the absurd. I shan’t bore you with my examples, no doubt every person has their own – sometimes from likeminded people and sometimes from those who are diametrically opposed.
At a certain point, some businesses began using COVID as an excuse. Breakfast buffets going away made sense, you simply couldn’t have people close to communal food and utensils. But rather than replace breakfast service with room service, plated or even to-go options, many hotels just decided “due to COVID” that they didn’t have to replace it at all.
There’s a material difference between “we can’t possibly due this and remain in compliance with health regulations” and “we decided not to find a way around this.” Hilton has stated that full daily housekeeping is a thing of the past but that’s not down to COVID related issues. Marriott, which moved to the same “on demand” housekeeping has also stated that its employees make too much money.
Separately, the tactic of using an agreeable and plausible reason for policy changes has been expanded for other inconveniences the industry may want to avoid.
For example, a luxury Antarctic cruise line recently sent out a notice that due to environmental concerns, smoking would no longer be allowed on the vessel nor would vaping. There’s no doubt that cigarette butts being tossed off of balconies into the Arctic Ocean are probably bad for the ecosystem, even if the threat is small – they also pose a risk of fire on the ship. However, is the voluminous exhaust and burning of fossil fuels not a far greater concern? And even then, how does vaping negatively impact the arctic environment? It doesn’t, this is an exclusion of convenience not logic.
Periphery Issues from COVID Disruptions
Particularly, the hotel business was hard hit due to COVID. At first, it was the drop in travel which severely threatened business models as they had existed for decades. But then, labor shortages in some of the toughest jobs (mainly the service industry) began to shortchange the recovery. For hotels, this meant housekeeping staff was less likely to return even though pay rates and demand has risen substantially.
It’s impossible to offer the same level of service even if prices have returned without the staff to do the work. However, the service provider needs to state that housekeeping simply cannot be offered, rather than offered on demand.
Hampton Inn Orlando Abuses COVID Excuse to Make Up Rules
Upon checkin this week in Orlando at the Hampton Inn on South Kirkman, Holly, the duty manager, informed me that housekeeping was available by request for our three day stay. We knew that we wouldn’t need housekeeping everyday but did want housekeeping the next morning. Here’s how that exchange went:
“We’d like service in the morning, please.”
“You have to request it before nine in the morning.” (it was 8 PM)
“Ok, I’m requesting it.”
“No, you have to request it before nine in the morning.” (I visibly check my watch to ensure I am not delusional and missed 12 hours of time.)
“It’s before nine in the morning, it’s before nine at night too. We couldn’t have possibly given more notice than right now.”
“This is Hilton’s policy and it’s on the mirror.”
“This is not Hilton’s policy. Hilton’s policy is housekeeping as requested, and I am requesting it.”
“You have to call in the morning.”
“I have to get up, specifically to call down to request housekeeping?”
“Yes. That’s Hilton’s policy since January of [2021.]”
This is not the only Hilton we’ve stayed in this year, and I didn’t indicate to her that I was a travel blogger. Instead, I set an alarm for the morning after a grueling prior day, called down to housekeeping for which I received an answering machine at about 8 in the morning. Fair enough, they are probably doing their rounds. I left a voicemail requesting service.
It didn’t come. We returned and the room was in the same state it was before.
If hotel management wanted to introduce this policy, put it on the website and make it clear at checkin, that’s fine. That’s not what happened, they said it was Hilton corporate policy. It was not. Then they gave hoops to jump through and didn’t adhere to their own rules when followed. That’s using COVID to make up rules as they go along.
For the avoidance of doubt, here is what Hilton actually offers for housekeeping policies in 2021:
“Our complimentary housekeeping is now available by request. We know that comfort levels may vary when it comes to people entering your space. Now you can simply contact the front desk to request a room cleaning or just a few extra towels. Waldorf Astoria, Conrad and LXR properties continue to provide daily housekeeping as well as our properties in Asia Pacific. However, when staying at any of our 18 brands you can tailor housekeeping services to your personal preference.” – Hilton.com
Conclusion
This one incident is not the reason for this post. It’s the abuse of COVID as a reason for not doing whatever it is the service provider doesn’t want to do without providing notice nor accommodation all while charging the same rates for full service they did before. Had we known their policy, we may have still stayed there but likely wouldn’t have. They didn’t post it online because it would violate their agreement with Hilton and discourage guests who want and expect those services. That’s disingenuous, it’s intentional, and it’s using a pandemic as an excuse for service the hotel can’t or won’t provide but chooses not to disclose.
What do you think? Have you seen other examples of service providers using COVID as an excuse?
Kyle we are still in the early innings of a global pandemic. I for one am glad this hotel has strict Covid precautions, including limiting physical contact and touchpoints between guests and housekeeping staff. It’s for your safety and theirs.
Early innings? please stop with the propaganda. Sounds like you’ve been getting too much news from Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo.
This isn’t an actual pandemic.
actual pandemics don’t allow two years time for people to argue on the internet whether it’s real or not.
actual pandemics don’t require 24/7 advertising to remind you it exists.
actual pandemics don’t require marketing campaigns and endless propaganda.
actual pandemics don’t require the biggest government ad spend EVER.
actual pandemics don’t have people most worried about sex.
when searching for “cdc covid pandemic” on Google the top question is “Can I still have sex during the coronavirus pandemic?”
the answer from Harvard Medical School in their article ‘Intimacy, sex, and COVID-19’ is:
“If both of you are healthy and feeling well, are practicing social distancing and have had no known exposure to anyone with COVID-19, touching, hugging, kissing, and sex are more likely to be safe.”
this isn’t a pandemic, despite the CCP showing people randomly dying in the streets early on.
that WOULD be an actual pandemic, had all of that been real — which it wasn’t.
on October 22, 2021 VOX published [propaganda] ‘How you’ll know when Covid-19 has gone from “pandemic” to “endemic’
Their sub-headline say it’s it all:
“It’s more subjective than you might think.”
Their article explains further:
“In general, a virus becomes endemic when we — health experts, governmental bodies, and the public — collectively decide that we’re okay with accepting the level of impact the virus has. And obviously, that’s a tricky thing: People will differ as to what constitutes an acceptable level.”
That’s the problem with the mainstream COVID narrative:
Your $cience and $tudies are $ubjective.
And we’re over it.
Eh, this has to be the longest way for someone to just say they are pro-plague.
if this was a plague, that’d be one thing, but it’s not, and never has been. You bought into the plague narrative.. that’s good for you, but there are those of us who are much smarter than that.
No this entirely misses the point.
The real problem was the incredibly poor implementation of the policy they said they were going to do.
If they say they are offering housekeeping on request – then they need to actually do that!
Front desk not being able to take a request for action the following morning is comically bad service, notwithstanding the request made in the morning was never carried out.
If the pandemic means the hotel does not want to service a room more than once per X hours, say that, then carry it, rather than the broken promises here.
Kyle, when you and Matt start censoring comments, please at least promise you won’t ban Joe. Watching his sarc fly right over the heads of readers at 35,000 feet every single time is the highlight of my week.
Thanks for covering this Kyle.
You hit the nail on the head, Kyle. We are seeing more and more business use COVID as an excuse to reduce services. While I understand Hilton’s on-demand housekeeping policy, I want to see people employed, so will request service if for no other reason than add my room to a housekeepers schedule. However, my room is a housekeepers dream, as I am as tidy as can be. The Orlando property should have permitted you to request housekeeping for all or no days at check in.
I’m the same way – I essentially make up my room to nearly the same extent as housekeeping, but they make the bed way better than I do, so I let them do that. Otherwise, it’s an easy day for them in my room. Beyond that, though, I think this speaks to the larger “employment shortage”. Or, more correctly, the shortage of wages people are willing to accept for such jobs. If Covid cut some of the workforce but there’s still roughly the same demand, then you have a shortage of people willing to work. Hilton needs to step up their game when it comes to competitive pay, not continue to blame the pandemic for their unwillingness to stay aligned with labor costs.
Why do you need a room cleaned 12 hours after you move in? Were you planning to sh** on the sheets or something?
Now that’s class!
I mean seriously. What useless waste of resources is going to have a house/room cleaned and then go out of his/her way to demand that it be re-cleaned 12 hours later?
I’m guessing it was just to make a point. Pretty classless.
The author even said in the article that they wouldn’t need cleaning every day for the stay. That means at least once they’d go 48 hours without a room getting cleaned. Why pray tell would they need it the very first morning? It’s not even logical.
@Hwong Kim – My oh my, you’re obsessed. There are plenty of reasons, but in this instance, we had a family of three with two that have long hair and require more towels. I’m sorry it wasn’t immediately evident to you, though I’m not sure it needed to be. My only point for mentioning is that we weren’t asking for daily housekeeping though that should be available according to their policy as should it have been the first morning if we requested as we did.
Who’s obsessed? Just pointing out the absurd errors in your flawed logic. Why didn’t you just ask for more towels instead of snarkily asking for room service the next morning? Were you planning to sit around waiting for a housekeeper to clean your room (unnecessarily, 12 hours after you moved in) so you could ask for more towels? It makes even less sense than it did originally.
Let it go, Wong. He’s into watersports. Enough said.
With a kid?
No, watersports
Hey this isn’t the Ritz Carlton Moscow…
My son conducts a lot of his business dealings in that hotel. Fine by me as long as there’s a 10% cut for the big guy.
They’re not the only ones making up Covid rules as they go. Looking at you, CDC and both the current and previous administration.
And yet, research increasingly demonstrates that covid is not transmitted on surfaces so housekeeping, particularly if you are not in the room is a no risk activity to both parties.
I recently stayed in a Scandic in Helsinki with much of the same nonsense but then their house keeping was always poor.
I can be bribed to ignore no housekeeping if they give me some toilet paper, Kleenex, and small bottles of shampoo and bars of soap to take home.
The reason front desk cannot take cleaning appointments a day prior is because only the housekeeping supervisor working that day can prioritize room assignments based on the number of employees that show up each morning. Most hotels in Florida use day labor agencies to supplement staff needs.
Covid became the paradise for losers and lazy people. Easy to use the word as an excuse for doing nothing.
Expectations are to the level of hotel. Sorry, but at Hampton Inn and the like I have none but a clean room when I check in. In this case, pick your battles. This is not one I would have cared about.
If he picked his battles, he’d have 50% less material to write about…
Next post: “Top 10 Ways to Dirty an Orlando Hotel Room in 12 Hours”
Even before the pandemic, I had noticed that U.S. hotels had basically stopped delivering daily housekeeping…either they just failed to clean rooms or it would be 5 PM and someone would knock and say, “do you want service today?” It’s a problem I didn’t encounter in Europe or Latin America, both places where daily housekeeping was still offered during Covid.
The U.S. hospitalization industry is nuts if they think people will keep paying some of the world’s highest prices — especially with tips on top — for less service than ever.
I would recommend foreigners not visit the U.S., because travel here is overpriced and low quality. Sadly, with travel restrictions and insane testing rules, Americans are stuck here.
You’re so right! OKC, 2017, nearly brand new Marriott Residence Inn: no posted notice, no verbal notice upon check-in, housekeeping every third night (and I have Titanium Status). I gave the owner a piece of my mind and sent a flame to Marriott Corporate by snail mail. I eventually receive a begrudging apology. No matter how close that hotel may be to my clients, I won’t stay there again.
They must have learned to make up covid restrictions without any scientific evidence from our government.
While I fully agree with the substance of what you’ve written, I am curious why you called housekeeping instead of the front desk to request service the next morning. Is that what the clerk instructed? We recently spent a week at the Hampton Inn in Key Largo, and on the couple of days we wanted full service, we just stopped by the front desk on the way back from breakfast and told the clerk. Never had a problem.
Sorry but I could do you one better: Hyatt Place Sarasota/Bradenton, FL, just off I75 at University. I stayed there twice in just over 2 months (September and November of this year). Note in room: “we will service the room after every three nights”. My first stay was 4 nights. The room never was serviced. I am a casual person and, when I lived as a bachelor, cleaned my place once a month, but even this was a bit much for me. My second stay was 5 nights. My room was serviced after the first night and third night without notice. Naturally, the first service took all of the paper napkins and plasticware which I had held over from the previous night for my next night’s dinner. After my first visit, I never DREAMED that my room would be serviced. It’s a real shame, too, because it’s a nice mid-range hotel otherwise.