Rewriting the Room Service Menu
Susan Stellin, New York Times, 1/30/2007
For all that hotels have done to make their bedding more luxurious, their décor more stylish and their lobbies smell better with a signature scent, one area that hasn't gotten much of a makeover is the in-suite dining experience, otherwise known as room service.
Certainly, hotels have tweaked their menus to keep up with changing dietary trends, offering low-fat, low-cholesterol or Atkins-friendly options as the weight-loss winds have shifted. And some high-end hotels deliver food from a fancy restaurant on site, like the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York, which lets guests enjoy meals from Jean-Georges and will even send a chef to cook in your in-suite kitchen (for an extra $75 an hour).
But at the hotels where most business travelers stay, room service has not gotten the kind of attention that has been lavished on fancy spas and high-thread-count linens — at least not yet.
That may be about to change, as more hotels focus on their food and beverage services, with an eye toward keeping up with their guests' increasingly sophisticated palates, nonstop work schedules and desire for healthful meals.
For instance, Loews Hotels plans to eliminate artificial trans fats from its restaurants, room service menus and minibars by June, replacing deep-fried snacks with PowerBars and other options. Westin Hotels and Resorts has been testing a Travelers' Renewal Menu in 20 properties that includes a smoothie to combat jet lag, oatmeal cookies and warm milk to ward off insomnia and a "Havana treat plate" — bananas, rice, applesauce and toast — to calm an upset stomach.
Marriott Hotels and Resorts, which has offered health-conscious "Fit for You" options for several years, promises to "revolutionize" in-room dining with improvements this year that will include new menu items that are consistent across its hotels, more regional specialties and, potentially, meals that are packaged to go, like a breakfast that can be eaten on a plane.
"For many years, room service was looked at as, 'Gee we have to do it,' but now I think more hotels are looking at it as, 'How can we solve our customers' problems?' " said Michael Beam, managing director at HVS/American Hospitality Management, a consulting firm that spent several months last year researching travelers' room service preferences.
Among the findings: people who travel 10 to 15 days a month order room service the most, and cravings are the No. 1 criteria when they select from the menu — the research found hamburgers to be among the top choices — followed by healthfulness. But the latter category does not mean a preference for bland tofu stir-fry or poached salmon.
"If anything, it's a move away from traditional 'healthy' items to what I'd call balanced," Mr. Beam said. "It's reasonable portions of good things that you wouldn't necessarily call health food."
Business travelers, it seems, would welcome any moves in that direction.
"I'd love to be able to get a chicken breast and vegetables and some light starch that's prepared nicely, or a selection of healthy soups," said Gabriel Levy, an executive with a digital music company in New York City, noting that these options are especially scarce on late-night menus. "You can get burgers and sandwiches and that kind of stuff, but that's exactly what I don't want to eat when it's late."
Scott Kraft, the executive vice president for marketing for a San Francisco software company, echoed that desire for well-prepared vegetables and appetizing mixed greens, adding that he would like to see more distinctive dishes. "You're paying $250 a night minimum in most of these places, and then you're getting this generic room service experience," he said.
Others point to the seemingly outrageous prices sometimes charged for the smallest room service order. But despite the high charges — and hotels sometimes add a delivery charge on top of a 15 to 20 percent service charge — room service is not a cash cow.
"At best, it's only marginally profitable and at worst, it's costly," said Kirby D. Payne, president of HVS/American Hospitality Management. "Room service is a real complicated logistical deal. You have the normal prep time that you have in a restaurant, then you have to transfer the food to a table that has to be perfectly set, then you have to roll it some distance around the hotel."
Plus, there is the challenge of making sure soup arrives hot and ice cream cold, in the time frame promised when the order was placed. According to research by Mr. Payne's firm, travelers tended to think that orders took 40 to 45 minutes to arrive, though in reality they usually arrived within 30 minutes.
Nevertheless, Marriott has been testing technology that lets guests use interactive touch-screens to place orders, which may speed up delivery, and Marriott and Hilton have introduced services that allow guests to pre-order items to be waiting in their room upon check-in.
Another hurdle for hotels is that travelers expect to be able to nosh around the clock. But the person who cooks an order at 1 a.m. may not have the same qualifications as the chef on duty at 7 p.m., which is a lesson Lewis Peyton, a Los Angeles photographer, learned firsthand. Mr. Peyton's first job was working as a room service attendant at a luxury hotel in Australia, which he said also involved some cooking duties after the chefs went home.
"Be really careful about what you order after midnight," he advised, suggesting items that do not involve much skill to prepare, like a salad or a club sandwich.
For travelers on a budget, Janet Feldstein, a fund-raiser for a nonprofit organization who lives in Los Angeles, has another tip. "I go to Whole Foods or a takeout place and bring food back to my room — like sushi, a salad or chips and guacamole — and sometimes I order pizza," she said.
Although some hotels do not allow food deliveries, Ms. Feldstein says she avoids that problem by giving her cellphone number so she can pick up her pizza box outside. That raises another thorny point: what to do with the remains of your meal once you have finished dining.
Mr. Payne, the hotel consultant, said hotel staff should call to see if a guest is ready to have the tray picked up — and failing that, travelers should call to ask for a pick-up, rather than just pushing the tray into the hall.
On that note, he offered some advice most travelers have probably heard at home: "Remember, it's a relationship of mutual respect — these aren't servants there to pick up after you."