For years now, we’ve been writing the obituary for hotel room service. A 2013 survey revealed that a whopping three-quarters of travelers weren’t using it. And in 2016, only 22 percent of U.S. hotels even offered room service—a remarkable drop from the 37 percent that had it in 2014, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
“Hotels find room service expensive to do, and guests oftentimes are not as happy with it as they would be with other options,” says Alex Susskind, associate professor at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.
But there’s evidence that many travelers really do want to dine in—they just don’t want what hotels have traditionally served, says Heather Geisler, VP of Global Brands and Field Marketing at Hyatt. “What we’ve heard most from our guests is that they simply want more options,” she says, “and the freedom to choose.”
That’s part of the reason that hungry guests are turning to meal-delivery apps such as Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash for in-room dining. Millions of people already use these apps to get food delivered at home; now, they’re simply doing the same thing while on the road. “They’ve already got the app, it’s easy to do, no cash changes hand, and so there’s a level of comfort, convenience and familiarity,” says Susskind.
Overall food delivery sales grew 51 percent from August 2017 to March 2018, according to Second Measure, a company that tracks consumer spending. DoorDash, one of the largest delivery apps, has seen a notable growth in hotel orders. Between 2014 and 2018, for example, hotel orders grew by 900 percent in New York City and 550 percent in San Francisco, according to a company spokeswoman. The two largest platforms, Grubhub and Uber Eats, don’t specifically track how many orders go to hotels, but both have seen a noticeable uptick. “People now want everything on demand,” says Kristen Hawley, senior editor at Skift Table, which tracks the restaurant industry. “It’s the Uberization of everything.”
It’s enough to make some hotel chains start outsourcing room service. In 2016, Hyatt Centric introduced its Restaurant To Go program, which gave guests the option of either ordering in-room dining from the hotel or from a Grubhub pilot program featuring a curated list of local restaurants. Guests loved it, Hyatt Centric says, and they’ve since expanded the partnership to eight of their 13 hotels, including locations in Chicago, Miami Beach, New Orleans, New York, and San Francisco.
Last November, InterContinental Hotels Group added Grubhub to the IHG app, website, and IHG Connect in-room television menu. “Up until this partnership, guests had to leave the hotel to find restaurants in local areas,” said David Canty, VP of Global Loyalty Programs at IHG. Now, they can stay in—and even get IHG Reward Club points for ordering delivery at more than 1,000 Candlewood Suites, Holiday Inn Express, and Staybridge Suites properties.
Even TripAdvisor has gotten into the game by integrating Grubhub into its website in the U.S. and Canada. The site’s users have long been able to peruse restaurant reviews and make reservations. Now, they’ll also see the option to order delivery while looking at a particular restaurant’s TripAdvisor listing. “People using our mobile app want a more holistic experience,” says Brian Hoyt, a TripAdvisor spokesman. And earlier this month, Instagram added "action buttons" that let users order directly from a restaurant's profile page, through partnerships with Grubhub and other delivery apps.
With smartphone-wielding guests embracing these new ways of ordering in, it’s just a matter of time until we finally sound the death knell for room service. “Room service is becoming like minibars,” says Susskind. “We’ve seen them disappear from the landscape as well.”