[Jurica]

What are your pet peeves or grievances with ordering room service? I’m talking about things like your calls to room service not being answered or line being busy, being put on long holds, person on the other end not being able to answer your questions about the menu or not speaking English well enough, that sort of thing. Did any of that happen to you?

Full disclosure: I’m part of a team working on a solution to order room service via the Internet and am looking for ways to improve the process.

[stevescoots]

Being put through to someone at room service who speaks almost no english from the front desk who speak good english (big international chains)
Almost always 15-20 mins later than said
worst of all, almost always cold! if i really have to use room service now i go for salads….

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Jurica

[DiamondDad68]

Having to pay a surcharge for room service on top of the stated price
Excessive waiting time i.e. 1hr+
food arriving cold

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Jurica

[GivingupBA]

My pet peeves for room service are [1] staff not clearing the tray away till the next morning – I’ve found them still outside my room in the morning from the night before. [2] Blanket ‘tray charge’ even for one cup of coffee.

99 times out of 100 the food has arrived warm enough: that’s not a problem with me.

Jurica, thanks for your “Full disclosure”, that is open and honest of you and makes me want to reply/ help.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jurica

[LuganoPirate]

I try to avoid room service because the food takes an age to arrive, up to an hour sometimes, and is so often cold by the time it gets to the room. Sending it back means another wait for someone to collect it before they will prepare a fresh one which then usually arrives lukewarm.

The extra charge so often levied is also galling, and if for a snack puts me off ordering it altogether.
As also mentioned, despite calling to say I’ve finished and putting the tray/trolley outside, it’s usually there the next morning along with all the other trays left outside other rooms.

In fairness, hotels at the top end, such as Relais et Chateau and Leading Hotels of the World tend to get it right and are very quick in removing the trays.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jurica

[handbag]

Tray charge and trays left in corridor over night.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jurica

[Montysaurus]

Ditto, handbag.

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Jurica

[canucklad]

Yep Jurica, thanks for your honesty and openness. Hopefully you’ll make a difference to what is generally shoddy

For once LP, I’m going to disagree with you…….at least here in Britain

I find the top end hotels are horrendous when it comes to room service, then again my top end hotels are the Marriott, Crowne Plaza , Radisson and Hiltons so maybe not as high end as places frequented by others on here , Charles immediately springs to mind.

I’ve found that room service in smaller family run /localised hotels are closer to the restaurant offering than the chain hotels.,

Anyway, my top 5 gripes………

1) Calling it a tray charge is simply wrong. It’s a delivery charge –plain and simple !!
So why does it cost me £2 when I order food from my local Chinese/Indian to be delivered to my door by a car fuelled by petrol at a distance of a mile or more. Yet, a hotel charges in excess of £5 to use a lift and trolley, having already charged me £150 to stay the night.

2) Having had the gall to charge me “Tray Charge” they then limit my menu choice to meals that could happily front up an Iceland flyer ……. Maybe the tray charge is to cover the cost of this 2nd kitchen built somewhere in the dungeons far away from the main kitchen.
3) I’m reassured that the meal is going to take 30+ minutes to come a fraction of the distance that my local takeaway can deliver in 45 minutes , alas arriving lukewarm and invariably looking like a dogs dinner really does rankle !!
4) The tray then arriving minus, salt & pepper or the requested tabasco sauce happens so frequently I’m now resigned to it.
5) Having succumbed to the extortionate tray charge , I’m then emotionally expected to “TIP” the driver of the trolley, who has travelled less distance than an adventurous snail.

In summary consistently poor value for money, in fact if it wasn’t on expenses I’d desist totally from room service.

I’ll finish with the fact that I now frequently order food from takeaway’s in the hotels local vicinity delivered to the reception.

Invariably cheaper, better quality and still roasting hot !! ===With the added advantage of earning brownie points with the reception staff when I hand over the free prawn crackers for them to munch on.

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LondonAndy70, Jurica, GordyUK, fatbear, handbag, LuganoPirate

[esselle]

All of the above.

Then you get weird stuff that shouldn’t be there in the first place. Ceasar Salad with grated carrot? Ham Omelette garnished with melon slices?

Any other “delicacies”?

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jurica

[LuganoPirate]

Just remembered my biggest hate: You’ve been waiting 20 minutes having been told half an hour. Nature calls, and just as you’re in full flow or whatever – there’s the knock on the door!!! Ahhhrgg…. Not the hotels fault I guess but still annoying 😉

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jurica

[capetonianm]

The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the Far East Economic Review. Probably best read out loud!

Room Service (RS): “Morny. Ruin sorbees”
Guest (G): “Sorry, I thought I dialled room-service”
RS: “Rye..Ruin sorbees..morny! Djewish to odor sunteen??”
G: “Uh..yes..I’d like some bacon and eggs”
RS: “Ow July den?”
G: “What??”
RS: “Ow July den?…pry, boy, pooch?”
G : “Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please.”
RS: “Ow July dee bayhcem…crease?”
G: “Crisp will be fine.”
RS: “Hokay. An San tos?”
G: “What?”
RS: “San tos. July San tos?”
G: “I don’t think so”
RS: “No? Judo one toes??”
G: “I feel really bad about this, but I don’t know what ‘judo one toes’ means.”
RS: “Toes! toes!…why djew Don Juan toes? Ow bow singlish mopping we bother?”
G: “English muffin!! I’ve got it! You were saying ‘Toast.’ Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine.”
RS: “We bother?”
G: “No..just put the bother on the side.”
RS: “Wad?”
G: “I mean butter…just put it on the side.”
RS: “Copy?”
G: “Sorry?”
RS: “Copy…tea…mill?”
G: “Yes. Coffee please, and that’s all.”
RS: “One Minnie. Ass ruin torino fee, strangle ache, crease baychem, tossy singlish mopping we bother honey sigh, and copy….rye??”
G: “Whatever you say”
RS: “Tendjewberrymud”
G: “You’re welcome”

7 users thanked author for this post.

LondonAndy70, LondonViking, Jurica, KennyK14, Catalina, Falcon7x, LuganoPirate

[nmtraveller]

Kinda funny but could hardly be more racist. Next you’ll probably say those little savages from room service still wear loincloth and throw spears at each other… The 95% of the world population not born in an English-speaking country apologize for their poor knowledge of English and are also sorry you didn’t bother learning their own language when you decided to visit their countries…

Back to the topic, my main pet peeves:
– poor quality food. Not always the case but I remember in a well-know 5* chain I was told the food was mainly microwaved meals from the nearest supermarket.
– over priced, especially when considering the above.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Jurica, Marc_ACB

[capetonianm]

Kinda funny but could hardly be more racist.

Yawn.
Sense of humour failure I fear and not on my part.
I’d also appreciate if you’d refrain from making assumptions about me, and putting words into my mouth on my behalf. I am more than capable of saying what I wish to say without assistance.

I am not reporting your post as inappropriate because it creates unnecessary work for the board administrators, but it is inappropriate and petty.

4 users thanked author for this post.

PaulNeumann, SimonRowberry, Jurica, Falcon7x

[rferguson]

As others have stated:

Surcharges – a $15 burger on the menu in the US can easily end up $30 by the time the bill comes with ‘tray charge’ ‘tax’ ‘service charge’ etc etc.

Limited service times – something decent should always be available around the clock in 4-5 star hotels

Uncomfortable service – In certain parts of the world I find the lingering of the staff as they enter with the tray and place it somewhere uncomfortable as they wait for an additional tip on top of the 15-20% service charge.

TBH I actually prefer to go down to the hotel restaurants and ask for ‘take out’ if it is during the opening hours. Yes, I lose the convenience of laying in bed in my PJ’s whilst waiting but on the plus side I avoid all the surcharges and get my food hot. I’ve never had one decline in ‘lending’ me metal cutlery either 🙂

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jurica

[Inquisitive]

I beg to differ with most poster. I travelled mostly long haul and many times reach hotels late/odd hours plus due to jet lag do not want to go out and order room service almost once every 2 months. (Mostly in Houston, Philadelphia, New Orlence, Singapore, Tokyo and Bangkok and in Chain hotels).
Most of the time I get good food, warm and within 30-45 minutes. Trick is to select food that could be made faster and I always check if the food can be delivered within agreed time.
Do I have disappointment, yes of course once or twice, but do not agree on sweeping comments like it is bad most of the time.
My pet peeves (listed by some poster) are an extra charge over service charge and tips (but the charge goes to expense, so not directly affected) and tray stayed outside in the morning. In one of my recent stay, the tray was still there, when I came back in the evening!!

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jurica

[Author]

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