News and notes from around the interweb:
- John Marriott III suing his father Bill Marriott for cutting him out of the family hotel business.
- Non-alcoholic drinks at high end hotel bars is now apparently a trend
- The life of a hotel maid
- Pretty good Amex hotel rebate for Vancouver (HT: David G.)
- Uber will offer Qantas points for trips to certain Australian airports
- Every year at the end of the year Delta lets you earn elite qualifying miles from Hilton stays. That offer is back (registration required).
- Chinese conglomerate Anbang may convert most of the Waldorf Astoria New York to condos rather than leaving the bulk of rooms for the hotel. Of course they may have to sell the hotel too.
Waldorf=Astoria New York, Owned by Anbang. Credit: Hilton
Regarding the maid article, I don’t need my room cleaned every day.
What’s the best way to make their job easier — have them skip cleaning entirely, or does that just mean they do another room as part of their quota? Have them just do one light thing, like change towels?
Re the maid article, 15 to 20 rooms per day is what a room attendant can make in a 8 hour shift. A lot of it boils down to the fact that management is not taking the time to get to know their staff. At a luxury hotel I worked at, the lady room attendants would insist on doing as many rooms as the gentlemen, as they wanted to show that they were equal to the men. This hotel was in India.
Given what little information exists in the public domain, it’s hard to say if Bill and Richard Marriott retaliated against John Marriott for reasons grounded in religious belief. (If they did, they’re hypocrites, or at least inconsistent, as they control a business that makes significant $$ globally from prostitution- and extramarital-affair-related patronage. But I digress.) John stopped being the golden child long before his divorce. Also, money seems to trump morals in the Marriott empire. Marriott Hotels didn’t get rid of in-room porn until it stopped being profitable. (Sorry, digressing again.)
I think the more interesting story is the fiduciary-duty argument and what it could mean for Marriott family control. Just look at the havoc Liesel Pritzker wreaked on the Hyatt empire….
If you do not have your room cleaned the time comes off the maids allotted time for the day