Room Service at Aulani?

[scoobdoo]

Aulani is a vacation club. I've stayed in many of the Marriott VC and I don't recall any of them having room service. The Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas doesn't have room service either.

It had room service from its inception thru march 2020

 

[Iceman93]

And it's not only a vacation club--it is also a hotel/resort. Room service is absolutely an expected amenity at this class of lodging establishment.

 

[monsterkitty]

And it's not only a vacation club--it is also a hotel/resort. Room service is absolutely an expected amenity at this class of lodging establishment.

Many of the Marriott VCs also are hotel/resorts. I understand that it used to have room service, but after 2020 a lot of services in many service industries went away. There just aren't enough people to fill those positions.

I taught in an area where many parents had 2 or 3 jobs. After 2020, they decided having those 2-3 jobs really wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Take those people out of the workforce and there aren't people willing to work in low-paying positions now.

Is it a cost-cutting move on Disney's part? Probably. But there is also more at play here.

 

[Iceman93]

I understand your point @monsterkitty , I really do. Marriott is my chain of choice for most of my business AND personal travel. And as someone who traveled throughout the pandemic and still does, I lived (and continue to live) the transformation of the industry.

That's also why I'm unwilling to cut Disney as much slack as you are when it comes to something like room service. Aulani sells (and prices) itself like one of Marriott's luxury-tier resorts: Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, etc. They do *not* compete with the mid-tier full-service or vacation club properties (e.g. Marriott, Westin, Marriott Vacation Club, etc.). That being said, the vast majority of full-service tier Marriott properties I've stayed at in the past couple of years have brought back room service. ALL luxury properties have it.

It's just one of those things that is expected as a brand standard, and Disney's lack of bringing it back can be seen as nothing other than an insult to the guests. I will not accept the excuse, here at the end of 2023, that they cannot hire enough staff to perform basic functions like this.

I also understand that room service is often a loss leader at hotels. Despite the high prices, mandatory service and delivery fees, etc. they need to maintain a certain level of staff to accommodate the potential for a number of simultaneous room service orders. And many times (even most of the time), there are no orders so that staff is not earning any revenue.

And I don't care. At the prices Aulani charges, and the way they market themselves as an upscale if not full-on luxury location, they simply need to offer services like this. To be clear, I also think the loss of welcome leis and spa water, the loss of full-day service at 'Ama 'Ama, and the draconian cuts to Auntie's Beach House are also unacceptable. But would guests just accept "oh, folks don't want multiple jobs so I guess they can't hire lifeguards" as an excuse to close the waterslides and lazy rivers? Or if the spa was only open four hours a day? Or if they did away with valet parking and bell staff?

Aulani is a gorgeous resort that used to offer gracious and welcoming service that surpassed other Hawaiian locations at the same price point. The price point is still the same, but in my opinion they've now fallen pretty far behind whatever one might consider their competition. It's still beautiful (although overall maintenance isn't where I'd like it to be), but they simply can't abandon expected essentials like room service and still expect to be considered serious competitors in the same space.

 

[scoobdoo]

And I don't care. At the prices Aulani charges, and the way they market themselves as an upscale if not full-on luxury location, they simply need to offer services like this.

Bravo! Couldn't have said it better!

 

[monsterkitty]

I get it, I really do. But I've come to expect so much less from Disney in the past 10 years. My Dh suggested that I go on a Disney trip with my sister last year and I didn't want to. I didn't want to go on rides that are in severe need of paint and eat food that has declined in creativity and taste. Instead, we went to the Big Island and instead of paying outrageous prices on park tickets, we put money into the local economy.

If Disney can cut costs they're going to cut costs. They are not going to pay what it costs to get employees at Aulani in order to bring room service back. Instead, they are going to rely on their reputation of a top-tier resort without producing the product. Just like many of the top-tier Marriotts have eliminated their perks for Ambassador level and Titanium level members. We can complain about it on FB, the DIS, and everywhere else but the companies don't care because we will return anyway.

 

[Mle8308]

"We can complain about it on FB, the DIS, and everywhere else but the companies don't care because we will return anyway."

This is 100% correct. They haven't suffered or lost bookings due to not having these services, so why offer them? Not saying it's right, but in this economy it's the current business mindset in hospitality.

 

[Kmk2]

Aulani is a vacation club. I've stayed in many of the Marriott VC and I don't recall any of them having room service. The Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas doesn't have room service either.

That’s a shame. They definitely had room service in the past. I have not been there since Irma though - we stayed there for Christmas 2016 last. The staff at the residences were so amazing.

Re Aulani cuts —trust is hard to regain after it’s lost. And if you leave guests with a feeling they are being nickel and dimed they will be less likely to return. I’ve been done with Aulani. It’s too far of a flight to be disappointed… and I’m getting there with WDW.

 

[PirateBrigade]

It was doubly annoying for me... no room service AND the removal of the Japanese breakfast. I suspect that had to do with a sharp drop off of Japanese tourists to the islands, so I suppose that would be justified.

Stayed at the Park Hyatt in NY recently and they had full room service available (the real thing... wheeled in, full silverware, etc...), I had almost forgotten what it was like to not eat out of a box on the edge of your bed.

The return of room service to VGC somewhat recently bodes well for the future, but I do agree it's a staffing challenge.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

Eh, not really a big deal for us....Mobile order Off the Hook and walk down and grab it if necessary, and our fridge was stocked with so many left overs and food from local places we never had a need for room service. We were also told a number of things that hadn't returned were due to staffing issues. We'll be out there again in a little over a month, it'll be interesting to see the changes from our last visit earlier in the year.


Now, at DLR, we were pissed when room service went away, and very thankful that it returned earlier this year. We used it a number of times on our trip last month.