Menu for dine-in service
The most important attribute of room service waiters is discretion.
Just beside the phone at a hotel room is a menu card for dining in. In five-star hotels, the offerings can be fancy, with such winners as artisanal cheese platter or arugula and chickpea omelet. Of course, there are other establishments lower in the wow-scale that offer as their most exalted items fried chicken or bacon and egg sandwiches — white bread only.
Not everyone who checks into a hotel prefers to dine at its outlets. The guest may have work to do for a presentation on risk assessment later in the evening. Or, he may be simply opting to dine privately with somebody who does not provide inputs on tax shelters for mutual funds. For the shy diner, the hotel provides among its fast-dial numbers the single-digit number for “room service” between “housekeeping” (for extra towels) and “airport transfer.”
Dine-in service involves ordering food also available in the coffee shop to be delivered to one’s room at least 45 minutes after the call is placed and at prices 30% higher than the ones charged at the restaurant. The price premium is charged for the longer delivery route requiring a service elevator, as well as extra utensils like ice buckets and food covers. Senior citizen’s discount is not fully applied, nor even invoked, as anyway the meal is clearly for sharing with someone not yet age-appropriate.
The guest also pays extra for the privacy afforded him to meditate on his navel or somebody else’s while working on a chicken leg and biting into soft buns. ( We are referring to the bread, Sir). Note that the guest is expected to be at least partially clothed ( lacking only footwear) when he opens the door for the waiter delivering the food on a foldable cart.
Waiters handling room service require the discretion and tact expected of personal valets.
They complete their delivery in one trip with the thoroughness of including unspecified items like catsup, iced water, and cloth napkins, in order to avoid the necessity of a return trip, and another knock on the door. Guests are always anxious for the waiter to leave quickly and not come back so they can go back to their e-mails and chess puzzles.
If the order is substantial featuring two main courses, appetizers, and a chocolate cake, it requires a square- topped cart that folds out into a round table. ( Where do you want the table parked, Sir?) The round table allows the waiter to have a bigger area for salt, pepper, utensils, water pitcher, and those especially designed plate covers for the spaghetti that look like shiny helmets with handles. Less classy places, where the garage door swings up, use Saran Wrap to cover the noodles in a tight fit.
Nothing must spill. So, waiters make sure that all liquids are properly plugged and covered, with holes for drinks in foils and plastic. This precaution produces a large amount of debris even before the meal starts. Classy joints require a number to be called to clear the uneaten food and assorted glasses and forks… before turning in for the night.
The most important attribute of room service waiters is discretion. The hotel room is a small space. The waiter may seem to be drawing out the action to gather information on the dining partner who is naturally in the washroom. Embarrassing sights and sounds occasionally present themselves, maybe the guest wearing a bathrobe and socks, or a muffled voice from the bathroom — T-Rex, did they bring vinegar with garlic for the spring roll? The voice in the bathroom may sound 45 years younger than the one signing the bill and handing out a generous tip.
The room service waiter is trained to keep a straight face that says — I just deliver meals, I don’t judge. He refrains from giving an elbow nudge to the guest — Mr. T-Rex, do you need more breadsticks?
It’s the free breakfast buffet the morning after that may attract some unwanted attention from an acquaintance — hey, you’re up early. What’s wrong anyway with having breakfast with someone at a hotel coffee shop? Well, it’s harder to explain so early in the morning the sunny disposition… and the wet hair.