Fast food at the top of the menu

24/01/2012

One of the most common complaints about room service is the waiting time. The last thing you want after a busy day is a seemingly endless wait for your steak-frites. It’s a situation that many of us will have been in; we’ve ordered our meal, sat down to watch a film and 45 minute has passed without a knock at the door. However, these hunger-filled waits may soon be a thing of the past

The Four Seasons has announced new 15-minute room service at all its hotels in 2012, and even at resorts with long distances between the kitchen and rooms, the wait shouldn’t be longer than 20 minutes. At the new Public Chicago Hotel, food from the renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten arrives in to-go bags outside hotel rooms in a mere 10 minutes. That’s definitely fast food.

Some hotel chains are going above and beyond to make sure your food is at your door without a delay.At Marriott’s Buttes resort in Tempe, Arizona, a $10.95 Market Basket Lunch in a bamboo basket is guaranteed to arrive in 20 minutes or it's free. But what’s behind this sudden urge for quick service? Hotel critics have suggested that the boom in fast room service is being driven by the fast-paced lifestyles of travelers combined with demands for convenience and instant gratification.

This sentiment has been echoed by Guy Rigby, a vice-president at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts; "One of the greatest luxuries in the world is time” he stated, “Gone are the days when room service is for people who want to sit with their little candle and flower and beautiful appetizer."

However, the days of a friendly face greeting you with your room service are gone. The food is simply dropped off outside the door to save time. Some hotels have even started to offer packaged food to go for travelers racing to the airport. If some of the food has the feel of pizza delivery or drive-through, it's because it's designed that way because that seems to be what people want. But fast is fast, and if it feeds you and gets you somewhere on time, it might be worth the sacrifice.