Goodbye room service

Room service is disappearing from the international hotel’s services list. The New York Hilton Midtown hotel has stopped offering room service, and other hotels will follow.

In a blog in the New York Times, hotel expert Jacob Tomsky, the end of room service for two reasons: the high cost for hotels to maintain this service and the availability of alternatives in most business cities.

According to the author, it makes sense for hotels to stop serving room service. It is simply a thing of the past. Before wheeled luggage was introduced in 1970, bellmen were a necessity, not a luxury. Similarly, retrieving a paper destination map from the concierge is ‘out’ and iPhone and Google maps are ‘in’.

Hotels that stop paying staff to stay awake all night, waiting for guests to order some French fries, may do so to keep their third of fourth star. Hotels that skip room service in cities like New York or Chicago, are just following the current trend. Like Tomsky says: “Who needs it, when every guest has MenuPages?” Even in five-star hotels, guests are ordering their food from outside.

Not every hotel will follow Hilton’s example though. Tomsky thinks there will always be rock stars that want to order 30 Cheeseburgers around midnight. Jacob Tomsky is the author of “Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality.”

Further reading on nytimes.com

Image by Hilton Hotels & Resorts