When we stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott, I was unsure if we’d get housekeeping service. We asked at the front desk and were told that housekeeping was only available “upon request.” I’m totally fine with this practice as I don’t need someone to make my bed every day and I’d prefer not to have to lock up my computer when we’re leaving the room for the day (Here’s our preferred way to keep our things safe instead of using a hotel’s safe, which isn’t very safe).
We’d usually leave the ‘Do Not Disturb” sign on the door if we don’t need housekeeping, but I didn’t bother because we weren’t supposed to get any service unless we asked. Even then, I know a sign doesn’t mean that someone can’t enter my hotel room anyway. To my surprise, I came back to our room and found fresh towels and an empty trash can.
We received housekeeping services while we were away.
When I mentioned this to our friends who were traveling with us, they said that the paper on the desk said that there was limited service with trash, towel and vacuuming if necessary.
I never look at the papers on the desk (my bad) but I found this laminated note in our room.
I hope this note is one of the things they sanitize between guests to help prevent the spread of COVID.
Here’s our experience over our 5-night stay:
- Day 2 – Not expecting service – trash and towel service
- Day 3 – Do Not Disturb left on door – no service
- Day 4 – Expecting service – no service provided
- Day 5 – Needing service – trash, towel, made bed & straightened shoes
The problem I have with this is the lack of consistency and the inability of the front desk to describe the services we were to expect accurately. Trash and towel daily surely isn’t the same thing as “on request.” This isn’t a brand new policy as they had time to laminate a letter from the regional manager to put in the rooms.
We can discuss if cutting housekeeping service is now really to try to prevent the spread of COVID, or if hotels are using it as an excuse not to bring back the services we had before, or if hotels unable to staff sufficiently to provide full services. It could be any of these or maybe a combination of the three.
I just want them to tell me what to expect and I’ll judge them on how well they meet those expectations.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
Cover Photo by Andrew Neel from Pexels
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