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Bare Bones

Travel in 2020-21 has felt unusual even if first blush the particular experience was no different than before the pandemic. The mood of fellow guests at a hotel for example was off. People stuck in their small groups - families, co-workers and such. Many kept to themselves. Public spaces in the hotel were empty and the few times I have traveled, there was no room-service for the duration of my short stays. I attributed it to the risks that it involved for the cleaning staff - no one was requiring proof of vaccination or a negative covid test to let the guests in. This article about the state of the hospitality business talks about pre-existing challenges and just spiraled out of control with the pandemic

The hotel industry, with nearly triple the unemployment rate of the U.S. national average, grappled with staffing issues even before the pandemic. But the health crisis sent room demand into a nosedive and drove companies of all sizes to reduce staffing levels to a minimum last year with furloughs and permanent layoffs. 

It's likely people will scale back their expectations from hotels if the down-graded quality of service becomes and industry norm. Flying in the 60s and 70s is nothing like what it is now and that has not stopped anyone from flying. We as consumers learn to live with the new reality and create work-arounds. Some will decide it's worth to pay for the extras that used to be the norm. Flying budget airlines is a great way to learn how customers decide what kind of flying experience they want to have and what they are willing to pay for it. Once all the extras are added the guy in your neighboring seat would have paid double of what you did and have the bells and whistles to show for it. So while you both travel on the same plan and may be even seated next to each other the quality of experience can be vastly different. Maybe there is some benefit to paring back services to bare bones and letting customers decide what upgrades they want. 

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