4 ms·

Well, the problem is this: it might not make economic sense for those specific companies to hire people at a higher rate. Companies aren't going to say "I gues

Well, the problem is this: it might not make economic sense for those specific companies to hire people at a higher rate. Companies aren't going to say "I guess we're inefficient and should just die." They're going to fight to survive and thrive, which is what you're seeing. Then again, some companies ARE just cheap. You never know.

phkahler 6y ago
I was at a hotel with crappy service and asked about the problems with house keeping. The manager told me everyone in town (Traverse City MI) was trying to bring in foreigners to do housekeeping because they couldn't get local labor. They said the standard is 30 minutes per room per day. I figure at a very generous $50 per hour (100k / year) it should run $25 to have my room taken care of. Now that doesnt cover the shared costs - doing laundry, cleaning the pool, front desk, etc... but my room was something like $150 per night. How the fuck can they not find people to clean rooms? Answer: they're too cheap to pay a decent wage. But why? My suspicion is that all these places are actually leveraged far too much and paying rent/interest/dividends so much they can barely operate. I suspect low interest rates and other incentives to "stimulate" economies are actually causing these problems.
- thitcanh 6y ago
  You make no sense. No one will pay $25 to clean a single room in a hotel. Just because your room is $150 it doesn’t mean that “there’s plenty to pay everyone 100k/year.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    I assume the cost of a room cleaning (including costs other than direct labor) is closer to $5. That's about what hotels will often give you in some sort of funny money to skip a cleaning.
- zebnyc 6y ago
  The service industry might be labor intensive but is hardly the only cost for the owner(s). What about mortgage payments, marketing, integrating with third parties (expedia), gas & electricity, general maintenance / accounting / security etc. I am sure there are hundreds of other costs that I have no visibility into
  - phkahler 6y ago
    That was exactly my point. Probably loan payments are the reason they cant afford to pay people to clean rooms.
- cortesoft 6y ago
  If they weren't leveraged that much, some other company would pay more for the property by being leveraged that much.

phkahler 6y ago

I was at a hotel with crappy service and asked about the problems with house keeping. The manager told me everyone in town (Traverse City MI) was trying to bring in foreigners to do housekeeping because they couldn't get local labor. They said the standard is 30 minutes per room per day. I figure at a very generous $50 per hour (100k / year) it should run $25 to have my room taken care of. Now that doesnt cover the shared costs - doing laundry, cleaning the pool, front desk, etc... but my room was something like $150 per night. How the fuck can they not find people to clean rooms? Answer: they're too cheap to pay a decent wage. But why? My suspicion is that all these places are actually leveraged far too much and paying rent/interest/dividends so much they can barely operate. I suspect low interest rates and other incentives to "stimulate" economies are actually causing these problems.

thitcanh 6y ago
You make no sense. No one will pay $25 to clean a single room in a hotel. Just because your room is $150 it doesn’t mean that “there’s plenty to pay everyone 100k/year.
- ghaff 6y ago
  I assume the cost of a room cleaning (including costs other than direct labor) is closer to $5. That's about what hotels will often give you in some sort of funny money to skip a cleaning.
zebnyc 6y ago
The service industry might be labor intensive but is hardly the only cost for the owner(s). What about mortgage payments, marketing, integrating with third parties (expedia), gas & electricity, general maintenance / accounting / security etc. I am sure there are hundreds of other costs that I have no visibility into
- phkahler 6y ago
  That was exactly my point. Probably loan payments are the reason they cant afford to pay people to clean rooms.
cortesoft 6y ago
If they weren't leveraged that much, some other company would pay more for the property by being leveraged that much.