Marriott appears to be testing a requirement that guests give up housekeeping during their stay in order to get the cheapest room rates.
Before the pandemic, hotels might compensate guests for giving up housekeeping on a multi-night stay. Starwood, since acquired by Marriott, was a pioneer at this with their ‘Make a Green Choice’ program. Marriott dropped compensation of guests who give up housekeeping during the pandemic in 2020, since hotels weren’t providing much housekeeping during stays anyway. In total, hotels eliminated over 100,000 housekeeping jobs.
However, guests want their trash picked up, rooms tidied and beds made – at a minimum. And full service brands have had to restore at least some housekeeping. Now, there’s a new effort effort to save on hotel labor labor costs, and it’s being trialed at at least one Marriott property.
The Westin Wall Centre, Vancouver Airport‘s cheapest room rate is called Stay Green Save More and requires the guest to give up housekeeping during their stay as part of the rate.
Thank you for choosing to travel Green — This rate gives an extra discount for travelers to decline any housekeeping or overnight service — This helps Wall Centre Hotels attain our ambitious environmental targets — Declining overnight service allows us to reduce our water consumption and energy use in a very meaningful way — For your safety and comfort, we will enter your room for a wellness-check and a modest refresh every 3 days
A ‘wellness-check’ ostensibly means they’re checking to see if you died in the room. In reality, housekeeping service doesn’t just clean the room it also identifies significant damage to the property. And after three days of accumulated Chinese takeout, wet towels on the floor, and trash in the bathroom they may need to take cleanup action to preserve the property rather than for the guest’s enjoyment.
Westin is a Marriott “full service brand” and that brand requires daily housekeeping. This rate allows them to employ fewer housekeepers. And it’s an interesting test to see if customers will book it, once the lowest rate (on a longer stay) requires it.
Put another way, this hotel charges guests an extra fee in the form of a higher room rate if they want a basic service that’s part of the Westin brand standard, turning a basic Westin service into an optional add-on.
Is that something that could spread, perhaps to other highly-unionized cities where housekeeping is most expensive to provide?
(HT: Loyalty Lobby)
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