WHY HOTELS ARE TIPPING THEIR GUESTS

For ages now hotels have been keen to dial back on cleaning services. We’ve all seen the ‘green card’ asking us to save the planet and skip having our bedding and towels replaced. Now some hotels are even going a step further and effectively tipping their guests for skipping the daily clean.

One hotel I recently stayed in provided a door hanger with the message, “£5 Reward, Please Don’t Clean My Room” with an offer to provide me with £5 to spend in the bar or restaurant if I hung it on my door.

According to Reuters, Starwood are offering a choice of full housekeeping services or alternatively daily incentives such as food and beverage vouchers or additional Starwood frequent traveller programme points. Whereas operators such as Malaysia based Tune Hotels have taken housekeeping to another level where guests who want towels and soap … will need to pay for them.

However these examples of flexibility will increasingly help hotels to offer more choices to guests in an arena where shifting consumer behaviours and competition from others in the same space means that hotels live in one of the world’s most competitive commercial landscapes.

Maybe Ryanair started a trend with their plans to charge people one pound if they want to use the toilet in flight. Although I am not sure that the choices aspect works in that case!

LAW Creative is a specialist hotel and leisure marketing agency. To discuss your marketing needs and aspirations please contact Keith Sammels at keith.sammels@lawcreative.co.uk