Before the pandemic, one of the biggest debates within the housekeeping service was whether or not to allow customers to opt out of this basic service. The consensus was: it depends.

For city hotels catering largely to midweek business guests, it made perfect sense to let businessmen trade room cleaning for a meal voucher or other amenity voucher. After all, this segment was known to rarely use the room, so implementing an opt-out program benefited the hotel through cost savings and the guest through greater consumption. other on-site services (or, in some cases, bonus “loyalty” points) . At the full-service, luxury, and resort end of the spectrum, however, daily housekeeping often acts as a brand hallmark, with removal not even open for discussion.

One of the lasting legacies of the pandemic will be a shift in how customers view housekeeping and what is considered safe. Even after we’re all vaccinated, the contact limit will still be in effect, and a sensible way to give guests peace of mind is to make sure no one else enters their room for the entirety of their stay (without their express permission). While there are reasonable limits to this given the opposite security risk of leaving a room unchecked beyond a certain threshold, the general push for touchless guest experiences will inevitably mean fewer rooms cleaned each day.

Some guests will want the hotel to be completely self-sufficient when navigating all communications through a digital and remote interface. Others, however, will want the full show. Whether out of a desire for immaculately clean spaces, nostalgia for the pre-Covid days, or simply for a glimmer of interaction with another human soul, many customers will long for the opportunity to have housekeeping on demand.

This brings us to attribute-based selling (ABS) which is set to become a key upselling tool in the coming decade. At its core, ABS for Hotels enrolls usage of every feature – in-room, on-property, or through a third party – to incrementally generate revenue per guest. The buzz term for this is TRevPAR or total revenue per available room. For some hotels looking to optimize costs in the next normal, housekeeping may be another service that can be sold separately from the room to increase TRevPAR.

Imagine you’re half of a couple looking for a romantic seven-night vacation at a tropical resort for some time at the end of Q4 2021. You choose to book direct, then in the booking engine, after you’ve selected your room and chosen certain restaurants, you can decide which days of your stay you want the room attendants to come in for a proper cleaning. It could be six times; it could be zero. It depends on each guest’s attitude towards contact and any lingering fears of COVID-19, but many will gladly accept if the extra charge per cleaning isn’t too egregious.

This way, not only are you opening the door to a new revenue vehicle, but you’re deepening the personalization of the onsite experience by making customization even easier. Of course, the technology has to be there to support such an opt-in system as you will need a booking engine that allows upsells of amenities in an attractive user interface as well as a powerful PMS to support loads new data flowing into the guest folio and housekeeping optimization software.

Thinking more broadly, these three aspects of your tech stack are ones you should already be looking at in response to the coronavirus and as a way to boost TRevPAR in other ways, like increasing restaurant or spa usage before the pandemic. ‘arrival. With the housekeeping option as a post-pandemic consideration under its banner, ABS can help protect your guest satisfaction scores while allowing you to recoup profitability even when maximum occupancy cannot be achieved. due to any extended restrictions still in place.

Larry Mogelonski
Mogel Consulting Limited Hotel

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