Although the pandemic has drastically affected the way many people travel, at least the airline / flying experience has been pretty consistent no matter which airline you’re on. In contrast, hotels are all over the place.
What’s It Like at Hotels During COVID?
Some hotels have completely eliminated access to things like swimming pools, fitness rooms, business centers, hotel lounges and other communal areas. Others are continuing to provide them but in a limited fashion (such as requiring a reservation to use the fitness room). And at still others, those types of services are just what they were pre-pandemic.
Breakfast and dining are another area where hotels are all over the board.
Tragically, it doesn’t seem to be consistent by brand or chain.
The thing that I find most irritating / stressing about choosing a hotel these days is not knowing what to expect. I get that times have changed, and that “some services may not be available.” I also understand that hotels can be in an awkward spot with having to try and please people across all sides of the vaccine / masking / social distancing spectrum. But I just want to know what to expect when I walk in the door. It’s gotten so bad that I find myself regularly reading recent TripAdvisor reviews of hotels so I can know what to expect. Am I getting breakfast at all? Is it a to-go bag that I take to my room? Is it a free-for-all with anyone and everyone sitting in the lobby?
I stayed at 4 hotels in and around Portland, Oregon, and Northern California a few months ago, and my experience was all over the place.
(SEE ALSO: Country Inn and Suites Portland Airport review)
(SEE ALSO: Best Western Rory and Ryan Inn Review)
Hotels Will Be Making Service Cuts
I was intrigued by a few articles I read recently.
- Hilton CEO Warns Hotel Service Cuts Are Permanent, from One Mile at a Time
- What Hilton Is Letting Hotels Get Away With During The Pandemic by Gary from View from the Wing
The One Mile at a Time article was especially interesting, in that he shares several statistics from Hilton hotels about how their margins have increased and their break-even occupancy rates have decreased during 2020. Specifically:
- Full-service hotels have reduced their financial breakeven point from 47% occupancy in 2019 to 30% occupancy in 2020
- Limited service hotels have lowered their financial breakeven point from 43% occupancy in 2019 to 36% occupancy in 2020
What that means is that these hotels now need a much lower occupancy rate to break even. That makes sense because things like housekeeping, breakfast and other services have been paused or curtailed during the pandemic. The real question is whether these services will return post-COVID, and to what degree. Hilton’s CEO seems to indicate that they will not, at least not in all cases — saying:
“The work we’re doing right now in every one of our brands is about making them higher-margin businesses and creating more labor efficiencies, particularly in the areas of housekeeping, food and beverage, and other areas. When we get out of the crisis, those businesses will be higher margin and require less labor than they did pre-Covid.”
That’s “CEO-speak” for “we’re getting rid of housekeepers and other service workers and just pocketing all the money”. 🙂
Again, I’m not necessarily completely against that — I generally decline housekeeping services when we are staying at hotels, though there are other services I personally prefer more, like hotel breakfast or even hotel dinners.
(SEE ALSO: Which hotels give dinner for free?)
I just want to know what to expect when I get there without having to scour TripAdvisor reviews. Then I can decide what I’m willing to pay for, and how much.
Hotels vs. Airbnbs After the Pandemic
Then you have to wonder: What’s the difference between staying in a hotel vs. staying in an Airbnb? Historically, some of the benefits of staying in a hotel were things like housekeeping when you need it, a breakfast that you don’t have to make (or clean up) yourself and amenities like a pool or fitness center. If these amenities are going away, then that swings the pendulum even more toward staying in an Airbnb.
(SEE ALSO: 4 Things to Know Before Renting an Airbnb During COVID)
We just need to get an Airbnb credit card and the ability to transfer points to redeem at Airbnb. 🙂
The Future of Hotel Service Post-COVID
So what does the future of hotel service look like post-COVID? If I were a betting man, I would say that most hotels will be extremely slow to bring back some of these services, if they ever do. It’s kind of like airline fuel surcharges — they were added when the cost of fuel got super high, but then the cost of fuel dropped, and whaddaya know, we still have fuel surcharges. Again, I just hope that there are better brand standards and expectations so I can know what to expect when I stay at a particular hotel.
What has your experience been with hotel service during COVID? What do you think the future of hotel service will be like after the pandemic? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
My husband and I recently did a three week road trip mostly staying at Marriott branded hotels. You are right, they were all over the map with services. The more full service Marriotts had some sort of real breakfast and modified dinners, which actually weren’t bad. We stayed at several Courtyards, and there was definitely no consistency at all. One didn’t even offer coffee in the morning with no “Bistro” service at all, others had modified service in their “Bistro” and some were still trying to be a normal as they could be during this time. None of the hotels had daily housekeeping but would provide towels and trash removal upon request. That was fine. Front desk folks were always helpful and assisted us in finding local restaurants that were open for seating or take-out. I will have to say the hotels were generally more quiet as well, with occupancy less than capacity.
We typically stay at Hilton Hotels and a trip last fall to Lexington, Kentucky was less than stellar. We’ve taken a few other trips with similar experiences. We stayed at a Homewood Suites. We also drove from Texas to Nevada and back and made a driving trip to New Mexico.
We do love a good breakfast and I get that they had to curtail due to COVID-19 but at most of the hotels that had anything, what they offered was just sad. At Lexington, it was frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast something and some sad fruit, granola bars and yogurt. No milk but coffee. With now attendants, some were grabbing more than their share of stuff and you had to find someone at the front desk to restock. Most times there was no one at the desk and you had to you-hoo your way around to find someone.
They could easily provide better grab and go items.
Don’t get me started on the “sanitized” rooms. If you look at the housekeepers, these are the same low paid folks we had before Covid-19, just trying to get by. I’d say the rooms we’ve had were less clean than before, despite the sticker on the door.
The exception was a Hilton Garden Inn in tiny Hobbs, NM. Cooked to order breakfast that was great. You had to take it to your room, but at least you could get something delicious.
We just got back from a road trip and stayed in a couple of Hilton family hotels (Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, and Garden Inn I think?). I swim for exercise, and was pleasantly surprised to find the pool at the Embassy Suites open by reservation only for one-hour slots. I registered for a 7 a.m. slot because there were so few other people signed up, and wound up having the pool to myself. However, I didn’t get started until 7:15, because there was only one person working the whole front area, and he had forgotten to unlock the pool door. Couldn’t blame him — he was already trying to handle check outs AND the grab and go breakfast by himself.
If that’s a harbinger of what to expect from Hilton chain hotels in the future, that’s not great. The grab & go breakfast was basically awful — a Belvita bar and two hard-boiled eggs in a sack. I had some cereal and would have liked to have that for breakfast, but the hotel wasn’t even offering cartons of milk.
Love the idea of an AirBnB credit card!
Stayed 1 night at the Seattle Airport Marriott (April 11). They had a take out restaurant, and a full service sit down place that had a scaled down menu. Housekeeping was by request only. Pool (indoor) was closed, but exercise room was available by reservation. Appeared there was a smaller staff presence, but I didn’t really need much assistance. In any event, this was a free Bonvoy Visa night, but had I been paying, the rate was OK, since proximity to rental car garage and airport itself were my biggest needs. Overall, about what I expected in the “COVID era.”
I agree with the above..very little services.. and the rooms are stark as
everything has been removed like accent pillows some art extra blankets or pillows and very little amount of bath towels…. despressing
Agree with Dot C. that the rooms are stark… and that is depressing.
About the complimentary breakfasts in most U.S. hotel chains: the hot items are usually the cheapest, blandest and lacking any taste. It’s embarrassing what they pass off as meat. Eggs taste like they are powdered. Brown-colored corn syrup for waffles and pancakes. The bakery products are bad: muffins and especially what they pass off as “bagels”. Occasionally there is decent coffee but not always.