Perhaps you suffered through a long day of traveling and taking care of what needed to be done during the day before finally returning to the hotel property at where you are staying — or maybe you are hungry but do not feel like leaving the hotel property. Do this instead of ordering room service…
Do This Instead of Ordering Room Service: Stupid Tip of the Day
…and what I mean by “this” is to head on down to the restaurant inside of the hotel property at where you are staying and order a meal to pick up instead of ordering room service. This usually accomplishes several things:
- The food is brought to you immediately; so it is still fresh and hot — instead of waiting until someone is available to deliver it up to your room
- The opportunity is available to double check your order to ensure that it was fulfilled correctly — and if not, the order can be corrected on the spot and in person
- While waiting for the meal to be prepared, a can or bottle of a cold drink can be purchased — either at the restaurant or elsewhere on the hotel property — for less money
- An inexpensive dessert or snack can be purchased either at the restaurant or elsewhere on the hotel property — think of a couple of packaged cupcakes that cost two dollars instead of a slice of cake for eight dollars
- You can avoid paying the service charge that is usually added on to the room service bill — especially as it is mandatory
- A smaller gratuity can be left with the person who presents you with the food you ordered instead of tipping someone to go out of his or her way to bring the food to your room
- The rolling table on which the food is brought up and served can be avoided if it can potentially crowd the room with furniture
As an example, I ordered food downstairs at the restaurant when I stayed at the Holiday Inn Chicago-Elk Grove hotel property in Illinois. As bad as this experience was, I could not fathom how much worse it would have been with room service.
You can also use a service — such as Grubhub or DoorDash as two of many examples — to deliver food to you from outside if you do not feel like leaving your room at the hotel property, which may not have anything that you would like to eat…
…or may not have any dining options at all.
Final Boarding Call
I gave five reasons in this article as to why I would not miss room service if hotel properties abolished it altogether — but pilfering food from a used room service tray in the hallway of a hotel property is certainly not one of those reasons.
All photographs ©2022, ©2024, and ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
