Staying at a hotel: we don’t think much about it, but it’s kind of an odd experience. You’re temporarily living next door to plenty of strangers, all while being served by a dedicated staff of cooks, cleaners, and hotel employees. In the end, it makes for a pleasant experience that’s meant to make you forget everything about your way-too-stressful life back home. But how much do we know about what’s going on at hotels out there?
While we’re outside, enjoying our vacation, hotel staff are cleaning our rooms diligently. But is that all they do? Or have they been keeping some secrets from us? It turns out there are a lot of hidden practices to the job, and some of those are not very nice to know about, especially if you happen to be a regular hotel visitor. Today, let’s take a look at all the secret stuff hotel employees love to do, as exposed by real-life staff who are not afraid to share. Spoiler alert: Some of these may be kind of shocking!
Yes, They Will Sleep On The Bed
This one is kind of obvious, but still shocking. Whenever housekeeping has the chance, they will lay down on your bed and take a nap. There’s just no way you can resist a freshly-made bed after a hardworking morning, and housekeeping has plenty of those to choose from!
If you don’t think much about it, it’s not that bad. After all, thousands of people have already slept in the hotel bed you’re paying for! Still, a mattress is not something most people would want to share with a total stranger.
They Will Try Your Finest Clothes
This one is probably not standard practice, but housekeeping has admitted to trying on expensive clothes of guests, just for the thrill of it. We get it: the hotel housekeeping salaries are not that great, and some hotels receive extremely wealthy guests all the time.
For many housekeeping staff members, this may be the only chance they’ll ever have to try a Gucci dress or a luxury Italian suit. Still, it’s not cool. When you’re paying for a room, you at least expect nobody to mess with your stuff!
They Get Bored and Snoop Around
Human beings are naturally curious, and housekeeping is no exception. Cleaning tens of similar-looking rooms every single day can be pretty tedious. So, it’s no wonder some staff take some time to snoop around and add some excitement to the job.
A strange stain on the bed? You can talk about it with your friends for the whole day. An odd object in the closet? It can make for some fun conspiracy theories! So, if you ever feel like you’re being watched while staying at a hotel, that’s because, in a way, you are!
They Don’t Really Care About The Minibar
Most hotels have a minibar in every room, stacked with cold beverages and tasty snacks. But these overpriced items are hardly controlled, and you can almost always get away with eating and drinking from the minibar and not telling anyone about it.
While some hotels keep their minibars under strict control, most will simply let it go and trust their guests to pay for what they consume. This doesn’t necessarily mean you should simply take what you want without paying, but it’s a nice one to keep in mind!
Does It Look Clean? Let’s Call It Clean Then!
This one is a shocker. Hotel housekeeping has confessed that many employees seldom actually wash the duvets, coverlets, and sheets of hotel rooms, particularly after one-night stays. Instead, they work on faster and easier solutions: if it doesn’t look dirty, then it can be considered clean!
Have they never heard about germs and bacteria? It turns out that’s not an issue for many hotel housekeeping staff. All they do is get rid of visible stains, lint, and smooth any wrinkles or marks left by the former guests.
The True Purpose of Free Soap
No, that’s not something housekeeping does. That’s something they’re told you should be doing! Contrary to popular belief, hotels are not trying to save on their free soaps and shower gels. In truth, they want guests to take these complimentary items home with them.
Why? Good old fashioned advertising, of course! Taking something from the hotel back home with you improves your chances of ever going back to that same hotel. Nothing takes you back to a nice vacation like a little memorabilia, such as a nice towel or a little shampoo bottle.
They Snub the Tub
If there’s a perfect time for you to take a relaxing bubble bath, that’s when you’re staying at a hotel. But the next time you do take a bath, please look out for possible odors or stains on the bathtub. It turns out most hotel housekeeping staff simply ignore the tub when cleaning the bathrooms.
They open the faucet and leave the water running for a couple of seconds. And in most cases, that’s it! It’s kind of disgusting, but you can get around it by dropping some of that complimentary shampoo round the tub before taking your relaxing bath, just to be safe!
Don’t Use My Name!
Yes, most hotel employees wear a name tag, which makes you wonder: why is it wrong to call them by their name? It turns out hotel employees hate it when complete strangers address them as “Joe,” “Linda,” or “Jack” because it merely sounds condescending and disrespectful to them.
If you get friendly with a hotel employee, please ask before calling him/her by the first name. Hotel employees are human beings, and even though they’re there to serve the guests, staying at a hotel doesn’t make you their boss.
They Ignore The Signs
We guess bad guests are to blame for this one. The “do not disturb” signs of most hotels are poorly used by visitors, who simply leave them on their doors indefinitely, even after checking-out. That’s why housekeeping has learned seldom to pay attention to these signs.
Housekeeping staff work on demanding, tight schedules, and any room they do not clean is a potential problem. For that reason, they always knock to make sure a “do not disturb” sign is not being misused. As hotel guests, we can help the hotel staff by not putting this sign on our door unless we truly need to.
They Laugh At Silliness Behind Your Back
Yes, hotel employees are there to serve, not to judge. So, if a guest happens to ask for something silly, they will most likely say yes. But that doesn’t mean they will not laugh behind your back, especially if you happen to ask for something as silly as, say, a framed picture of a celebrity!
We all have weird habits and desires. But during your next stay at the hotel, please keep in mind that the staff hates it when people ask for frivolous and unnecessary things. Either way, Ramon will always be there to assist you with “pleasure.”
They Flirt With Guests
Housekeeping is only human, and even though they shouldn’t, they may flirt with some of their most attractive guests. According to a former hotel housekeeping staff member, some of her colleagues even ended up in the room of one or two of their guests.
It’s naughty, yes, but there’s nothing you can do to stop the ever-imposing forces of nature. And a hotel is just too perfect of a place for canoodling with strangers: there are hundreds of empty rooms to choose from, and some nights can get utterly lonely.
Inside Jokes About Guests
Working at a hotel makes for some funny scenes and stories. All kinds of crazy characters may end up spending the night at a hotel, so it’s only natural that housekeeping jokes about them. In some cases, they may even give a nickname to a guest, which is usually related to something unique he/she does.
Naturally, some of these nicknames are outright offensive, while others are just innocent and funny. So, if you have a strange habit, you may get yourself a hotel nickname; and if you do, you’ll most likely never find out about it!
Unclaimed Lost Items Do Find New Homes
Hotel guests leave behind all kinds of items. But after a mandatory period of 45 to 90 days is over, staff members are allowed to keep these items all for themselves. Some of the things most often left behind at hotels include chargers, clothes, glasses, and—believe it or not—dentures and hearing aids!
From time to time, an extremely valuable and useful item gets left behind. A former 5-star hotel housekeeping staff member went online to reveal she acquired some pretty expensive items from former guests, including a top-class hair straightener and a designer jacket.
Complaining Works!
Please don’t turn into a rude and presumptuous hotel guest after reading this. But, as former hotel employees have revealed, it seems like complaining can get you a big discount on your hotel room fee.
The staff will cut as much as 30% on your room price, as long as you complain about something. But you have to do it properly! Don’t complain in front of other guests, and be as polite as possible. If you’re older, your chances of getting a discount after complaining will only improve.
Bed Bugs Are a Bonafide Hotel Plague
In 2015, a Las Vegas hotel got into some serious trouble after being sued by a woman named Jennifer Haynes. Jennifer woke up with a sore body covered in bed bugs’ bites and decided to approach the hotel after the horrible, “near-fatal” experience. Yet, she was hardly the first guest to encounter this way-too-common hotel problem.
Still, housekeeping doesn’t always believe it’s their responsibility to get rid of bed bugs. According to a former housekeeping staff member, bed bugs are generally brought by guests, who carry them inside in their luggage. While it might be true, preventing and getting rid of these annoying creatures is still their job, in our humble opinion.