CHICAGO, IL – After years of skimping on hotel amenities, one hotel thinks it’s found the perfect strategy to address staffing challenges and cost control issues: asking the guests to team up with the housekeeping staff.
Chicago’s luxurious Hampton Inn & Suites may have just cracked the code in its search to find the right mix of staff and hotel amenities while keeping costs under control.
By asking the lowest-ranking non-Hilton Diamond member on the hotel floor to team up with the hotel’s housekeepers to clean each room, the hotel could save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
Fred Slanders is more of an IHG Hotels guy but he found himself at the Chicago Hampton Inn recently and as someone who’s barely a Hilton Honors member he was surprised when a knock on his door awakened him at 7:00 AM after a fitful night’s sleep.
“Good morning, sir,” greeted Slanders by a friendly housekeeper who promptly handed him a broom, “Let’s get to it then.”
Soon, Slanders found himself scrubbing a toilet in an adjacent room as he and the maid teamed up to finish the entire room of floors. It was only then that he was allowed to check out.
After years of skimping on amenities like regular room cleaning under the guise of “pandemic conditions,” the hotel industry found itself enjoying the margins of not needing so many staff. However, as guests demanded their rooms be cleaned (you know, like a normal non-psychopath would expect), hotels found themselves in a quandary.
This new program could be a game changed for the hotel industry if successful. By using a low-ranked loyalty program member the hotel doesn’t risk running off a loyal guest and if they guest chooses not to help, they are hit with a $2300 cleaning avoidance fee.
A $66 dollar resort is also applied to stays at the hotel regardless of whether you help clean or not.
Satire? You got it…
