Room service prices, high enough to make your brain explode, are a major money maker for hotels, right? Apparently that’s not the case. From Zachary Crockett’s Priceonomics post which explains why this amenity costs so much and creates so little revenue:

“With numbers like this, you’d think hotels would make a killing off of late night hunger pains. On the contrary, most hotels actually lose money on the service; for major chains, it’s neither practical nor lucrative.

Robert Mandelbaum, director of information services for PKF Hospitality Research, says room service only accounts for 1% of the typical hotel’s revenue. In addition, room service is on a rampant decline: in 2007, average yearly revenue per room was $1,150; today, it’s only $866 — about $2.37 in room service charges per room per day. While the number of hotel guests overall has risen in the last six years, room service use has fallen off 25 percent.

Mandelbaum likens room service to other hotel offerings, like a pool:

‘Ninety percent of people will say they want to stay at a hotel with a pool, even though only 10 percent will actually use it.’

But room service isn’t just an economic non-factor for hotels — it’s grossly inefficient.”