HOTEL REVIEW: Scheduled housekeeping is my wish come true!

I’m in Adelaide at the moment for the Adelaide Festival and Writers Week. I’ve been staying at the Indigo Hotel in Market Street, adjacent to the wonderful Central Market. The hotel is part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG), and as a Diamond member, I get free breakfast and late checkout if available.

Hotel Automation

I am not a fan of scan codes and apps to order room service as a general rule, as I do like staff interaction and touch points in hotels. I like to create some kind of a relationship with staff, however fleeting. Having said that, my usual objection to the apps and such is that they are badly implemented, and don’t provide a smooth seamless experience.

However, I really do like one feature…

Booking Housekeeping

I love being able to book a time for housekeeping.

Most times I travel, whether domestically in Australia, or overseas, I am working. Still pushing out posts for this blog, or attending to my communications and design business, or working on my master’s degree. That means, when not out and about sightseeing and the like, I am back in the hotel working, glued to my laptop screen.

I hate working away, in the knowledge that housekeeping might arrive at any moment. Part of my mind thinking about what I need to take with me when I vacate the room, and head to the business centre/foyer/club/balcony or cafe while leaving the housekeeping staff to do what they do.

I much prefer to know that while I will be out between 10 and midday, attending to this exhibition/shopping/business meeting/sightseeing/catching up with friends or whatever, through the magic of hotel staff, the room will be sparkling clean, the linens tidied or changed, bins emptied, and it will be as if no one had disturbed a thing, except all my things will be there, ready to be enjoyed again.

2PAXfly Takeout

I love the magic of a good hotel. You leave it and it miraculously re-acquires its virginal ‘never used’ look, except your things are in it. My bugbear is depending on the housekeeper’s timeline for when that will happen. If hotel apps will allow me to order when housekeeping gets done, I am all for them.