酒店客房服務的祕密

Myths about hotel room service

酒店客房服務的祕密

There's nothing quite like hotel room service. Be it an indulgence or a necessity, few things seem better suited to serve a jet-lagged traveler than a freshly delivered breakfast tray or a late-night sandwich. While seasoned road warriors may have their room service routines down to a science, many of us pause before picking up the phone to order. Maybe it's the fact that room service food can seem incredibly expensive, take forever to get to the room and is often tepid and less than tasty when it finally arrives.

沒有什麼可以比得上酒店客房服務了。不管是放縱一下還是必須要住酒店，對於倒時差的旅行者而言，沒有什麼比新鮮早飯或深夜三明治更適合的了。雖然那些經常旅行的人有一套自己的客房服務例程，但我們很多人在打電話訂餐前都會先思考一下。也許是因爲客房服務的食物太貴，也有可能是送達時間較慢，通常是因爲終於等來了食物，卻發現其實並不好吃。

Here are two myths about room service.

下面是有關客房服務的兩個祕密。

1. Room service menu prices are identical to those in the hotel's restaurant.

1. 客房服務的菜單價格與酒店餐館的價格一樣。

It sure doesn't seem that way. John Mariani, the legendary food critic and author of Mariani's Virtual Gourmet Newsletter, says that "they are usually somewhat higher plus they add a massive service charge and very often, a gratuity."

雖然看上去不是那麼回兒事。食品評論界的傳奇人物以及《馬里亞尼真實美食家通訊》（Mariani's Virtual Gourmet Newsletter）的作者約翰·馬里亞尼說道："通常客房服務的食物更貴，因爲要收取很多的服務費，大多數情況下還會加上小費。"

Larry Olmsted, author of the bestselling Real Food Fake Food, falls into that higher-priced camp as well, noting that "in many cases, the exact same dishes are priced higher on the room service menu than in the hotel restaurants."

暢銷書《真假美食》的作者拉里·奧姆斯特德和馬里亞尼的觀點相同，指出"大多數情況下，同樣的菜餚，客房服務菜單上的標價要比酒店餐館的價格高。"

The culprit may be the add-ons that make room service seem like an expensive indulgence. Alexander Lobrano, a Paris-based food writer and restaurant critic whose newsletter is Hungry for Paris, says that room service prices "aren't usually that far off those of prices in the restaurant."

原因就是價格更高能使客房服務看起來像是一種奢侈放縱。法國的一位美食作家和餐館評論家亞歷山大·洛布拉諾說客房服務的價格"並不比餐館的價格高很多。"他的通訊書籍是《飢餓巴黎》（Hungry for Paris）。

He insists that it is those extras that can make for an expensive tab when you order that club sandwich or bowl of pasta and have it sent up to your room. What drives the prices up "is the fine print of service charges, tray charges and other ways of making you pay for the pleasure of private dining, something that most hotels have pretty much fallen out of love with because it's logistically complicated."

他堅持認爲當你點總彙三明治和或一碗意大利麪並要求送到房間時，這些增加的費用就是一筆較高的小費。推動價格上漲的原因"就是服務收費和托盤收費的精細打印或是你覺得爲私人用餐付費的其它樂趣，也有可能是酒店缺失的東西，因爲酒店是邏輯複雜的構成。"

Those fees, add Olmsted, might include "a service fee comparable to what you would tip downstairs, plus an 'in-room dining' surcharge, often in the $5-12 range, means it almost always costs more to dine in."

奧姆斯特德補充說這些費用可能包括"可與在樓下消費相媲美的服務費用，再加上'房內用餐'的額外收費，通常都是在5到12美元之間，因此在房間吃飯總會貴一些。"

2. Room service food is just as fresh as I'd get in the restaurant.

2. 客房服務的食物並不如餐館的新鮮。

Ah, not exactly. Lobrano points out that "most room service items are at least partially pre-prepared."

啊，不完全是。洛布拉諾指出"客房服務的大多數食物，至少有部分都是提前準備好的。"