Hotels can keep the scent program, the branded bicycles, and the little bottle of local honey. They’re all pleasant enough, but none of them count for much when the guest calls downstairs and nobody with a brain answers.

The industry has wandered into an amenity arms race because amenities photograph well and give owners something shiny to point at. Meanwhile, the guest is trying to get the basics handled, which usually means the room is too hot, the bag is missing, or breakfast needs to arrive before an early flight. That phone call tells him very quickly whether adults are in charge.

The person answering needs common sense, and the owner needs to empower him to do whatever’s required to make the guest happy. Reading policy won’t cool the room, and a graceful apology won’t retrieve the bag. The guest paid the hotel to remove problems from his life, and handing the problem back to him is a stupid way to justify a luxury rate.

Hotels have also filled rooms with tablets, QR codes, and “curated” minibars while quietly reducing the number of useful people available to the guest. The software may look modern, and the silk sleep mask may be lovely, but neither can find the missing laundry or persuade engineering to get out of bed. A hotel hiding behind an app has cheaped out on the help.

These aren’t trivial points, because this is where owner and investor money can get incinerated. Once the guest gets irritated because the hotel can’t handle the basics, he starts calculating what the stay is costing him in aggravation. The pillow menu suddenly looks ridiculous because the hotel spent money offering twelve kinds of foam and somehow forgot to employ one adult who could solve a problem.

On the other hand, competent staff who are empowered to do the right thing keep the guest spending and inclined to return. It’s really quite simple: Once the hotel proves useful, the guest starts using it more. She orders dinner, uses the spa, and tells her friends because the hotel made her life easier. The hotel gets both the ancillary spend and the future business without spending a single extra dollar.

Keep the turndown theater and the welcome pastry, but the amenity that prints money is the person who picks up the phone, understands what needs to happen, and gets it done.