In today’s world, check-in clerks, bellhops and room service all are facing extinction.
When you check in next to a hotel, it might surprise you that the bellhop is the front desk clerk or that there is no bellhop or even a desk clerk.
In an attempt to cut costs due to travelers cutting their spending, hotels are stealing a page out of the airlines playbook and adopting new policies that are no-frills.
A Hilton spokesperson said the hotel was committed to placing employees who were qualified into alternate working positions at the hotel where and if possible.
Industry experts have said that much like the airline industry is doing, hotels have had to look for new ways to reduce costs and maximize their ancillary revenue.
Hotels have also expanded their brands that are value-priced, meaning hotels that do not have room service. For example the chain Intercontinental Hotels Group will add 454 hotels or about 52,000 new rooms to its line Holiday Inn Express, which is the only limited service brand the chain has.
Today, hotels are saying that guests order room service less and when they do order, they are spending less. In hotels in the U.S., revenue from room service averaged only $3.33 per room that was occupied in 2012. That was unchanged from the previous year.
Rooms in limited service hotels have increased in the past decade by 16% to now be 2.7 million. Full-service rooms however, have only increased by 2.2 million or 6% over the same period.
