Housekeeping moving to once a day?

[S.A.M.J.R.]

1 hour ago, resetjet said:

Yes it does.  You are not doing the math.
their salary is posted on shiplife.org.  Its $1360 a month.  They have 25 rooms x $8 a room x 30 days is $6000  As you said they get alot of extra tips too and alot of rooms have 3 or 4 people but lets forget that.  So $6000 plus $1360 is $7360.  The real number is much higher. Near a couple thousand a week to clean rooms.  Do you actually believe that?  The answer is they share those tips with the whole housekeeping staff.  They get the lions share but they all get tips.  The food and beverage also share as does the other hotel staff.  Pretty much and forward facing crewmember who you interact with that is not staff.  Staff is photo,  entertainment,  guest services,  medical,  etc.

Earlier you said the steward gets 25% of the 3.55 (now presumably $3.90).  Now you say they get the lions share.  Is 25% the biggest chunk?  

 

I'm glad you finally posted where you got the $1360/month. 

 

[Mikew0805]

On 2/19/2023 at 1:39 PM, RoperDK said:

We are in a JS on Wonder soon.  Since they aren't a full suite, do we pay the greater gratuity amount and get the twice a day service?  A JS lives in a gray area and I saw conflicting info on the Royal site during a search.  

Just of the Indy today in a JS, and this has started on Indy. JS's and up get twice a day service. 

 

For the last couple years I tell them I only want morning service regardless of the category. It works for us.

[Ocean Boy]

I am confused, what is it about a suite that it requires twice a day service but lesser cabins don't?

[S.A.M.J.R.]

1 minute ago, Ocean Boy said:

I am confused, what is it about a suite that it requires twice a day service but lesser cabins don't?

I'm guessing $$$$.  They want to keep the suite folks "happy" and they're paying quite a lot more (including more in gratuities). 

[Wineaux007]

Just now, S.A.M.J.R. said:

I'm guessing $$$$.  They want to keep the suite folks "happy" and they're paying quite a lot more (including more in gratuities). 

JS don't pay more in gratuities, but we'll be happy to have the full service on our TA in April.  😁

[poocher]

27 minutes ago, Mikew0805 said:

Just of the Indy today in a JS, and this has started on Indy. JS's and up get twice a day service. 

 

For the last couple years I tell them I only want morning service regardless of the category. It works for us.

Sorry, confirming 2 a day for Junior Suites too?

[resetjet]

51 minutes ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Earlier you said the steward gets 25% of the 3.55 (now presumably $3.90).  Now you say they get the lions share.  Is 25% the biggest chunk?  

 

I'm glad you finally posted where you got the $1360/month. 

 

I believe steward gets the biggest chunk.  I have to reverse engineer the other housekeeping salaries and so forth to come up with a better picture. 25% is what a crewmember on youtube said,  backed up with my math.  I cannot say for sure.

 

[John&LaLa]

58 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

So you think it is OK to not acknowledge the gifter with a thank you? Yet I feel the need to thank someone for providing a service to me even if they are being paid to provide that service. 

 

I typically leave cabin stewards tip in the cabin when we leave. Not a big fan of drawn out thank you's. So I give his/her tip with out any expectations. I know they're thankful.

[John&LaLa]

45 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I am confused, what is it about a suite that it requires twice a day service but lesser cabins don't?

 

It's just part of la dolce vita 😉🇮🇪

[John&LaLa]

5 minutes ago, resetjet said:

I believe steward gets the biggest chunk.  I have to reverse engineer the other housekeeping salaries and so forth to come up with a better picture. 25% is what a crewmember on youtube said,  backed up with my math.  I cannot say for sure.

 

 

Ya sold me

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Earlier you said the steward gets 25% of the 3.55 (now presumably $3.90).  Now you say they get the lions share.  Is 25% the biggest chunk?  

 

I'm glad you finally posted where you got the $1360/month. 

 

 

Yet he never satisfactorily explained the missing $1000 statement 🤔 

[DallasGuy75219]

On 2/18/2023 at 3:30 PM, resetjet said:

Just off carnival.  They already did this.  Instead of 17rooms per steward,  now 35.  Its insane but they cannot find workers. They clean once a day,  in theory half in the am,  half in the pm so if thing work perfectly you will get am/pm/am/pm.  Because of guests different behaviors this rarely happens and we had days skipped.  We are also very tidy,  but the dishes pile up,  the towels can be exhausted.  The theory is once a day is half the work,  but it is not. Every cabin is much dirtier this way so with double the cabins it is 1.5 times the work that they had.  We are self reliant and tidy,  so we had him not clean our room a couple days to give them a break.   I find it hard to believe they are keeping the tips from 35 rooms either.  They are being worked to death.  Bad policy but hopefully temporary.  I dont think the more snooty passengers will accept this nor the stewards long term.  35 cabins is just way too much.

Not temporary at all, and it's a cost cut much more than due to understaffing.  I've heard of as many as 42 rooms per steward on Carnival.

 

Before COVID, Carnival started giving stewards more rooms.  When the stewards would introduce themelves the first day, they'd ask you if you wanted AM or PM service.  According to John Heald, "both" was an acceptable answer, to appease people complaining about yet another Carnival cut, but neither Carnival nor the stewards really wanted people to know that was option.

 

Fast forward to the restart, and COVID "safety protocols" gave Carnival the excuse to completely eliminate twice a day service. No "both", just AM or PM.

 

The savings from cutting the number of stewards in half are too big for Carnival to ever look back now that they've been getting away with it for 1.5 years since the restart.  Royal remains to be seen depending on how vocal the complaints are and (between this and recent dining cuts) whether people begin booking away from Royal.

 

But the reality of the foreign-flagged cruise model is that the crew don't have much leverage with their employee, at least in the middle of a contract.  Management tells them work more/work harder and the crew just have to buckle down and find a way to make it happen.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 2/18/2023 at 2:23 PM, HicksRA said:

I have to wonder if Royal is in such dire straits that it has to raise gratuities, cheapen meals, reduce staff and services and raise fare prices, why does it keep spending multi millions spitting out new mega ships?  
Sounds like an irresponsible teen with a new credit card to me. 

The ships now delivering and recently delivered have been on contract for years, before the COVID shutdown.  And the Oasis and Quantum class command top dollar compared to all the older classes, both in fares and with all the the additional venues for Royal to suck dollars out of pockets.  Royal isn't going to come out of this by looking to the past and putting all its bets on the Radiance, Voyage, Freedom, and Vision class.

[Longford]

8 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Marriott, Hilton, and Disney (this article is from a year ago)...

 

Marriott's policies vary by property, but housekeeping is usually offered only upon request,

 

"upon request" is fair enough - if the report is accurate.  You get it whichever days you want - every day, or none at all.  No problem with that.  The guest wishes are honored.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 2/18/2023 at 7:13 PM, Wineaux007 said:

Don't need turndown service.  Just need bathroom refreshed, clean towels, ice, and dirty dishes removed.  I'm not a fan of placing them outside the door because they tend to sit there for hours.  

"Just"? Your list of needs is about 75% of the work a steward did in the evening under twice-a-day service.  Or 95% if the bed hasn't been slept in since it was made in the morning and turndown service doesn't require remaking the bed.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 2/18/2023 at 9:03 PM, fredmdcruisers said:

And, unfairly, reduced tips.

 

Additional tips, maybe.  But they deserve double the amount of autotips (for cleaning twice as many rooms) while doing half the amount of work in each room?  Not sure that reduced additional tips are really unfair when pax are no longer getting the level of service they used to.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 2/19/2023 at 2:36 AM, little britain said:

I didn’t even want to know why they need the bed making twice a day…!!! Unless they are having a lot of  “mommy and daddy time” 💕 

 

We have never asked for ice. What is the need for ice? And why twice a day? What am I missing?

Some people enjoy naps during the day on vacation. 

 

And last time I checked, ice melts.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 2/19/2023 at 5:37 AM, nelblu said:

Yes, there is.  Revenge at proxy time. Replace these scallywags.😊

As if the amount of outstanding stock held by regular cruisers was significant enough to effect any sort of change.

 

The average shareholder is primarily concerned with the bottom line, which this change is designed to improve (unless of course the cost savings are wiped out by the revenue loss from pax defecting to other lines).

[Pellaz]

10 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

We've been requesting once a day for some time now, always evening. We, like others, don't want to be tied down by waiting for steward to finish the room in the moning

 

AND....    There's no chance of being awakened by <taptaptap> "Housekeeping!" in the mornings if we want to sleep in.  🙂   
Although "good" stewards seem to know somehow when you're up, when you're away, and when you're sleeping.  Aside from a belief that they're actually ninjas, I can't explain it.  🙂  

 

[sgmn]

7 minutes ago, Pellaz said:

Although "good" stewards seem to know somehow when you're up, when you're away, and when you're sleeping.  Aside from a belief that they're actually ninjas, I can't explain it.  🙂  

 

Isn't there a magnetic sign you put on the door to indicate if you're sleeping or out,   or am I thinking of Celebrity. 

Usually see our steward in the hall when we leave our room 

Edited February 21, 2023 by sgmn

[Pellaz]

4 minutes ago, sgmn said:

Isn't there a magnetic sign you put on the door to indicate if you're sleeping or out,   or am I thinking of Celebrity. 

Usually see our steward in the hall when we leave our room 

Yes, each cruise line has some sort of method for indicating "Snoozin'" or "Cruisin'".    

--And we usually forgot to change it, or deploy it, or whichever.  🙂  

[Kbonner]

Being from Europe and reading the excessive tipping issues here, I tend to think that - isolated to US citizen- they have a tipping inferiority complex. Standing by for corrections.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 2/19/2023 at 12:36 PM, goldfish65 said:

I wish more people would have the mindset when on vacation "if you want to play, you gotta pay."

 

As little as a crisp $20 on the first day, with a polite, concise request i.e. "We'd like morning service, but while we are at dinner, you'll be able to refill our ice bucket and see if we need clean towels, won't you? We never remove the daily gratuities, by the way." and you'll be set.  

I wish fewer people would help train the crew to expect bribes for good service.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 2/19/2023 at 4:07 PM, Cruise5life said:

he didn’t clean my room once in 15 days.  

Maybe because you were tipping him with food you got for free from the buffet?

[rikitikitavii]

3 hours ago, sgmn said:

Isn't there a magnetic sign you put on the door to indicate if you're sleeping or out,   or am I thinking of Celebrity. 

Usually see our steward in the hall when we leave our room 

Just off Liberty, they have magnetic signs for sleeping in and for out exploring!