Would You Rather Have a Cleaner Hotel Room—Or a Cheaper One?

What’s worth more to you: a cleaner hotel room, or a cheaper one? You may soon get the chance to choose.

Many hotel chains scaled back on cleanings during the pandemic, then reframed the decision as good for the environment. The next wrinkle might turn the decision—less money, or less cleaning?— back on guests.

A Marriott International (MAR) hotel in Canada recently offered customers a lower room rate if they elected to forgo daily service. As first flagged by the travel site LoyaltyLobby earlier this month, the Westin Wall Centre at the Vancouver Airport was offering guests staying at least five nights a “Stay Green Save More” rate that would save more than 20 Canadian dollars ($13.91) per night over the next-cheapest rate—but without daily housekeeping.

That rate, which wasn’t available in a recent search, offered “an extra discount for travelers to decline any housekeeping or overnight service,” according to Marriott’s reservation website for the hotel. At one point, a five-night mid-February stay would have cost C$256 ($178.04) a night with the discount and C$280 ($194.56) without it.

Hotels Cut Back on Housekeeping During Pandemic

For decades, full-service hotels like Westins provided daily housekeeping. Then COVID-19 hit, and hoteliers realized it was better for their bottom line to cut back on the practice.

That can be seen in part in jobs data. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 160,000 “Traveler Accommodation” jobs in the “Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners” sector were lost in the U.S. between May 2019 and May 2021, falling to 307,930 positions from 467,270.

Employment rebounded somewhat to 397,640 by May 2023, but it still marked a decline of roughly 70,000 housekeeping jobs from the year before the pandemic.

Marriott Says It’s About Helping Hotel Attain ‘Ambitious Environmental Targets’

Marriott said the “Stay Green Save More” option was all about helping the hotel attain its “ambitious environmental targets. Declining overnight service allows us to reduce our water consumption and energy use in a very meaningful way,” according to its booking site at the time.

Marriott noted that for guests’ “safety and comfort,” housekeeping would “enter your room for a wellness-check and a modest refresh every 3 days.”  

According to the hotel giant’s website touting its 30 brands, Westin is part of its “Premium” portfolio, along with the Marriott Hotels brand, Sheraton, Le Meridien, and Renaissance Hotels, among others. Westin’s “revitalizing amenities ensure you leave feeling better than when you arrived,” it says.

Marriott International did not respond to Investopedia’s request for comment.

Hyatt’s ‘Clever Incentive’ to Forgo Housekeeping

Marriott isn’t the only hotel chain to try to induce customers to turn down housekeeping.

According to Matthew Klint of the travel site Live and Let’s Fly, the full-service Hyatt (H) Regency Tamaya in New Mexico recently offered him a “clever incentive” to forgo daily housekeeping on his two-night stay: a $10 food and beverage credit or 500 World of Hyatt points. (Hyatt did not return an Investopedia request for comment.)

Klint said he chose the food and beverage credit, which “paid for my wife’s lobby Starbucks.”

“Part of the fun of staying at a hotel is being pampered,” he wrote. “But I appreciate that this hotel realizes that money talks and that rather than trying to guilt me into ‘protecting the environment’ by reusing my towels, it made it worth my while through a reasonable exchange, a picture of how we address climate change on a more systematic level.”