Room Service Claustrophobia

[mso489]

Maybe it is because of social distancing and lack of recent travel, but I'm thinking about travel from time to time. I'm no globe trotter. When I mention some of my more distant trips, I always turn out to be talking to someone who has wintered in Siberia and met their spouse in the Amazon. I'm not that extensive a traveler. But I've kicked around probably a little more than average. So that brings this to mind. In the movies and on TV, the epitome of travel luxury, or one of them, is room service at a good or fine hotel. Room service has never appealed to me. I don't want to eat in my bedroom, or even in a sitting room if it were so fancy as to be a suite. I'm always restless enough to want to have the drama and expanse of a dining room, the lobby, the shops, maybe the outdoors before or after. The option of a neighborhood restaurant instead. Food around a bed reminds me of a sickroom. Anyone else lack the sense of luxury that is supposed to surround room service?

 

[newportpipe]

Maybe it is because of social distancing and lack of recent travel, but I'm thinking about travel from time to time. I'm no globe trotter. When I mention some of my more distant trips, I always turn out to be talking to someone who has wintered in Siberia and met their spouse in the Amazon. I'm not that extensive a traveler. But I've kicked around probably a little more than average. So that brings this to mind. In the movies and on TV, the epitome of travel luxury, or one of them, is room service at a good or fine hotel. Room service has never appealed to me. I don't want to eat in my bedroom, or even in a sitting room if it were so fancy as to be a suite. I'm always restless enough to want to have the drama and expanse of a dining room, the lobby, the shops, maybe the outdoors before or after. The option of a neighborhood restaurant instead. Food around a bed reminds me of a sickroom. Anyone else lack the sense of luxury that is supposed to surround room service?

“met their spouse in the Amazon.”

I never thought about this but, I think I’m with you. Especially, during the dinner hours. When I think of luxury travel and room-service, I think of that guy on the Dunhill Aperitif tin.

 

[mso489]

I can see if I were arriving exhausted and/or jet lagged finding real comfort if the staff could bring me a good sandwich or a good warm supper, sure. In the comfort food survival mode, but not as a moment of elegance. I guess I'm just quirky on this. I don't even like to eat in my car. I'll sit in the fast food outdoor tables rather than that. In a travel situation, unless I'm exhausted, I want to survey the scene, see what's distinctive about the new place, people watch. If I want to lounge in bed and watch TV to eat, I'll enjoy that at home. I didn't even know I felt this strongly, but it seems I do. I've been lucky in enjoying a number of up-market meals with my wife when traveling, but some great meals we've had have been in little neighborhood restaurants, and my wife can really spot them. She figures out if the grease fryer is fresh just walking in the door and taking a sniff. She can figure out a menu, pair wine, and knows some of the international foods. I've got a live-in food consultant.

 

[newportpipe]

I can see if I were arriving exhausted and/or jet lagged finding real comfort if the staff could bring me a good sandwich or a good warm supper, sure. In the comfort food survival mode, but not as a moment of elegance. I guess I'm just quirky on this. I don't even like to eat in my car. I'll sit in the fast food outdoor tables rather than that. In a travel situation, unless I'm exhausted, I want to survey the scene, see what's distinctive about the new place, people watch. If I want to lounge in bed and watch TV to eat, I'll enjoy that at home. I didn't even know I felt this strongly, but it seems I do. I've been lucky in enjoying a number of up-market meals with my wife when traveling, but some great meals we've had have been in little neighborhood restaurants, and my wife can really spot them. She figures out if the grease fryer is fresh just walking in the door and taking a sniff. She can figure out a menu, pair wine, and knows some of the international foods. I've got a live-in food consultant.

I’ll opt for an on-site restaurant if there is one attached to the hotel/motel/resort. However, after a late evening, ordering AM room service can be a life saver.

 

[BROBS]

Room service is for Rich People who don’t care if the food is shitty yet expensive, drunk people, or people at the hotel just to have sex.

I believe I’ve defined all users of room service.

edit: one more is businessperson so busy they don’t have time to go anywhere to eat. But this could possibly be filed under “rich person who doesn’t care if food is shitty yet expensive”.

 

[mso489]

BROBS, to put it a different way, if you want the kitchen staff to take responsibility for the food, and the wait staff to give you the straight dope on what's good to eat, maybe at a restaurant down the block, get yourself to the dining room. For breakfast, I'd often opt for the fast food place, or small diner, nearby, for inexpensive, good, sustaining food, instead of incredibly slow, perhaps not hot, often not very good breakfast at five times the price, and requiring a tip.

 

[shanez]

I've stayed at a few resorts in Mexico and many of them at least include breakfast in their price, kinda like the "continental" buffet breakfasts included in American hotels but delivered to your room.

Of the two types I mentioned, sitting outside on the balcony in the morning sunshine overlooking the ocean and enjoying fresh OJ, coffee, toast, eggs, and ham is the better of the two.

One resort was all inclusive (including alcohol) and had 7 different restaurants. Their morning French toast was the best I've ever had. Also, stumbling into your room, half tanked on tequila, and ordering a free cheeseburger is rather convenient.

The all inclusive resort was top optional for women and had several channels of free porn included so @BROBS pretty much nailed it except the rich and expensive parts. ?

 

[BROBS]

I've stayed at a few resorts in Mexico and many of them at least include breakfast in their price, kinda like the "continental" buffet breakfasts included in American hotels but delivered to your room.

Of the two types I mentioned, sitting outside on the balcony in the morning sunshine overlooking the ocean and enjoying fresh OJ, coffee, toast, eggs, and ham is the better of the two.

One resort was all inclusive (including alcohol) and had 7 different restaurants. Their morning French toast was the best I've ever had. Also, stumbling into your room, half tanked on tequila, and ordering a free cheeseburger is rather convenient.

The all inclusive resort was top optional for women and had several channels of free porn included so @BROBS pretty much nailed it except the rich and expensive parts. ?

Haha I’m talking about room service in a US hotel.

Vacations with all inclusive etc are a different story.

 

[BROBS]

WAIT SO U WERE JUST THERE TO HAVE SEX????

 

[shanez]

WAIT SO U WERE JUST THERE TO HAVE SEX????

It was my 10 year anniversary wife my wife at the time so...yes?

 

[timelord]

I spent nearly twenty years globetrotting for work and avoided room service as much as possible. Wherever it was possible (and safe) I would go out to local bars and restaurants. Room service for me was an absolute last resort if arriving somewhere at an anti-social hour.

Having extended (i.e. for periods of anything from 2 weeks to several months) trips to Detroit, Zurich, Lugano, Paris, Jakarta, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Athens, Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest. Varna, Sydney (to which I later moved), Dallas, LA, and Louisville I got to visit a lot of bars and restaurants in and around those cities.. (I went to a lot of other cities too but usually just for 2-3 nights or possibly a week but still went out exploring in the evening).

The only two places I went where it was pretty obviously not a good plan to be out an about in the evening were Skopje (in what is now North Macedonia) and Nairobi but even then the hotels had decent on-site restaurants so I could avoid room service...

 

[workman]

Maybe it is because of social distancing and lack of recent travel, but I'm thinking about travel from time to time. I'm no globe trotter. When I mention some of my more distant trips, I always turn out to be talking to someone who has wintered in Siberia and met their spouse in the Amazon. I'm not that extensive a traveler. But I've kicked around probably a little more than average. So that brings this to mind. In the movies and on TV, the epitome of travel luxury, or one of them, is room service at a good or fine hotel. Room service has never appealed to me. I don't want to eat in my bedroom, or even in a sitting room if it were so fancy as to be a suite. I'm always restless enough to want to have the drama and expanse of a dining room, the lobby, the shops, maybe the outdoors before or after. The option of a neighborhood restaurant instead. Food around a bed reminds me of a sickroom. Anyone else lack the sense of luxury that is supposed to surround room service?

Room service is a luxury for people who like to have other people do stuff for them.
My wife, mother-in-law and others I know have worked at hotels, cleaning rooms. Their stories are unbelievable. Rooms with food thrown under the bed, used toilet paper on the floor, beds filled with spilled drinks and peels of different sorts, like lobster shells, shells of different nuts, half eaten fruit. Not to mention misplaced bodily fluids.
I've never craved luxury, nor understood that craving. I want good food and I am perfectly able to make it myself. If I dine out, I will tip (if I'm satisfied, which I most often am), if nothing else, then just to remind myself to be humble.
I hate smart features in a car, a watch, a phone, a TV. I want good stuff. Durable stuff.
I can't claim to have travelled much, but I have travelled some, and I've never used room service.
When travelling, I want to experience something, and badly boiled eggs and cardboard disguised as bread delivered to my room ain't one.

 

[Casual]

I never get room service, even though introverted. I also don’t eat in bed at home.

I much prefer taking a book to the hotel bar, often not busy and well appointed, and having something there along with a pint or two.

 

[mso489]

shanez, I take your point, resorts are a different genre, and breakfast on the balcony sounds just fine. No claustrophobia there. Workman, your family's memories of dealing with the public in lodging situations sounds horrendous. I have the lowest opinion of people who abuse service staff of any kind. I'm impressed with how rarely it is service staff who do the abuse; it happens, but it is rare. Professional wait people can be absolutely authoritative and impressive. At the German restaurant in Chicago, Bergoff's, the wait staff was nearly all middle aged or older men, very snappy, sometimes a little gruff, but absolutely knowledgeable and helpful, when you let them. No problem tipping those guys ... worth every tip. When they approved of my order, I felt like I'd aced a final exam, and they were always correct.

 

[scloyd]

I've never ordered room service, ever. Much like Tom, I don't want to eat where I sleep. There was one time we were traveling by car and stopped at a motel late and ordered a pizza. We just wanted to eat, shower, sleep and get an early start. To top it off, it was Domino's Pizza ?.

 

[BROBS]

SO WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM @scloyd ?

 

[scloyd]

SO WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM

Let's just say the rest of the ride home was not pleasant...a couple of restroom breaks.
It's a good thing we didn't have White Castles.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

Never done room service. Not once. If I’m traveling, I want to see what the local food scene looks like. Plus like @mso489 said, eating in your room makes it feel like a sickroom. I don’t even like breakfast in bed. Never saw the appeal.

 

[radrick96]

Room service? Yeah @BROBS pretty much nailed it. I only use room service to restock the mini bar!

To eliminate any needs for room service, I like to stay at a resort with a few restaurants in it. My favorite would be the Hilton in playa del Carmen. 4 bars, 1 cigar lounge, 3 restaurants, a couple snack bars, and I’m good haha

 

[BROBS]

Let's just say the rest of the ride home was not pleasant...a couple of restroom breaks.
It's a good thing we didn't have White Castles.

THEY CALL EM SLIDERS FOR A REASON