Most of what we take for granted in a hotel stay isn’t available during the Age of COVID-19
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
I hadn’t been out of Dallas since March, and I just needed to get away. So we booked a hotel room in downtown Austin for a three-night stay, and we were off.
I was expecting pared-down hotel service. But even so, I was surprised — not by what was missing but by how easily some of that could have been compensated for. And I’m purposely not naming the hotel, because the staff was friendly and helpful when asked, and this isn’t meant to be criticism of any of them.
I drove up to the front door, and a valet was there to greet me as usual — nothing different so far. But I didn’t need valet service or help with my luggage; I just needed to park my car while I checked in. The valet jumped in the car and pulled it to one side and asked if I needed a cart for my luggage. No porters or bellhops.
The front desk was protected by plexiglas; other than that, the check-in procedure was pretty normal. But that was actually the start of the problem. The rates may be the same, but the service is not. A few simple warnings and suggestions would have been helpful.
The hotel’s website still mentions room service, a restaurant, free breakfast and a Starbucks. What wasn’t available was room service, a restaurant, free breakfast or a Starbucks. Yes, even the Starbucks, on ground level opening to the street, was temporarily closed.
Had I checked in sometime in March — no problem; that would have been expected. But this was September, six months into the pandemic. There’s been plenty of time to update the website.
And the inconvenience of the closings could have been easily rectified. A simple sheet of paper handed out along with my room key or placed on the desk in my room could have simply said, “While food service has been suspended in the hotel, here are a few places you might enjoy within a few blocks of the hotel.”
The hotel is a block from 6th Street. There were plenty of wonderful restaurants and bars serving food in the area. Not only could the hotel have turned something negative into something positive, they could have been helping out a few local businesses — their neighbors — who are also struggling.
Housekeeping has also been curtailed.
What most hotels are doing is leaving a couple of days between guest stays in rooms. I’m not sure if they’re disinfecting right after a guest leaves or letting the room sit a few days before entering.
But during the stay, housekeeping is not entering the room. And again no warning — not a surprise once we realized it, but hey! Let me know!
As it was, when we needed clean towels, we had to hunt someone down.
There was an easy fix for that, too. Start with letting us know that no one would be by to straighten our room, then compensate for it.
Here’s how:
We were registered for a three-night stay. Leave a couple of extra towels and an extra roll of toilet paper in the room. Or, just as easy, let us know if we need anything from housekeeping — like extra towels — we should call a particular number, and someone will deliver them to our room.
And there was a coffee pot in the room with four single-serving coffee packets, two packets of sugar and four paper cups. Again, the reservation was for two people for three nights. Normally housekeeping would have replenished the supply each morning while making up the room. If there will be no daily housekeeping service, leave enough coffee and add-ins for our stay.
I asked at the front desk, but they didn’t have coffee refills. We never did figure out where to get more. So we ventured out early each morning for coffee.
Understand, I’m not complaining about how service has changed. I liked the precautions they’re taking, and I never felt unsafe during my stay. While these new normal ways of doing things have been going on for months for them, it was my first venture out to a hotel since the pandemic hit. I could have used some help navigating that first visit and doing it safely.
The hotel was obviously understaffed. I understand that their revenue is down drastically. But the parking lot was half-full each night of my stay. So, at least for this one downtown Austin hotel, this is not a disaster. And those things that could have made a difference wouldn’t have cost anything.
But maybe it’s not just about safety. Maybe the big corporation that owns this hotel brand has a strategy. If they acknowledge there’s no food or even an operating soft drink machine in the hotel, maybe I might decide to book at a similar hotel down the street?
Now how could I be so cynical about corporate America? Well, here’s one little piece of evidence: Safety is the concern inside the hotel, but who was it who met me on the driveway and immediately jumped into my car where I hadn’t been wearing a mask? The valet.
And cost for valet service? An excessive $49 per night.
The least important part of my visit was having someone park my car for me. I did just fine parking my car in the hotel garage myself.
