Stephanie VanDerSchie returned to her hotel room in Wausau, Wis., after a long day of skiing last month with her three young children to find their room disheveled.

Their sheets were untucked, their garbage can was overflowing, and their soggy towels were in limp piles on the damp bathroom floor.

Ms. VanDerSchie, 44, a high school teacher in River Forest, Ill., assumed that for the $200 a night she was paying, she’d at least get new towels and a quick room refresh daily, without having to make a special request during her three-night stay.

She was wrong.