Hotel room won’t be serviced…

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I’ve booked a short stay away next week for DH’s birthday. Beautiful country area that we have visited many times before and we have stayed at this hotel before but it changed hands a little while ago.
I’ve just received a confirmation of booking email:

ROOM KEYS and SERVICING

A member of staff will be here to check you in from 3.30pm to 11pm. Your key will be placed in your room on arrival and you should keep it with you until your departure, the key will get you through the front door and into your room whilst the hotel is closed.
*please note the hotel will be closed during the day after breakfast and re-open at 3.30pm. We close at 11pm each night. Take your key with you during your stay as it will give you access to the front door and your room.

The rooms will NOT be serviced during your stay unless you are staying for 5 nights or more, in which case we will offer to service the room halfway through your stay. If you require a top up or replacement of any items, ie towels, tea, coffee, etc inform a member of staff at breakfast and they will be left outside your room.

It sounds like they are on the bones of economising on staff costs. The room won’t be serviced - so not even making the bed and tidying the bathroom then. And no one around all day - it’s reminiscent of those old fashioned B&Bs where you were kicked out after breakfast and not allowed back until the evening.

It’s not that we leave things in a terrible mess but one of the joys of a hotel stay is coming back to a nice tidy room and bathroom.

I’m not sharing the email with DH - he’ll go off the idea of staying there and be on the look out for things to moan about from the minute we arrive and I don’t want to cancel and try to find something else. It’s a lovely location and we have plans for the walks we will be doing each day.

Is this the way the hospitality industry is going now?

Exactly this.

Cleaning staff are not servants. There is a difference.

1. I dont think of them as maids it is not Downton Abbey
2. If I have a choice of doing basic things all humans should do and not have to pay higher hotel prices I will pick up after myself

Obviously you don't leave the place in a pigsty, and yes you'd hang up your towel or leave it on the floor in a pile if you want it to be replaced (which is what they ask). But they do clean, make the beds (better than I can), replace the toilet rolls etc that's the point of hotel service. The clue is in the name.

Hotel housekeepers are not simply cleaning staff.

Hotels provide a wide range of service levels (and have correspondingly different price ranges). Picking up towels is very much a part of what some housekeepers are trained and paid to do.

Why are you so outraged by it? I’ve done a range of service jobs and would have loved to be paid to do something as easy as picking up a towel. Damn sight better than clearing tables in a restaurant!

I have noticed this trend, too. Which is a shame, because why would I choose to stay in a hotel over an AirBnB when

• hotels cost way more than AirBnB
• I get the pleasure of staying in a tiny room without that many amenities
• I can barely open the window in most hotel rooms
• I have to almost beg for my room to be cleaned and for my towels to be replaced. I have also noticed that many places, when they do "clean" your room, don't actually vacuum, clean the toilet and sink...they just make your bed, take the trash from the bins and give you new towels
• there's almost never any flexibility around checking in early or checking out later - unless I pay more money for the privilege
• it's almost always impossible to regulate the temperature in hotel rooms properly - because something is always defect. If not the air conditioner then the radiator

Housekeeper then not maid. Obviously it’s not downton abbey unless staying somewhere fabulous with price levels to match.

I agree that having the room cleaned and tidied and the bed made is one of the joys of staying in a hotel. It always seems like magic to me when you come back to find the room immaculate. Was there no indication of this when you booked?

That is why I stay in cheaper places as we are happy to do some things ourselves

Hotels often ask you to leave the keys if you go out. Then if there's a fire or something, they know who is not in the building.

I am happy to stay in hotels as we dont need a lot of room and I like having the desk there if I need it and I dont want a list of rules of what we can and cannot do, and I am sure not all AIRBNBs do that but I like the simplicity of hotels

I have never heard that, we always have our key on us or use the pin entry for the door

I went away last month and had to leave my keys when I went out. And on two different holidays last year. They were big keys and one of them was attached to a heavy bit of wood so I was glad not to have to cart them round all day!

Definitely stayed in places where they ask you to leave the keys. The ones I’ve stayed in like that have been the lovely small old fashioned types.

@SheilaFentiman You have great faith in the cleaners! I'm always suspicious of the mugs and glasses in the room.

well doll house ones, why are all the mugs and wine glasses so small?

My family have a small rural hotel and it's on the bones of its arse post-Covid/Brexit.

Costs have soared, they had to let staff go, can't find seasonal workers, more competition from Airbnbs without staff costs, restaurant and bar hours had to be cut. There's only so much you can put prices up before bookings fall away.

This place is probably just doing whatever they can to stay afloat.

Well that's fair then

I can't comment on your family circumstances individually, but there are other factors too. If you cut restaurant, bar and other services then you are leaving customers with little more than an expensive Airbnb ( and I am not a fan of them) where most everything is self-service, but charged at a price that it shouldn't be self-service. And I do appreciate the problem of attracting workers. But I have also noticed that pre-cost of living, during Covid loads of places hugely bumped up prices (and that includes self-catering) because of the captive market, and then those prices never came down. That left people with costs that made going abroad as cheap and sometimes cheaper, so then many voted with their feet. I am fortunate in being able to be very flexible and can hunt out the best deals. I can find fully AI with all the services and travel included cheaper than UK hotels. I recently booked two weeks AI with upgrades and sea view room for less than £900. Next month I have 4 nights in a basic hotel in the north west - no food, no bar, £300.

In that case I am happy with basic as it is nothing more than a place to sleep (attending a festival), but if I am to pay the prices of UK hotels I expect better, and since so many now don't provide it, like others I go where they do.

Honestly I probably wouldn’t pick somewhere like that, not a for a hotel anyway. If it’s like that I’d hope it was cute/family run v small business

I wouldn’t put up with it for somewhere bigger.

if there’s no service I’d just got for an airbnb then at least I’d have my own kitchen.

It used to be much easier, pre covid, for places like this to get sufficient low paid seasonal workers who didn't have any better options. Now that's gone, especially in places that don't have many people living nearby and whose local populations are often second homers, remote workers and retirees.

A lot of the populations who'd have been doing these jobs 15 years ago see them as less desirable now also. Parents of school aged DC who wanted to work 930 to 230 now have more options allowing flexibility than a 5 hour housekeeping shift. FE and 6th form students are less likely to be working: I'm an elder millennial and hotel cleaning or cafe at weekends was quite a popular one in my cohort back then. But it's harder to employ under 18s now plus access to free FE is much more limited so people feel they have to prioritise that.

Possibly these models don't work without that substantial supply of people who couldn't do any better for themselves than such jobs. Air B and B seems to be struggling too, and I know they often have problems getting ad hoc cleaners.

On the basis we rarely stay anywhere in this country for more than 2 or 3 nights I’m relaxed about not having clean towels every day but I do like coming back to the room and feeling like it’s been serviced even if it’s only bins emptied and tea tray replenished. I tend to pull the duvet back and make sure everything is tidy anyway before we go out. I’d would expect if we were staying longer like the OP that our room would be serviced at least midway through our stay, and I would certainly expect to have been notified at the time of booking if this was not the case.

I almost always but do not disturb on hotel doors so I don’t have to tidy up for the cleaners. I ask for refills if needed. It’s really no hardship and wouldn’t put me off, but if having your bed made for you is a big deal, go somewhere else.

I wouldn't be happy with unserviced rooms but I do think that this should be clear prior to booking. Maybe charging extra for servicing, in the same way as room service, could become a matter of choice so guest can decide the frequency of servicing that they want for their stay.

It's a small independent family run hotel that changed hands last year. Weirdly there's nothing on tripadvisor since November last year. It's in the centre of a national park with lots of great walking straight out the door. To be fair the cost is modest - we've been used to using airbnb or certain holiday cottage places for years, but without children what's the point in paying for a 4-6 bed place? This works out cheaper and I fancied a break from cooking etc. On reflection and reading comments I realise that staffing is probably hugely problematic for them. 20 years ago, in the days of the lady owner who wouldn't allow chips, there were lots of French staff, nothing was too much trouble. But that all went with her, and anyway post Brexit and covid there wouldn't be a chance. It's quite a small village so there would be a shortage of willing teens even if they were willing. I think they are probably heading towards a sort of pub with rooms/slightly smarter and more comfortable than a hostel vibe. I'm just going to take it as it comes, we'll be out all day anyway, I'm sure it will still be an enjoyable stay though I'm not overly impressed with the menus I looked at last night but will probably go to the other place which is a bit more touristy, lots of families with children but does decent pub favourites.

Welcome to Brexit Britain everybody!