Room Service or is it Food Delivery?
I admit I am addicted to certain cartoons, including some serial ones. As a result, I regularly turn to the cartoon pages of the daily paper. I could not help but get an extra chuckle when I saw “The Family Circus” by Bill Keane on October 24, 1997. I wish we could reprint it here but they wanted $150 for that, which is reasonable, but would not let us use it on the internet version of this column which is unreasonable as it would have been a nice promo for the cartoon series.
The cartoon showed the kids looking out the door of their room into the hall of their house speaking to their mother. On the hall floor by the door was a scattered assortment of dishes, glassware and utensils. The kids were saying, “We were just playin’ hotel.”
We have all stayed at that hotel, haven’t we? Getting room service picked up when the guest is finished is a challenge. In luxury hotels and resorts I have managed, I tried tent cards asking the guests to call us when they’re done, calling the room ourselves after 45-60 minutes, and other ideas with the goal of having the tray or table never pushed into the hall. Every employee, particularly bellmen, security and housekeeping, has been trained to pick up room service, bring it to a service area, out of guest sight, and call the room service department. Bonuses have been offered and punishment meted out. In the end, one can still find a dinner room service table in a hall at 8am. They tell me the guest put it there when they got up in the morning and did not answer the phone when they were called the evening before! Maybe so, but it still bothers me.
Why bother with room service? For full service and luxury hotels, the answer is easy, it is a service people expect, enjoy and will pay for. Many women travelling alone particularly appreciate it as do guests who want to work in their room or watch television. Room service, like food and beverage service as a whole, can drive incremental departmental profit, attract more occupancy and help support a higher average daily rate for guest rooms.
