The US hospitality workforce is back to pre-pandemic levels. That doesn’t mean a daily housekeeping renaissance

08.04.2024 - 20:13 / thepointsguy.com / Anthony Capuano

The U.S. hotel industry notched a big win in the latest jobs data: The American hospitality and leisure sector — which includes restaurants and hotels— is back to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels.

While that might be worth a celebration, it's worth noting the hotel experience for most U.S. travelers is forever changed by everything that happened over the last four years — and a bit before the pandemic, too.

Hospitality labor levels are back to where they were in February 2020, but there was a labor shortage happening long before the health crisis upended the world. It's just that hoteliers worldwide used the crisis as an opportunity to address the lack of workers and reshuffle everything from brand standards to amenities to better operate with shorter staffing levels.

Some of these changes have benefited hotel guests — who likes waiting in line for a room key anyway? But we mourn the loss of daily housekeeping during a stay at an affordable hotel.

Here are the biggest changes you'll notice on your next hotel stay.

The most in-your-face change hotel guests likely notice during a stay is the varied practice of housekeeping. Many brands dropped daily housekeeping during the worst months of the pandemic. As the dust settled and travel demand returned, the practice of daily housekeeping largely remained unchanged, depending on the hotel.

Hilton initially returned from the worst months of the pandemic with an "opt-in" model for housekeeping at its non-luxury hotel brands in the U.S. The company changed the policy last fall, and now you can expect daily housekeeping at all of Hilton's luxury, full-service and lifestyle brands, plus Embassy Suites. Other Hilton brands get automatic housekeeping every other day during a stay.

Marriott's luxury and resort hotels all operate with full daily housekeeping services, while upper-upscale hotels — brands like Sheraton, Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien and the Autograph Collection — get a daily service that tackles basic housekeeping tasks like making the bed, changing towels and emptying the trash. Guests at Marriott's select-service brands like Courtyard, Residence Inn and Moxy get this tidy service every other day during a stay.

IHG operates on a similar daily room refresh model as Marriott at its non-luxury brands. Hyatt's website notes that "housekeeping options vary by hotel."

"When we make these sort of operating protocol decisions, we are guided by both the evolving expectations of our guests and the economic realities of our owners and franchisees [and] weighing most of those sets of expectations and needs," Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said on an investor call last year.

While no company is explicitly putting it in these terms, it is widely known across the