Marriott’s Grand Adirondack Hotel in Lake Placid, New York doesn’t automatically provide daily housekeeping. That’s bad enough. They tell you it’s for the local environment.

This is getting out of hand …. out of the blue rant…
byu/albsirtux inmarriott

Probably my biggest theme is the disconnect between travel company marketing claims and reality. Be the thing that you are. Just be honest with customers.

I didn’t mind hotels looking to save money on housekeeping so much when it was voluntary, the default was to provide the service, and they split the savings with guests who opted out (“Make a Green Choice”). But this hotel isn’t supposed to set the default as no housekeeping, and the savings is fully captured by the hotel.

When the default is no housekeeping,

• Guests have to expend the effort to get the service (one hotel’s trick is to actually require paperwork from guests who want housekeeping)
• That means actually reaching the front desk to make the request, and they may not be answering the phone or they may be a long line in person – remember, hotels trying to reduce labor costs are often short-staffed across the board not just in housekeeping
• And the hotel is guilting guests, so the request may feel awkward.

At this hotel it appears there is only “one or two housekeepers on the whole property” and they just come across as cheapening the experience across the board,

They used to give you 2 bottles of water now they dont even mention “thank you for being …… elite” just what do you want points or breakfast. The restaurant downstairs is always slow for no apparent reason and always something on the menu is missing.

As another guest puts it, “the quality has definitely dropped off” at this hotel, “I do wish they would be more honest rather than pitch this as an environmental initiative.”

Hotels face an existential threat from short-term rental platforms like Airbnb. Why eliminate their differentiation?

If you don’t want housekeeping that’s fine, just opt out of it, but many guests want it and want it to be easy. Staying at a hotel isn’t supposed to be like being at home.

I’ve spent about 100 days in hotels this year, and I’m a fan of housekeeping. Hell, I’m a fan of turndown service at a nice hotel—nothing like coming back after a long day and seeing your room ready for you.

While it may feel good to comment that you’re “understanding and low-maintenance”, some of us doing 100-150 nights/yr and paying $250+/night average want a tidy fresh room daily. I have zero guilt about that expectation.

[C]hoosing not to get benefits that I pay for…is like being proud that they didn’t put pepperoni on your everything pizza. Sure, you may not care, but it’s literally what was expected when you paid for it.

This was at a different Marriott brand:

Here though maybe the most Marriott thing ever is allowing a hotel using their brand to get away with failing to meet brand standards and treat customers well – with a sign about how they aren’t going to do housekeeping, and proving it with a used band-aid in front of it that hasn’t been cleaned up by housekeeping.