Hotel are putting an end to traditional room service.
According to the Los Angeles Times, travelers are spending less on food and drinks when they stay in a hotel. Hotels are working hard to entice their guests' taste buds.
New York Hilton Midtown, the biggest hotel in New York City announced plans to eliminate room service starting this summer. The elimination will be replaced by a cafeteria-type restaurant where guests can grab quick meals like pizza and sandwiches.
"Hotels are thinking of retooling to make the food offerings more limited," said Bruce Baltin, senior vice president at hospitality consulting firm PKF Consulting, according to the Los Angeles Times.
According to a new PKF report, the room revenue from 2011 to 2012 increased by 6.3 percent, but income from food, drinks and other hotel services edged up only 2.3 percent.
New York is not the only state trying to increase spending on food, drinks and other hotel extras.
According to the Los Angeles Time, in Southern California, several hotels are responding to the spending reports, by offering new choices to get guests to spend. Before the end of the year, the Luxe City Center Hotel in downtown Los Angeles announced plans to offer guest quick on-the-go drinks and meals, like steel-cut oats for breakfast.
"Since people are on the move all the time, that is where those quick grab-and-go options work," said General Manager Tom Xavier told the Los Angeles Times. "We are still playing with what we want to do with room service."
According to USA Today, a 2012 report found some hotels were starting to deliver room service like Domino's delivers Pizza: fast, and sometimes free if it was not.
The Four Seasons is rolling out "15-minute room service" at all its hotels. At resorts with long distances between the kitchen and rooms, the wait can be 20 minutes. At the new Public Chicago Hotel, guests order by number, and food from celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten arrives in to-go bags outside the room in 10 minutes.
