If you are staying at a hotel property and find yourself with a choice between housekeeping for the room in which you are staying or a reward for no housekeeping, which would you choose?
Housekeeping or a Reward For No Housekeeping: Which Would You Choose?
Fewer hotel properties offer daily housekeeping service these days, as that saves money — especially since the 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic, during which a temporary option of suspending daily housekeeping became permanent — but some hotel properties may still offer bonus points or cash simply for the option of choosing to skip housekeeping.
A recent example for me is that I was offered 500 bonus IHG One Rewards points per night for skipping housekeeping at the Hotel Indigo Brisbane City Centre hotel property in Australia. A wooden door hanger in the room had the following text printed on it:
It‘s your stay.
Make it greener.Earn 500 points per night as an IHG One Rewards* member and help conserve water and energy.
Simply place this hanger outside your door by 2 am to opt out of housekeeping services.
Not a member? Join at IHG.com/enrolnow or visit the front desk to learn more.
*Requires a minimum stay of two consecutive nights; 500 points awarded per night the hanger is displayed, with the exception of every 4th consecutive night when rooms will be cleaned and no pointe will be awarded.
What if instead you return to your hotel room for the night and you find a card in the door jamb with the following words printed on it?
Get $5 cash – Simply choose to decline housekeeping service today. Bring this card to the front desk by noon, leave the Privacy Please sign outside the door, and claim your $5 cash or a $5 credit to your account.
Final Boarding Call
The norm for housekeeping in recent years seems to be every four days instead of daily unless otherwise requested.
For me, the choice would depend on myriad circumstances, as well as the length of my stay. For example, if I arrived in the hotel room late the night before and left the room early in the morning — barely using the room — I might be inclined to pocket an extra $5.00 and skip housekeeping for that night…
…but for my experience at Hotel Indigo Brisbane earlier this year, I chose to skip housekeeping for the bonus points.
Although many of the hotel properties at which I stay offer limited housekeeping unless specifically requested, I have recently stayed at hotel properties which do automatically offer daily housekeeping — as well as at hotel properties which offered an incentive to skip housekeeping.
What would you decide to do, and why?
All photographs ©2023 and ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
