“Every aspect of the Butler experience is quality controlled, from the carefully thought-out menu design to the earth-friendly packaging. Even down to the ‘Butler’ that shows up at your door, the hospitality technology company has curated and signed off on every detail. Like traditional room service, you charge your meal directly to your room and are encouraged to open your door in a plush bathrobe.”

“Restaurant Operations: An Antiquated Luxury for Hotels

In the late 1990s, hotels began to really invest in their on-site restaurants. Celebrity chefs like Wolfgang Puck were even recruited to bring status to hospitality eateries all over the world. However, what almost all hoteliers discovered was that no matter how much money and talent they put into these on-site restaurants, they never made the profit they were expected to. Running a restaurant costs money, and running a restaurant with room service costs even more money. 

In the hotel world, food and beverage is an amenity, not a reliable business model. There are countless reasons why a hotel restaurant comes with so many more pitfalls than a regular restaurant. For instance, extended hours of operation become a problem because hotel restaurants usually need to serve early breakfast. Following this, the kitchen needs to stay open through the day and night no matter how busy or empty the hotel is. While most restaurants can close during slow periods or days, a hotel restaurant has a duty to be open almost permanently. This requires staff to be paid, and food to be bought and prepped. There’s no avoiding slow shifts. Add free breakfast (as 96% of midscale hotels do) and 24/7 room service into the equation and you’re essentially throwing money down the drain.”

“Looking for a Hospitality Alternative

An obvious alternative is standard food delivery services like Postmates and Doordash. For many travelers, the benefits of room service just don’t justify the high costs anymore. Yet, when an UberEats burrito fills the void left by hotel room service, the quality of the stay is undeniably downgraded. Picture this: you’re tired from a long flight, you check into your beautiful hotel, and you’re deciding on dinner for yourself. Let’s say you’re new to the city, unaware of the best spots, and you order a meal from a local restaurant through a delivery app. 

See, the hotel cannot quality control any aspect of the guest experience when said guest is ordering from an arbitrary restaurant through a democratized delivery service. Hotels relinquish control over food when they stop providing room service, and ultimately they often pay the price one way or another. A hotel will be hard pressed to earn stars and favorable reviews without room service, for instance.

There seems to be a clear need for a middleman that does not rival the almost insurmountable cost of hotel room service but nonetheless provides quality and consistency to a guest’s stay. A reliable food and beverage option on site is crucial to the success of any hospitality enterprise. Hotels that use Room Service by Butler have an amenity, allowing them to charge higher room rates and attract a discerning guest. All the while, they can feel safe in the knowledge that the quality of the food they order will be second to none.”