H News Explorer

Bilt — a home and neighborhood loyalty program – is offering members the chance to win a rent-free month through its family feud-style game. It happens every month.

Pandemic-era cuts to staffing and services like daily housekeeping and room service have persisted, which unions say has resulted in lower incomes and heavier workloads for remaining workers.

The union representing the workers, UNITE HERE, has planned a rolling strike for several days in cities like Boston, San Francisco and Seattle after contract negotiations stalled.

With up to 17 rooms to clean each shift, Fatima Amahmoud's job at the Moxy hotel in downtown Boston sometimes feels impossible. The dog owner had declined daily room cleaning, an option that many hotels have encouraged as environmentally friendly but is a way for them to cut labor costs and cope with worker shortages since the COVID-19 pandemic. Unionized housekeepers, however, have waged a fierce fight to restore automatic daily room cleaning at major hotel chains, saying they have been saddled with unmanageable workloads, or in many cases, fewer hours and a decline in income.