Hotel Horrors!

Traveling this holiday season?

There's a "dirty" little secret about hotel hygiene you may want to know about!

Hotel Housekeeping Secrets (http://clipsyndicate.com/publish/video/438812/i_team_dirty_hotel_secrets_pt)

Ewwwww!!!!!

I WILL bring my own cup next time I'm staying at a hotel!

When I see the hotel housekeeping carts they are always full of towels, toiletries, and cleaning stuff but there are never any glasses in them. I am surprised it never dawned on me.

I normally drink bottled water from the bottle. Never use the hotel glasses because I do not trust their tap water.

Oh for goodness sake! Yuck!

I travel all the time and will never use a hotel glass again! I think I will pass on the tip as well.:tongue2:

I'm not surprised - I've seen them clean rooms and knew that they didn't usually replace the cups. It's not that hard to rinse or wash the glass before you use it.

What I don't like is thinking about other people sleeping under the same bedspread, and I worry about the "bedbug" problem in some hotels. Yuck!

ya I saw that before so next time I check in somewhere I feel like bringing my own luminol and light to check it out!!

Merilee,

this was brought up on my forums, so I'll pass it along to those of you who want to check the bedding in the Hotel; a suitcase size, battery operated black light for only $14.95 Portable Black Light (http://www.testsymptomsathome.com/fot01.asp)

Turn the lights off in the room and scan the bedding with the black light. Dried bodily fluids that can't be detected with the naked eye become clearly visible.

Dried bodily fluids that can't be detected with the naked eye become clearly visible.

*shudders*

I worked as a housekeeper for two different places while in college. One was a resort; the other was a Holiday Inn.

**The resort used real glasses; I never once "cheated" and cleaned it myself, but I may be the exception to the rule. However--some of the glasses were stored in our sheds--some of the rooms were cabins and a far hike from the kitchen. These glasses were inevitably dusty...at times, they did not go back to the kitchen. EEEK! I would clean them—but with dish soap, in the cabin’s kitchen sink.

**The Holiday Inn used pre-wrapped disposable cups. Ask for these when you stay somewhere; or bring your own!

**Comforters were changed every four months, unless visibly soiled. Eww!

**Blankets are the same--they are not changed every time a room turns over. Again, eww.

**Pillows were only rotated out for washing every two months. EEEW!

On the flip side: hotel housekeeping is a back-breaking, thankless job. You are given a room list, told you have so many minutes per room, plus you can't go home until all your rooms are cleaned. Also, people can be so obnoxious when staying in a property that does not belong to them. Used condoms were the biggest gross out I encountered, but they were one of many. The thing that killed me most--and this happened a lot--were people who must have thought, hmm, I'm in a hotel, must be time to trim the old bush....yech. Pubic hair is a *****-kitty to clean up, let me tell you!

The Holiday Inn was in a tourist town; on the weekend of a big event, I almost cried when I discovered the mess left in a group of rooms. It was obvious the same group of people had rented four rooms right next to each other. And how FUNNY it must have been to them...to put the whole roll of toilet paper, plus the Kleenex, into the toilet. And use it. Repeatedly. Yes, both types of using it.

:eek::eek::eek:

I almost quit that day.

As for tipping...most people just don't do it anymore. This is very sad, because while hotels have to pay minimum wage at least, they seldom pay much above it. Someone makes way too little money to clean up other people's waste.

So, yes, I'm sure some short cuts are taken at your destination hotel of choice...but take a moment to give a little love and respect to the people who clean those rooms each day. As they say, it's a dirty job--and these people do it to feed their kids.

thank you for your post larasteel.
Because of my work, for many years I practically lived in hotel rooms.
I've gone from the major five stars to the small minus 5 star hotels in a dark alley with a prostitute as a next door neighbour and roaches on the walls.

You can say all the eeeee and ewwwww that you want,but still, still, still, you are lucky when you can afford a good hotel with a comfortable bed. And as larasteel mentioned, please tip the cleaning ladies, they really do a tough job.

It's not difficult to wash a glass with some soap and hot water before using it, and please don't use black light on beds and freak yourselves out.

We take public transportation here and use the same seats that hundreds of thousands of sweaty bodies have used before us, we touch the same doors and handles that more hands that have been heaven knows where have touched.

It is just not possible to live in asepticized bubbles. If you do not want to add on your daily stress and things that you should avoid, just forget about it and have a good night sleep at any hotel, be thankful that you can afford it and enjoy your trip.

just my opinion.