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.