Opinion
Wild requests, outrageous prices: Why we could be saying goodbye to room service
Michael Gebicki
The TripologistLate in 2023, at a Fijian island resort I was charged a $FJD30 ($20.60) surcharge for room service. That’s about a dollar for every metre the waiter walked from the kitchen to my bure. I grumbled a bit but honestly, what could be nicer than having a meal delivered to your room after a day spent sightseeing, or getting sunburnt while snorkelling (in this case)? A shower, slip into a bathrobe, dial up room service, lie down on crisp sheets and await the theatrical lifting of the cloche, that’s my idea of heaven.
What could be better than having a meal delivered to your room?Credit: Getty
Strange and exotic room service ideas
It seems no room service request is too outrageous for some hotel guests. “Can you cook that tuna I just caught to order with a side serve of caviar sauce?” “Do you serve that with diet water?” are just a couple of samples from a rich array of bizarre room service requests, and a hotel in Sri Lanka was once asked if a guest could have their breakfast delivered by an elephant.
Some hotels anticipate their guests’ wilder notions. For its suite guests, London’s Milestone Hotel pulls out all the room service stops with a solo harpist or a string trio from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to serenade you in your room while you quaff champagne and Scottish smoked salmon with caperberries.
Post Oak Houston’s costly Black Gold Burger will set you back $US1600 ($2400).
Houston’s Post Oak hotel serves what must be one of the most indulgent and expensive room service items, the Black Gold Burger. Made from 450 grams of sliced Wagyu beef, the burger comes with foie gras and shaved black truffles, on a brioche bun infused with caviar and covered in 24-carat gold foil. It’s served with a bottle of 2006 Dom Perignon Champagne and priced at $US1600 ($A2400). But it does come with fries. At the InterContinental Bora Bora meanwhile, room service breakfast is delivered to your overwater bungalow by a smiling person in an outrigger canoe.
Room service etiquette for guests
Get dressed. Casual, fine, but the waiter who brings your meal does not want to see you emerging from the shower, wet and with a towel draped to cover your gnarly bits. Underwear, yeech, please no: wait until they’re gone if white and skimpy is your preferred meal attire.
Want to annoy the chefs? Put your room service order in 10 minutes before close.Credit: iStock
Want to really annoy the kitchen? Order room service 10 minutes before it closes, or wait until just past closing time. The chefs might have all clocked off and if it’s a hotel that does its best to cater to guests’ wishes some poor waiter is probably going to have to fire up the ovens and the hotplate and get your order together, and good luck with what comes.
Tipping is optional but apart from Europe and New Zealand, it’s expected. If your waiter is hanging around fussing with the crockery and cutlery, a couple of dollars in the palm will bring their visit to a speedy conclusion.
The food delivery app spells the end of an era
The revenue from room service has been in a long, slow decline since about 2010, caused by changes in the way we eat when we’re travelling and the expanding availability of fast-food alternatives. The New York Hilton Midtown, the city’s largest hotel at around 2000 rooms, ditched its room service more than a decade ago.
Hotel room service meals are becoming obsolete with the rise of food delivery apps.Credit: iStock
The decline accelerated after hotels reopened following the pandemic, with the rise of food-delivery apps another nail in the coffin. Hotel guests who order their sushi, burgers with fries and chicken biryani via their favourite food-delivery app can have it delivered to their hotel room, at about half the cost of the same dish from room service. Coupled with the staff shortages that now bedevil the hotel industry, many hotels have either reduced the hours of room service or shunted it altogether.
Why maintain a 24-hour kitchen when the number of orders is never going to cover wage costs? It’s now an indulgence that only big, high-end hotels are likely to bear. Some hotels that have nixed their own room service now relay orders direct to food-delivery services, and add their own surcharge. That’s what happened to Greg Lenahan when he ordered a pizza with a side salad from his London hotel. When it came, staff hadn’t bothered to disguise the fact that it was from Domino’s.
Club sandwich with fries served at The Cosmopolitan in Double Bay, Sydney.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The most commonly ordered item on the room service menu? That’d be a burger with fries, followed by the club sandwich. That’s my go-to comfort food when I’m too pooped to even bother looking through the menu. It also cops the blame as the most likely dish to give you the trots, however given its popularity it’s probably no more guilty than any other item on the room service menu.
Room service can be slightly haphazard when a common language is spoken but not mutually understood. At the Avani Kalutara Resort on Sri Lanka’s south coast, I arrived late and ordered a chicken tikka wrap. What came was three chicken tikka wraps, each with a side salad, each on a separate plate. “Perhaps it’s the loaves and the fishes,” ventured the waiter when I challenged the mix-up, and he liked it so much he said it again.
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