For some travelers, hotel room service is the-be-all to end-all. It is considered the height of indulgence. Guests staying in a swanky hotel with a very special lover may not want to leave the room after dark, or for that matter, during the day. It may be a sybarite’s dream when the waiter appears with an iced bottle of champagne and silver trays of assorted delectable nibbles.
But many business travelers find room service a nightmare.
They dislike how the room smells after the meal. Some develop a sense of claustrophobia from eating and sleeping in the same place, especially if the quarters are small. Travelers often resent the cost of in-room meals and few know the precise tipping etiquette. (Do they give the waiter one when a service charge is included? FYI, the answer is yes.)
Here are some alternatives to room service for intrepid travelers either looking for a way to save a few dollars or searching for a local experience.
• Buy take-in meals at a local store. Skip room service by picking up something to eat at a local grocery store and eat in the room. Remember to beg, borrow or steal some utensils, a plate and a napkin (OK, use a towel).
• Get local take-out. Ask at the front desk, the staff frequently has a list of restaurants that deliver in case you’re craving a deep-dish pizza with all of the trimmings or chicken and cashews from a nearby Chinese restaurant. The meal may or may not be good but it probably will be accompanied by a fortune cookie that might give you an indication as to how successful the trip will be.
• Get out and try the local cuisine. You may score a great meal or one you wouldn’t want to foist off on an enemy. But it might be interesting. Never eat at chain restaurants is a rule some people hold near and dear. The food tends be mediocre to good; but why should you eat at someplace you can find at home?
During nice weather, diners often prefer to go to restaurants, especially ones with outdoor sitting, where they can park themselves and people watch. When traveling on business, few people have enough time for sightseeing. This is a good way to observe people in their daily lives. Sitting at a sidewalk cafe is certainly one of my favorite things to do.
• Try a meal at a local bar. They may or may not be on the hotel’s premises but usually one makes for good people watching and who knows, you might strike up a conversation. Whether or not you want to be chatty is up to you. Most bartenders are very good at picking up your signals and may let you veg out watching the bar’s TV or expedite a conversation or two.
Left to your own devices, which do you prefer? Do you eat in the room, hit the town (more or less) or isolate yourself in cyberspace even though you’re surrounded by people?
Karen Fawcett is president of BonjourParis.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve done all of those things, but I’ve never ordered room service. It might be that I’m frugal, but it’s also a culture thing. Generally I’ll get out and find a place to eat, but if I’m tired, I’ll order take out or bring something in.
I also tend to carry around a pair of reusable chopsticks and a spork with me wherever I go so I don’t have to beg, borrow or steal utensils.
I’ve done all of these, as well. I hate eating in my room and I get tired of being waited on.
The best by far is the grocery take-in (or out). The last time I was in London on business for over a month, I and a business partner discovered Marks & Spencer’s food hall. They had so many yummy ready-to-eat healthy items. It was July and August and the weather was beautiful. Almost every night, we would change at the hotel and pop by M&S, grab a few items, and walk to Hyde Park, rent a couple of chairs, and enjoy lovely picnics along the serpentine. We relaxed and people watched. It’s one of my favourite trips of all time!
I never have ordered room service. I have done all the others in addition to going to a farmers’ market and getting fruit or finding a grocery store and getting crackers and cheese. I do not travel to places that have airports, so go solely by car. I always carry a kit with napkins, plate, cup, utensils, paring knife, can opener, sugar, salt, and pepper.
Smelly take-out in your room is nasty, so be prepared to cart the stuff to a (often very hard to find) trash can somewhere in the hotel.
Eating pizza in the car is not very easy, but it keeps the smell out of your room.
I have done all of those things. And like Grahams in the first response, I also carry a spork with me. The spork I carry is made by “Light my Fire” and has a spoon on one end and a fork on the other. Also, on one edge of the fork side is serrations, so it makes a decent knife, too.
I like to ask those I work with who are locals where the good places are to eat. I have been pleasantly surprised, even at a “pizza and Mexican” place.
I’ve done all of the mentioned things, including room service and all of the fantastic ready to eat stuff in London. They really do have it up to an art there. I didn’t go to Hyde Park though, so thank you for the suggestion – next time.
I used to go to the convenience store really late, they would put hot dogs on for a lot better price – 5 for a dollar. You could tell that they had been under that hot light for a little longer, but after you put the onions and relish on them, it didn’t make much difference. As horrible as that sounds, it was a lot better than quite a few restaurants I’ve been to – which actually draws attention to my quandry – I want to have a decent meal, but don’t know which restaurant to choose and which to stay away from.
When I lived in Hawaii and worked at a hotel, we’d frequent a local bar for pau hana drinks. We would always run into business travellers there having dinner at the bar on their own, and we would always strike up conversations with them because they had as much to share with us as we had to share with them. There are few moments of a trip that I remember as much as conversations with the locals. You can’t buy experiences like those sometimes.
Also, I hope solo travelers get over the stigma of dining alone. Not only do you miss out on so much because of the perception of being alone, you end up coming down on yourself in a way that you don’t need to. Chances are: 1) There are a lot of solo diners, and you could make a new friend; 2) No one is judging you the way you are judging yourself, and 3) No one is even looking at you.
Hi, nice post. I have been thinking about this issue,so thanks for writing. I will certainly be coming back to your blog.