That hotels are using covid as a reason to not service rooms to save their costs?

[MrsArchchancellorRidcully]

I'm currently in a premier inn by Euston. It may only apply to PIs but they are not servicing rooms at all during my stay. They blame this on the threat of covid 🙄

I find this must be a cost cutting exercise. I'm not a fan of changing towels/sheets daily but new cups, more loo roll etc would be appreciated. If I've paid money I don't see why I should go down several
Floors to reception tbh. Aibu?

If I've paid money I don't see why I should go down several
Floors to reception tbh

Do you stay in your room the whole time?

@dreamingbohemian

I'm fine with it, I'd rather ask if I need something. I'm never in a hotel more than 5 days though.

It's more environmentally friendly not to change sheets and towels constantly as well.

And if you read my op, I specifically referred to not needing new towels/ sheets etc daily.

It's clean cups, extra loo
Roll
Etc.

I don't see why I need to remember to pick them up on my way back in for the day.

Although I hadn't considered lack of staff tbh. That's a fair reason. Just be bloody honest though!!

All thevhotekscwe’vw been to lately have had the same thing. Novotel in York was actually manky so I assume they aren’t cleaning that well whereas premier inns have been immaculate. There were crumbs everywhere and I used an antibacterial hand wipe on the surfaces and it was really dirty with sticky finger marks etc. I carry wipes as sanitiser gel hurts my hands that are broken out with eczema and it’s lucky I did.

I've stayed in a variety of hotels recently and none have serviced rooms, in one there was an area in reception set up with clean towels, toiletries and tea and coffee, the others all made it clear you only had to ask at reception if you needed anything. Didn't bother me.

Although I hadn't considered lack of staff tbh. That's a fair reason. Just be bloody honest though!!

I can just imagine how the truth would go down, "yeah all the staff have left to go back to their home countries because of Brexit. Have a nice day!".

I'm a hotel room attendant and we do service the rooms for those guests staying over and have been for a year now. We also provide a late maid service til 10pm for guests who require anything extra. Some guests are surprised we provide these services in covid times, but many appreciate it. We do however wear gloves, marks and aprons for each room.

Its not great if they are saying it's covid - as in they are trying to avoid infection. But it is mostly due to covid in that they made so many redundancies or staff were furloughed and left for other jobs through fear of redundancy because of covid. Now they hotels can't refill those jobs.

The alternative is that they reduce room capacity to allow staff to service the rooms to the level they did in the past but that would mean big shortages of bedrooms and rocketing prices.

I haven't stayed in a hotel recently but I do think lots of businesses are using 'the pandemic' for crap customer service. Might have been acceptable a year ago, but it's wearing thin at this point.

In addition to the late check in and early check out of self catering also now seems to be norm that you completely strip all your bedding, bag up your laundry, empty all the bins etc etc, fair enough maybe if a budget break but not when paying hundreds for supposed luxury one ! It’s meant to be a holiday.

@Vikingmama79. Yes I've seen that at places this year that cost £100s a night. I think they should deduct the cost of the staff they would have paid to do it.
Is there a genuine infection reason why cleaners cannot change beds / empty bins?

I work in a PI as a housekeeper and yeah we are not allowed to make up rooms. But if you need any new towels, cups or consumables We take them along to your room and leave them outside your door. Just let reception know. There's meetings soon about when this service can resume.

[quote Flup]@Vikingmama79. Yes I've seen that at places this year that cost £100s a night. I think they should deduct the cost of the staff they would have paid to do it.
Is there a genuine infection reason why cleaners cannot change beds / empty bins?[/quote]
Well of course there’s an infection risk. There always has been.
Bins are full of his knows what - snotty, germy tissues being the least of it I’d have thought.
Same with beds.
I’m not saying that the risk is such that a cleaner shouldn’t do it - gloves, masks etc if wanted- but the infection risks are fairly obvious.

Sometimes, it is a headquarters cost cutting issue if they're not giving housekeeping enough hours to do that work or receptionists have been asked to avoid leaving their desks for these sorts of requests, but it's also a lack of staff and supplies. Feel free to complain about it to head office, as sites often can't get help with much unless enough guests complain about something to them.

As others said, while COVID risk is a factor because yes hotel staff have to deal with all sorts of body fluids (many sites have kept up the plastic barriers when other COVID things came down, this is a big part of the reason - that and people trying to assault staff in other ways) and it's an issue when already running a skeleton crew to have someone off, another huge issue across many hotels is difficulty getting linens & other supplies and there are too few staff. You can't pay what's already being ground down and not enough there which has meant fewer rooms available (some sites are keeping rooms off even at the cost of those rooms, some as much as half the site) and higher prices.

Yes, Premier Inn are absolutely doing this - the one near me won't allow you to check in til 4 pm either (normally it's 2) "because of covid". They don't tell you this before you book though, only in the confirmation email afterwards!

There is no conspiracy people, there just aren’t enough staff to go around.
Obviously no one wants to suggest this had anything to do with brexit

We service rooms every day in our hotel, change sheets, clean towels, empty bins and so on....and everything restocked. We do wear gloves, it protects staff as well as guests.
We pick up everything including discarded masks, COVID tests left behind and a host of other worse stuff. I'm shocked to hear there are places which are using COVID as an excuse not to service rooms, it isn't acceptable in my opinion.

We stayed in three different hotels in Scotland over the last two weeks ... And all were fully serviced our room every day. It was excellent.

Seems mad to be cleaning rooms on a daily basis. If it's inconvenient to get extra loo rolls etc then that should be addressed though. I was slightly annoyed once when I went to reception for toilet rolls and they didn't have any, so they had to summon a member of housekeeping. Staff were very pleasant and apologetic, but it wasn't efficient from their POV or mine - I didn't want to hang about for five minutes to get my loo roll!

I would object if I were staying a very long time and never got the room cleaned - I think they should say that if you are staying less than x days then your room won't be cleaned.

My hotel room is my personal space. Pre Covid, l often travelled for work and had to stay in hotels.

I didn’t want anyone coming in my room where l have personal things before the pandemic and l certainly don’t want it now.

In hotels l’ve used since Covid, reception staff have been more than willing to provide more toiletries, coffees etc. If towels are left outside the door cleaning staff will replace them.

This suits me fine.

Because of covid has become a bit of a excuse for poor service. I don’t see why covid stops a hotel bringing me a newspaper to my room in the morning either

We are currently in a hotel in California that is going the same thing. We were handed a big list of COVID “safety measures” when we checked in but noticed that although they claim to be performing “enhanced cleaning” it then went on to say that “for the comfort and safety of guests, rooms will not be cleaned or serviced during your stay”. Ridiculous.

Covid, the ultimate excuse for poor service. Its right across loads of industries. Badly disguised cost cutting.

Agree 100%.

We had a week in a Premier Inn and got fed up of having to go and ask for fresh towels and our family room was disgusting by the end of the week. It really took the edge off the stay.

I actually meant to write a letter of complaint when I got home but forgot but might do so now. It's just an excuse to get rid of staff IMO.

I don’t usually need anything for a couple of days stay but we recently stayed somewhere for 6 night and had to keep asking for extras etc.

I feel that if everything else has gone back to normal I’m not sure why this hasn’t?

Bedroom / bathroom bins should be emptied daily. & a quick wipe round the bathroom is needed daily.
Sharing a family room for 4 days with 4 people is not pleasant.