By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY
As hotels spend billions on 21st-century upgrades, younger generations of travelers will grow up sleeping in a new breed of hotel.
The money is going for things such as better beds, splashier showers, trendier bars and flat-screen TVs.
A recent survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association suggests the transformation is well underway in an industry that this year is spending $5 billion on upgrades.
Of 9,300 U.S. hotels in the survey, 69% had upgraded their bedding in the last year; 72% were offering voice mail; 82% were offering wireless Internet; and virtually all were wired to offer cable or satellite television.
As in life generally, something’s lost when something’s gained. Gone are the floral, synthetic bedspreads, the sanitizer bands around toilet seats, ashtrays and wake-up calls from real people.
With that in mind, USA TODAY asked hoteliers, professors and travelers to recall amenities or services that have disappeared or are on the way out.
“I remember when bottle openers were attached behind bathroom doors at hotels,” says Marriott International CEO J.W. “Bill” Marriott, whose father built a hotel empire after starting with a root beer stand he opened in 1927. Twist-offs and pop tops did them in.
Missing the old items or services is another question. Marriott says the back of the door has found a much better use as a towel rack.
But Roy Watson, 85, who ran a Minnesota hotel chain for 25 years until retiring in 1978, decries the replacement of people with technology.
“Hotels have lost the personal touch,” says Watson, former CEO of the now-defunct Kahler chain.
Here are 10 often-mentioned memories:
Wake-up calls from an actual person
In the past decade, most hotels have switched to automated wake-up calls. In many cases, it’s not even necessary anymore to ask a desk clerk to program a wake-up. Guests can use the telephone keypad to program their own.
It’s “efficient and accurate,” says Mike Stengel, general manager of the 2,000-room Marriott Marquis in Manhattan. But he admits that it’s “not a very hospitable way to wake people.”
Cindy Johnson, executive at Accor Hotels, doubts old-fashioned calls will ever make a comeback.
“People don’t want to mess with (the potential for) human error if they have a plane to catch,” she says.
Vibrating beds
“They were a gimmick,” says Roy Watson, the retired Kahler executive who also served as president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association in the 1960s.
Hotels ultimately got rid of the coin-operated beds because, “They never worked,” and they were a source of complaints, says AHLA President Joseph McInerney. Eric Studer, an executive at Motel 6, says they were also costly to repair.
Brass room keys
You’ll still see them in Europe, but the big keys vanished from most U.S. hotels about 25 years ago. Today, hotels use lightweight, ATM-like key cards for greater security and guest convenience. They are also cheap to replace if people nab them as souvenirs.
The Marriott Marquis used to have a staff locksmith who spent most of his time cutting replacements for lost or stolen keys, Stengel recalls.
Sanitizer bands around toilet seats
Hotels stopped bothering because “We all know they’re phony,” Watson says. He says housekeepers would “take an old wet towel, pick it up, wipe the seats and put the band over it saying it’s sanitized. It’s a lot of baloney.”
Postcards and stationery
At a time when people rely on e-mail, instant messaging and cellphones to connect, many hotels are phasing out complimentary stationery and postcards. “Who uses them?” asks Johnson of Accor, which may eliminate them.
Motel 6 has already done that. At the Marriott Marquis, Stengel says, guests use it more for scrap paper than correspondence. It’s one reason front desks rarely sell stamps anymore.
Four-inch-thick foam mattresses
Hotels used to spend more money on box springs than mattresses, Stengel says, “Because you were going to keep it for 20 years and turn over the mattress all the time.”
That’s changed. Since the Westin chain came out with its Heavenly Bed in 1999, the emphasis gradually shifted from box springs to a quality mattress and sheets.
Windows that open
In the old days, guests could open the windows in their hotel rooms. No more.
Roger Dow, a former Marriott executive who now runs the Travel Industry Association, says concerns about safety, liability and energy efficiency have forced most windows shut. Dow misses being able to open windows to get some fresh air “and sounds of the city you’re visiting.”
Logo towels
Some hotels still have them, but they’ve mostly disappeared. Literally.
“People are going to take them if they need them,” Watson says, referring to guests and employees.
Stengel says the trend toward centralizing laundry operations with 30 or 40 hotels has also made logo towels difficult to maintain. For instance, a robe that said Newark Marriott recently popped up at his Manhattan hotel.
Also, many hotels have moved toward more of a residential look in recent years, so a corporate logo would clash.
“Our guests want to feel like they’re in their own home,” Accor’s Johnson says.
Wall-mounted hair dryers
They were more secure, “but they don’t dry your hair,” Stengel says. The Marquis got rid of them about five years ago. Today, many hotels have gone to handheld hair dryers.
Shoehorns
They’re among the many inexpensive giveaways that have mostly vanished. (Same with sewing kits and shoe buffers.)
Shoehorns were an easy target when hotels were going through belt-tightening, says Cornell University lecturer Reneta McCarthy. They may come back, given the industry’s financial strength. “We are seeing more amenity creep,” she says.
Source: USA TODAY
