We know that American business owners are contending with a sudden reduction in low-paid workers, particularly in the hospitality industry, which is being impacted by the ripple effects of ongoing immigration raids.
But this is a new one. A La Quinta hotel in Florida is being accused of solving staffing issues by outsourcing front desk jobs via video conference.
In a widely seen video, a social media user depicts a budget hotel in Miami that, according to the social media post, had replaced live desk staff with a polite and professionally dressed receptionist who appeared virtually from another location.
From the clip, it appears that the remote clerk was able to monitor and operate payment and key card systems built into the kiosk at the hotel, but at no point during the check-in would the customer meet a live human being.
The video, if genuine, raises lots of questions about just how many staff members are on-site at the hotel to handle security issues, safety concerns, and customer service.
Lots of other social accounts have reposted the clip, resulting in millions of views, but as we know is standard practice in the scroll-o-verse, the information each account presents alongside the video is frequently packed with unproven conjecture.
"Miami hotels are embracing a new way of welcoming guests: virtual front desks where check-ins are handled remotely from India," claimed an account called BarelyOpinionated.
Well, no.
The location of the person handling the check-in was not revealed as India or anywhere else specific.
And no, as you'll see in a moment, Miami hotels are not "embracing" this way of handling guest arrivals. Quite the reverse.
The video itself, however, is real.
What La Quinta says about the video clip
Because so many AI-generated smear campaigns are circulating online, Frommer's asked corporate representatives at La Quinta whether the video is genuine, if the check-in method reflects a new corporate policy, and which La Quinta location is shown in the viral post.
A spokesperson sent Frommer's the following statement following an internal investigation of the viral clip.
"This is a franchised location, meaning the hotel is independently owned and operated, and as such, we don’t control staffing. That said, this franchisee’s use of this equipment is not brand approved nor is it being marketed to other franchisees. Further, our brand standards require hotels to have a team member physically stationed at the front desk at all times. Upon learning of this matter, we immediately reached out to the hotel’s owner who has since informed us the hotel will be removing the kiosk."
In other words, the video is real, but the practice is forbidden and the hotel operator has been commanded to get rid of the setup.
La Quinta's rep did not answer our direct question about which of its properties was using the disallowed system, but the Daily Mail identified the location as the La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Sunrise, outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
So while the hotel operator has been caught red-handed trying to outsource on-site hotel staff—maybe even to India-based workers, but we don't know that for sure—the owner did so without the consent of the La Quinta brand.
La Quinta's response proves this is not something you'll have to deal with during your next hotel stay.
As AI fever infects cooler minds in the hospitality industry, though, we can make no promises about what hotel brands may inflict on us in the near future.