Housekeepers, Hotel Owners Square Off Over Daily Service

[left-of-center2012]

Housekeepers are battling hotel owners’ efforts to eliminate daily room cleaning, a longtime staple of the American hospitality experience.

Many hotels, after suspending housekeeping at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, now clean only when guests request it. The practice began over infection concerns, and some guests still prefer not to have staff in their rooms during stays. The cutbacks also reflect staffing shortages, lower occupancies and hotel owners’ desire to reduce expenses, hotel analysts say.

Housekeepers generally oppose the reduced cleaning schedules. They worry that the move will eliminate jobs and make the already physically demanding work even tougher for those who remain. Unite Here, a union representing hotel workers in the U.S. and Canada, has negotiated agreements with hotels in New York City, Boston and other cities that require owners to maintain daily cleanings.

Hotel owners say they are in a bind. Industry revenue started to recover in the spring but remains well below pre-pandemic levels. Many properties are having a hard time finding enough housekeepers to clean rooms daily. Hotel employment is still down, with 17% fewer hotel and motel workers on the job nationwide last July than two years ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/housekeepers-hotel-owners-square-off-over-daily-service-11635854400

[a kennedy]

1. We never have cleaning until we leave, we leave our 25% tip by soap in the bathroom

and leave usually very happy.

[DET]

2. It's A Conundrum

When I was a chambermaid a millionaire years ago, we were paid by the room, not by the hour. Less frequent cleaning = dirtier rooms = more work for less money. I understand their concern.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. I was a Housekeeper 30 years ago

Promoted to Housekeeping Supervisor and Trainer at a nice place across the street from St. Mary's Hospital.

I was able to ask the new owners to bump up the pay to no less than $5 an hour. One person had been there 5 years before me with no benefits.

Housekeeping is hard work. I trained the staff to clean each room as if a health inspector was going to come through. I inspected rooms as well and sent reports to the management if standards were not met. They were met.

[pstokely]

5. how did they deal with employee theft?

or accused employee theft from the rooms?

[pstokely]

4. I don't need daily service, I just hang the DND sign on door

I'm a little afraid of theft by low paid housekeeping staff, but I never stay more than 2 or 3 nights, Hilton is still doing the CleanStay pandemic theater