Is Room Service Dead?

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Is room service dead? 

A decade or so ago, this question—or, rather, “Is room service dying?”–was on the lips of most everyone in the hospitality industry following The New York Times report that The New York Hilton Midtown, Manhattan’s second largest hotel, was doing away with the amenity entirely. At the time, a consultant told the paper that nearly all hotels lose money providing it. But room service, where it has survived in the years since, seems to be going nowhere. 

If anything, it’s only getting weirder. 

In its inaugural room service survey, Hotels.com has turned to 473 hotels currently offering in-room dining–everywhere from The Plaza in New York City to the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort—and has come back with a neat bundle of information on what hotel guests have been ordering over the past year.  Forty-five percent of respondents noted that the amenity was rising in popularity. Plus, it found that those who offer room service are doubling down on unique experiences to amplify the novelty. 

Some of these offerings are pure extravagance. The Milestone Hotel in London offers suiteholders (for reasons, we presume, regarding space) the chance to book in-room concerts from the Royal Philharmonic orchestra along with in-room dining; the Park Lane New York has a caviar hotline; traditional outrigger canoes deliver room service to guests in their overwater bungalows at the aforementioned InterContinental Bora Bora.

It’s not always decadence outright, however, on this specialized track many hotels are taking–the Equinox Hotel New York has a sleep-well menu that includes bone broth, a bedtime charcoal latte, and soothing hot chocolate. Ara Patterson, their VP of Food, Beverage & Spa, says, “Our menu is chosen with intentional and functional ingredients to help aid in the natural production of melatonin in the body.” Patterson tells me that tart cherry juice, for example, contains tons of melatonin. It therefore makes its way into a smoothie on the menu.

Houston’s Post Oak Hotel serves “The Black Gold Burger,” consisting of Wagyu beef, seared foie gras, and black truffle in a caviar-infused and 24K-gold brioche bun for $1,600. But it’s not all pomp when it comes to the burger—about 49 percent of hotels that responded said that hamburgers are the most popular item on their menu, frills or not. Pizza, fries, and the club sandwich all flounder in its mighty wake. Another 43 percent of hotels surveyed in the U.S. noted that guests tend to order casual cuisine with greater frequency than fancy fare. A burger in bed just has a certain je ne sais quoi not matched by the lobster tail, it seems. 

In addition to menu highlights, Hotels.com rounded up the 10 most unusual room service requests seen by participants for your gawking pleasure. Two entries are dedicated to water—both diet water and boiled bottled water make the list—plus melted ice cream, a no-egg-white omelet (chalky!), and a shakshuka, hold-the-eggs. Guests have requested the hotel kitchen cook a whole fish that the guest has brought with them (our very own Megan Spurrell admits to doing this in a hotel restaurant, but not via room service—yet), as well as cockle popcorn. Rounding out the list are blowfish, bison, and a rice bowl for a dog.

So some things may never change. People will continue to be seduced by extravagance—and having a burger wheeled into your hotel room by a tuxedoed man for $40, and eating that burger right in bed, remains a pleasure too sweet for most vacationers to cede.