Welcome to the Golden Age of Do-It-Yourself Room Service
Hotels are putting lots of thought and money into helping travelers do the simple thing they most want: get a plate of hot pad thai or chicken parm to eat in their rooms. Call it do-it-yourself room service. Food delivery, a pandemic necessity when other food options were limited, has become one of those travel habits that didn’t fade.
Given that many hotel chains outside the high end don’t offer traditional room service these days, the industry has had to adapt. Hotels are teaming with mobile dining apps or developing their own app to help guests bring in outside food or order takeout from on-site restaurants. These hotels are also adding food-delivery stations in the lobby and easy ways to get your food while sitting at the pool.
The luxury Palazzo at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas even has a dedicated lane for food-delivery drivers. And one new hotel chain is making subtle room-design changes with this in mind, including a bigger hotel room trash can for all the takeout trash. “It is the way of the world," says Rick Huffman, chief executive officer of HCW Development, a real-estate company that owns 15 hotels, including the new Caesars Republic in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The 265-room hotel, the first non-casino hotel under the Caesars Entertainment banner in the U.S., offers room service through the Caesars Eats app. The food is delivered from on-site restaurants, including Luna by Giada De Laurentiis and, after-hours, from nearby restaurants. The hotel prefers when people order out after hours so it doesn’t have to staff restaurants late into the night.
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