Hotels are in the business of making money and one way hotels try to save money is by limiting housekeeping expenses. One Hyatt hotel in New Mexico is at least making an honest effort to do that through an incentive that worked for me: food and beverage credit for turning down housekeeping service.
A Reasonable Alternative To Housekeeping: Points Or Cash
Some full-service hotels have tried to convince hotel guests to avoid housekeeping “for the sake of the environment.” Other hotels have made housekeeping every other day or every third day. Still others only offer housekeeping on request. A few have eliminated it altogether. The common factor is simple: an attempt to save money.
On our road trip, we stopped for a couple of nights at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya in New Mexico. The hotel is a full-service property with daily housekeeping service.
I found a “Housekeeping Opt Out Program” placard near the door that said, “Place card on door between 5:00 pm and 11:00 pm with this side facing up to receive $10 food and beverage credit in exchange for refusing houskeeping service tomorrow.”
The other side of the card offered 500 World of Hyatt points.
Guess what? We took advantage of it…it paid for my wife’s lobby Starbucks.
And as much as it is nice to have a clean room with clean towels, we (shudder) made our own beds and (shudder) used our shower towels twice. We’re trying to teach the kids to make their own beds every morning anyway…
Part of the fun of staying at a hotel is being pampered, but I appreciate that this hotel realizes that money talks and that rather than trying to guilt me into “protecting the environment” by reusing my towels, it made it worth my while through a reasonable exchange, a picture of how we address climate change on a more systematic level.
I know there are other hotels across many different brands that offer incentives like this, but it was the first time in all my travels I’ve ever personally seen an offer.
Would you have traded housekeeping for $10 in food and beverage credit or 500 World of Hyatt points?
Sorry, $10 is nit enough. They would save more than that if I reject the housekeeper. Now, if traveling alone, I would happily turn down housekeeping service IF:
1) I can easily get new towels delivered to my room and not have to call housekeeping many times to request them (no, I am not reusing hotel towels);
2) I can get enough coffee capsules in my room for several days;
3) Those stupid shampoo and body wash bottles that are attached to the shower wall are full to the top and won’t run out in the middle of my shower;
4) I have enough water bottles in my room.
My problem with most hotels is that their overall customer service sucks. Having the housekeeper service increases the chances my room will be in good shape when I come back. Having me to make several calls to get new towels delivered, extra coffee capsules, refill the shampoo bottles, etc… makes me wasting my time to do something I am already paying for.
Honestly, how much of a F&B credit would it take for you? In this example, you have extra towels, pods, water & full dispensers when you arrive. Also, the service is generally good & you can expect no hassle & snappy service if you need something else – like if you spill something & need to use the extra towels to clean up.
My point is that $10 barely pays for a latte at the hotel coffee shop. And I can share how many times I had to go myself to the reception get new towels and soap because nobody showed up in my room after several calls. I am not going to do their job.
@Santastico … I’m with you : New and extra towels , Clean linen , and Disinfecting bathroom floors and sinks .If they will do the above , I will tip the housekeeper handsomely .
Point taken. I was just more curious to the value you would assign. For me, $10 would be low if I thought I would struggle to get more coffee, ect. If I was at a hotel that I knew had their collective stuff together, I would take the cash.
Good grief. I feel miffed if I have to pay more than $2 for a coffee!
Oh, and expected tip is 0%
$10 . credit appears to be a rather expensive one person Starbucks .
Ohh, I have a copy of the receipt for a large latte with extra shot at a Starbucks in CA that cost me $9.80 before the expected 30% tip.
@Santastico … Not a shabby profit margin for inferior coffee , no ?
You paid it
No, it was a business trip. My company paid for it.
By “expected tip” do you mean that the table prompted you for an auto 30% tip you could opt out of?
California has a minimum wage for servers and Starbucks wages are not “tip” based so you should opt out of it.
People are starting to get sick of the tipping exploitation that kicked in during covid and there was even a Simpsons episode about it.
@PolishKnight: Most places now use an iPad like device that prompts you options to tip. Yes, many have up tp 30%. Yes, you can say “no tip” or type whatever but in many places you now have the option to tip 30% which is crazy in my opinion.
A recent Hyatt Regency Conroe stay reinforced the issues that prevent turning down cleaning service. A coat of thick dust under the refrigerator, air vents and under the area rug and sofa. Air conditioning thermostat is set to turn unit off if it doesn’t sense movement. Empty soap bottles, gray stains on the shower pan, water stains on the glass, towels with hair. Bed sheets with stains. No water bottles provided to housekeeping or the front desk. Unable to seat for breakfast because the 2 servers couldn’t serve and clean the tables that looked like a bomb explosion. No hot water when multiple people shower at the same time. No cell phone reception. TV image froze for minutes at a time. And a manager that offered nothing for the privilege of this experience.
@Joe … Appears a nightmare . What was the room price , $10 ?
$20 might tempt me to decline housekeeping. Hotels stays are a break from my “real” life and I enjoy the perks of a freshly made bed and clean towels.
This is an honest approach.
Don’t like it, like Santistico, fine, opt for housekeeping. It’s much more forthcoming than the “we are doing it for the environment.”
The fact that it’s not mandatory is telling in that people like Santastico are complaining it’s not enough. This is a choice, not a demand. And it’s a decent way to do it.
I get that corporate is constantly crapping on consumers to please investors. But really, can we not crap back on those actually trying to find a balance and solution?
Agree. That environmental BS won’t fly with me. Also agree with @Heather above. $20 to $25 a day I will consider. I am just tired of having to do the job that I am paying for. It amazes me how many times those shampoo and soap bottles are left empty. And to make it worse, most are not transparent and you can remove them so there is no way to know how much soap is left. It tells me housekeepers never check them and wait for guests to find out they are empty. You come to your room tired after a day of work and find out in the middle of the shower you ran out of soap. Disgraceful.
@Santastico … Emergencies are why you ought to bring along additional clean towels and extra soap in your trunk .
We took our grandson to Kansas City a few years ago to watch the Royals weekend series. Got back from a day game the first day about 5 p.m. and our room hadn’t been touched. I called the front desk to ask for service and was told it wouldn’t happen.
“We can’t,” the desk manger said. “The Cardinals are in town.”
For all the people who say they don’t need daily housekeeping, I don’t think you realize that rooms are dirtier because you skip housekeeping. The vast majority of hotels do not give a housekeeper more time to clean a room after a guest who skipped housekeeping checks out from the property.
Most hotels, across all brands, expect a housekeeper to flip a room in under 30 minutes. Sure, they will deep-clean a room at a regular or semi-regular interval but you would be surprised what can accumulate if two or three guests in a row skip daily housekeeping.
The kind of cleanliness-related issues that I’ve experienced at about 60% of my stays since the pandemic almost never happened before the pandemic, when daily housekeeping was the standard at even relatively low-end brands like a Fairfield or Holiday Inn Express.
Caesars offers $5 in reward credits a day at some of their properties.
What exactly are some of you people doing to your rooms that you need them disinfected daily?
Why is there a belief that if the room is cleaned and then dirtied daily any different than if the room is cleaned, dirtied for 3 days, then cleaned again?
The most they would do on a daily cleaning over the course of a 3 or even 7 day stay is make the bed and wipe off the counters—along with replacing the towels and maybe a quick vacuum. All they add after you leave is a mop l, vacuum, and more thorough bathroom cleaning now that all your stuff is out of the way.
My room is mine as long as I’m paying. Stay out of it.
It’s not that I dirty my room in the sense it needs to be sanitized, it’s that it needs servicing. I’m generally out of towels, I like my bed being made for me (otherwise, I’d stay at an Airbnb), I like any used or empty toiletries being replaced, I like new bottles of water or the mini-bar (if there is one) being re-stocked, etc.
@FNT Delta Diamond: you nailed it. There is a difference between a hotel and Airbnb. When I stay at a hotel, I am expecting housekeeping. I am not going to hang towels to dry, make my bed, check if there is soap or shampoo. I am paying a rate that should include all that. Otherwise, Airbnb makes more sense.
not a problem for me, I can always ask for fresh towels… But choosing “no maid service” doesn’t just mean it’s a corporate environmental choice…..It also means SOMEONE is getting fewer work hours. Less pay, less benefits for THAT employee……it’s a tough call. I don’t need fresh sheets daily—or even fresh towels daily….obviously I don’t have that option at home…and making my bed daily is very easy in a hotel with the duvet system. But it eventually means fewer employees are available to assist an already taxed service industry. so what’s the benefit to the hotel personnel? I get 500 points; some worked gets limited unemployment, which helps the corporate folks. 500 points has what cash value to me? 50 cents?? 2 bucks???
If you’re not going to put enough caffeinated coffee k-cups in the room to last my entire stay or have enough towels to mop up a bathroom leak, or have enough blankets for a chilly room due to a faulty thermostat, yeah, give me points. No money. Lots and lots of points.
You all are weird. I turn down housekeeping every time because I don’t like other people in my room. And what are you all doing that you need fresh towels every day? Especially when any mid-to-high range property has multiple towels per person to start?
Pro tip: Get the 2 double/queen bed even when by yourself and you’ll get 2 days of bedding and 4 days of towels!
Generally speaking, I do not think people actually want daily housekeeping, Someone coming in your room is like an invasion of privacy.
$10?! Pffft… You must be joking. I’m happy for the minimum-wage housekeeping crew on a zero-hour contract to service my room every day, because if they’re not servicing rooms they’re not getting paid. Hoteliers and their management companies make a fortune from the industry while the staff are paid a pittance.
OMG people, you don’t need a fresh towel each and every day. Wow.