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GUESTS CAN ASK FOR ADDITIONAL CLEANING Tracy Ripa, senior vice president, franchise operations for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, tells AARP that the brand’s standards require rooms to be
cleaned every third day. “And we’re happy to accommodate a more frequent schedule when guest requests are made,” she says. “This flexibility helps meet guest needs and helps to ensure that
their stay with Wyndham is a positive experience.” Frequent traveler Gary Leff, 48, of the travel blog View from the Wing, who spends roughly 100 nights per year in hotels (a mix of Westin,
Hyatt Regency and Hyatt Place hotels, predominantly), says that in general, travelers should expect less by way of daily housekeeping at hotels now than was the norm before the pandemic.
“Luxury properties have maintained it, it’s part of their service offering and how they differentiate themselves to earn a revenue premium,” Leff says. “However, we’ve seen cutbacks at
hotels beneath that level, both in full service and limited service.” Though some hotels will clean your room automatically, you have to request it at other properties, Leff says. “Making
the default no servicing of rooms unless you request it means less servicing of rooms, and fewer housekeeping labor hours for a hotel to pay for,” Leff explains. “Each cost imposed on the
guest to get housekeeping makes the request less likely,” Leff says. Leora Halpern Lanz, associate professor of the practice and assistant dean at the Boston University’ School of
Hospitality Administration, says the trend to scale back on daily cleaning services, such as replacing towels, actually started before the pandemic. “We saw a lot of hotels saying, ‘If we
don’t have to replace your towels every day, hang them up,’ ” she says. “That trend started before the pandemic, but the pandemic did accelerate it.” Lanz says, “It shouldn’t be a surprise
to see hotels saying, ‘Hey, we’d like to offer the option to not have turndown or housekeeping service every day.’ ... Now, naturally, it’s for other reasons — not just sustainability, of
course, but the trend was already there.” If you’d prefer to know what you’re getting into ahead of time, Lanz recommends considering the type of trip you’re taking and asking yourself what
kind of services you really need. CHECK HOTEL CLEANING POLICIES If daily room cleaning is important to you during your next hotel stay, you might want to clarify the property’s cleaning
policies when booking or at check-in. “When they’re telling you what time breakfast is and doing the initial dialog, just say you’d like your room cleaned every day,” Reader suggests. And
if you don’t want cleaning, he says, that’s a good time to mention it, too.