Your hotel room may not be as clean as you think it is. Housekeeping isn’t done as often in rooms as it was before the pandemic, with hotel owners looking to cut costs and chains going along to keep owners happy.
When housekeeping returned, it was often “opt-in,” with hotels saying this was to promote choice. That wasn’t true. Customers already had the choice to decline housekeeping if they didn’t want anyone coming into their room. This was all about cost cuts. And where guests receive housekeeping during their stay, housekeepers are often instructed to do less than before.
Hotel housekeepers though have a bigger workload than ever,
- with less housekeeping during a stay, there’s more work to clean a room between stays for the next guest
- housekeepers are asked to do more rooms per shift than ever before in many places (although some jurisdictions have laws about this, and union contracts may limit it, so it’s not true everywhere)
So just because a brand standard may dictate changing all the sheets on the bed and changing out all of the towels in the bathroom, that doesn’t mean it always happens. Staff may cut a few corners. Better hotels will inspect rooms after they’re cleaned but not every shortcut is visible to the eye. So I’m reminded of this hotel general manager who said the quiet part out loud, even before the pandemic:
Sheets might not be changed if a bed doesn’t look slept in. Towels still folded and on the rack may be left there between guests. Even if that’s not the instruction that housekeepers are given and especially where management, like this one, is supportive.
A reader currently in Paris writes,
Just watched the housekeeper in turndown service take a rag, wipe down the seat of the toilet, wipe down the underseat, wipe down the toilet bowl, and then use the same towel to wipe all of the other surfaces, including the sink countertop, the controls for the sink, the mirror, the soap dish, etc.
So whatever fecal matter and bacteria was on the toilet seat was spread around. Would explain how hairs also get spread.
In 1874 Stockholm’s Grand Hotel became the first in Europe to change sheets in between guests. Unfortunately there are hotels in modern times where this idea didn’t seem to catch on. And that’s in beds that had been slept in.
I’ve generally seen and heard housekeepers using the same service rag throughout the bathroom and it is why I’d never use a glass cup in the bathroom to drink from. Beijing hotels were actually caught using the toilet bowl cleaner on the room’s drinking glasses.
At a minimum, guests should be able to insist on a fully clean room. And brands have only their reputation (and the value of their loyalty programs) to attract guests – really, to sell the guests they attract to hotel owners. So insisting on full and thorough cleaning, to protect their reputation, guest experience, and competitive advantage over Airbnb, just makes sense. And to get there requires sufficient staffing in housekeeping as well as oversight and auditing.
Sadly not surprising — I’m sure there’s a lot of amazing housekeepers out there that care about their craft and do an amazing job but there’s also those who just don’t care or do not have the proper resources or circumstances (I.e. workload pressures alluded to in the article) to do a proper job. Same with any job really.
Not a hotel fancy enough to be immune to this, although risk is lower when there’s a systematic follow-up check to cleans at the more high end hotels.
I’ve been a lot lazier recently but I usually alcohol wipes down all surfaces when I first get to my room, but there’s always going to be risk that unfortunately travellers have to assume are there. For example I can’t wipe down the pillows or towels.
It’s wasteful but I definitely think there should be a fresh toilet paper roll between guests for at the very least optic purposes which I don’t often see.
The expectation of a proper job should absolutely to be there (definitely no excuse for a hotel not to provide a clean room that you are paying for) but the assumption should not.
Now, I am going to wipe down countertops and other areas in hotels.
I thought we had all learned something from the virus disaster. Of course you have to wipe down the bathroom, the HVAC controls, the phone, wash any glasses not packaged, the nightstand … this is not rocket science. You wipe down all surfaces on a plane, including the air vent, don’t you? On the subject of a hotel not changing obviously unused sheets or towels, it’s naive to think a hotel would do that … and a big waste of resources. I ‘clean’ my hotel room, then bar housekeeping from my room.
Gary – It’s a tricky subject as the larger chains have different rules for different price points in their product line-up. For instance, an entry-level Marriott may use “MD” or “Maid’s Discretion” to see if bedding needs to be changed – but you can assume sheets are changed at Ritz Carlton properties.
I saw one study that indicated that the highest bacterial count in any hotel room is generally found on the TV remote (best to speculate why).
Some of the fascinating housekeeping facts have to do with decorative pillows and bed coverings; by policy, many are not changed for a period of months.
One hack that seems to work in high-rise properties – fill the bathtub with cold water as soon as you arrive. That will add some moisture to a typically dry room while you are sleeping.
@jsn55 – uh NO I DON’T wipe down the surfaces on a plane or my hotel room. Not as paranoid as you and apparently Gary. Been traveling this way for over 40 years and never had a problem so not suddenly becoming a germaphobe. God the things people obsess about!
I don’t understand why people overly concerned with sanitary procedures bother leaving the sterility of their own home. I played in mudpuddles as a kid, I touch handrails in public places, I eat food from street vendors, I even eat at E. coli-ridden Mexican fast-food chains! Despite all that, I’ve survived 59 years.
As many of your readers probably do; I will occasionally do a mattress run for which I do not actually “use” the room. I don’t shower, I don’t sleep there, but I may take a quick tour of the room and possibly take water bottles and toiletries (based on if I like and brand).
As such, I’m OK and actually appreciate the fact that they don’t strip bed and change towels if they appear unused (common sense). In fact, I’m more annoyed when they change my towels (face, bath, hand) everyday if there’s no need to change it out. I know many of my colleagues are in the “Privacy Please” camp to just ensure this isn’t done (among other things), but , returning to original point, I think it makes sense. Also I do wipe down remote, phone, light switches myself, because I am not naive, nor do I believe any brand, GM, Director of Housekeeping will be able to ensure that every room/housekeeper follows a standard protocol with every room.
I always wash the cups and glasses with the shampoo and rinse the electric kettle. I might even boil one pot of water and throw it out. Not many old style coffee makers left but those need to be cleaned too.
I needed a good laugh today. The level of things people do to “sanitize” their rooms and plane tray tables is amusing. If you think things have changed just since covid you are mistaken. It has always been this way. I often tease my wife that the drinking glasses/coffee cups we are using were probably rinsed in the bathroom sink and dried with the used bath towel of the previous guest. I have always assumed, and it does not bother me in the least if, unused towels and beds are not changed between guests. I have survived without worrying about it for over 60 years so not going to start worrying about it now.
I always assumed this was the case.
As an airline pilot, whether I have one bed or 2. I will always wet all the towels and strip the beds. I know another person will be in that very room again that night and it’s a courtesy to them.
You’re also an idiot if you use keurig or glassware.
I traveled for a living and have so many stories I can’t recount them all. I always stayed in top name brand hotel chains. Once check in to a room with nicely folded towels on the towel rack and took one down to find a big red lipstick mark in the middle. Obviously left there on purpose knowing the towel would not be replaced. Another time (and the last time I even thought about using them) filled the coffee pot with water only to have it foam with suds. Once found a pair of women’s underwear in a perfectly made bed. Another time looked up at the wall and ceiling above the bed to find what looked for the world like blood spots. Is it any wonder we had a pandemic.
@Steve: You said, “As an airline pilot, whether I have one bed or 2. I will always wet all the towels and strip the beds. I know another person will be in that very room again that night and it’s a courtesy to them.”
If the flight crew stays in a Marriott, this might explain why all the towels were wet in my room.
I’m mildly immune compromised, so I’ve been bringing Clorox wipes into hotel rooms for at least two decades now. (And, for that matter, keeping housekeeping out at least every other day.) My husband used to make gentle fun of me, until the time I showed him the wipe filthy from the dark-brown surface of the night stand. (It smelled like a coffee spill, but clearly, housekeeping hadn’t touched the night table on that side.) Now he helps out.
Also, I travel with one of those sheet sets that’s like an oversized sleeping bag. I got it for an Amtrak trip that, got cancelled – it was recommended by several Amtrak regulars in my life – but I found it so soft and breathable that I just started bringing it all the time, especially with checked bags.
I just laugh when I see people wiping down things on a plane. What in the world are you worried about? Are you eating directly off of the tray table? Can’t imagine what it’s like to live in your paranoid world.
I use premium towelettes to wipe down the footrest on all flights.
Before we go all out on “corporate greed” I’m pretty sure the decision is driven by how much the hotel thinks it can charge before people complain/stop showing up. If they could get away charging more, they probably do a better job cleaning.
This is reminiscent of an article I read today where some TikTok video went viral on how much a meal costs at McDonald’s now.
Zillions of “corporate greed” comments, but not a single on on the probable effect of how much/ the minimum wage has increased across the board.
This is not a political statement. It’s a simple logical conclusion. Increase the cost of doing business is generally a guarantee that prices will go up.
But media never seems to mention that as even a remote possibility.
Brian you obviously are not using common sense if you believe that wiping down contact surfaces is silly. Do a little research before laughing at others.
No, it’s a little silly to wipe down every surface you come across.
Everyone had their own standards of risk/safety/hygiene, but if that’s yours, why even leave the house? Why take the risk?
If it were really that big of a problem, I would have had something happen to me by this point, with how much I travel.
“Do some research”? What research? Where? What sources? You’re the one trying to make a point, don’t give me a homework assignment to prove your claim.
@ Steve (the airline pilot). For the many hours that I spent on the flight deck (cockpit when I started flying) I always carried Handi-wipes. That was years before the airline I worked for started putting O2 mask wipes on board. (and yes the old quick donning mask hanging behind the pilot.) Occasionally I would get a comment that I was a germaphobe to which I would reply “Howard Hughes was way to casual about germs.” When I worked for SV, many years ago, I flew with an English expat who would put on his “glide path gloves” when handling the control yoke.