Hospitality

Hotel chains are constantly upgrading rooms to look modern and fresh. Goodbye, flowered comforters, brass lamps and pastel watercolors; hello, crisp triple-sheet bedding, extra power outlets and granite vanities.

But that's what's now; what comes next? The desires of millennial travelers are drastically altering the standards for hotel rooms and guest service.

Here are the trends and ideas that are shaping the guestroom of the future.

When a guest walks into a hotel room, she might be wowed by the decor. She might be impressed by the flat-screen TV, or the thread count of the sheets. But what she really wants is for the room to feel like home.

In the summer of 2013, the New York Hilton Midtown—the largest hotel in New York City—announced it would no longer offer room service. The decision shocked some guests who have come to associate the silver tray with luxury hotels, but it only confirmed what hospitality professionals have known for some time: room service is rarely profitable.

Room service contributes just 1.22 percent of a hotel's average revenues as of 2012, according to PKF Hospitality Research. That represents about $3.25 per occupied room. Not only that, but room service requires a significant staffing commitment.

Guests still need to eat—and they don't always want to commit to a full-service meal. But large hotels in urban environments, where takeout choices abound, can step back from their obligation to provide 24-hour dining, HotelNewsNow.com's Jeff Higley told Entrepreneur magazine. Hotels are coming up with novel ways to give business travelers and others easy dining options.

Hotel owners and housekeepers know that hotel rooms are often cleaner than guests' own homes. But that doesn't help allay the fears of guests who have seen one too many TV exposés on dirty hotel rooms.

In response, hotels are adopting extreme measures to calm guests' fears. In 2012, Best Western International rolled out a new cleaning program in which housekeepers use black lights to find invisible biological matter and UV-light wands to disinfect things like remotes. The new policy works, Best Western says: guest satisfaction for room cleanliness rose 12 percent. What else can a hotel do to reassure guests its rooms are clean?