If you work in hospitality

[SpiderGram]

I read a thread a while ago detailing some of the less palatable practices that sometimes go on whilst cleaning rooms, serving food etc. and it's made me question every time I go out for a treat!
I used to clean time-share apartments as a teenager, and everything was done in a very hygienic way, so I'm somewhat horrified by some of the tales.
I would love to hear from people that work in cafes, restaurants, hotels etc. that have high levels of service and hygiene. Please tell me some positive stories so I can enjoy a glass of water out of a hotel glass again!

Forgive my cynicism but do you work for the DM?

🙄

I worked in hospitality for 20 years and for this reason, I only eat in places with open kitchens .
To be honest you can kind of get a sense of the hygiene by how clean the toilets are.

First time I gave cleaning any thought was when we were on a self catering holiday in Spain. One day, it was raining so we stayed in reading in the lounge area when the cleaner arrived - she said she'd come back later, but we planned to stay in, so asked her in to clean around us. She didn't have a trolley, just one of those hand-held plastic containers - all it had in it was ONE cleaning cloth and one squirty bottle of cleaning fluid! She went to do the bathroom first, and then came back and cleaned the kitchen surfaces, cooker top, sink, etc., with the one and only cleaning cloth she'd just used in the bathroom presumably to wipe around the loo and sink! It was my OH who nudged me and pointed it out! As soon as she left, I was out with my own cloth and gave the kitchen and then the bathroom sink a good clean with soapy water and then anti-bac hand gel!!

Ever since, we've generally done without cleaners coming in to hotel rooms, and just put the "do not disturb" card on the door handle. When we first get to the room, we do our own "deep clean" of the bathroom, door handles, and other surfaces. Likewise we do it ourselves on arrival at self catering rooms or holiday apartments, etc. Sometimes, the cleaners keep trying to persuade us to let them in to do the cleaning, but we'd rather they didn't - if we need more loo rolls etc then we just ask for some when we see the trolley on the corridor!

When eating out, we tend to order food which is well cooked/fried/boiled etc as hopefully the cooking process will kill off any germs, bacteria, etc. We never order salad, raw foods, etc. We also try to order things specially, i.e. ask for well-done meat, etc so that hopefully we get something freshly cooked rather than something which has been sat under heat lamps or in on a warmer plate for hours! Even in McDonalds, we do a "special" order, i.e. a bigmac without pickles or unsalted fries, so that there's more chance of them being specially made rather than sat there for ages! Same at a chippy, we'll order a lightly battered fish as they'll then cook it to order!

Not sure I've ever been so offended😂

Damn, I was hoping for more 'yes, I work in a kitchen and we would never reuse the half eaten ketchup dish!' or, 'I clean hotel rooms and new freshly out of dishwasher glasses are placed in rooms daily!' type posts. I'm never going to properly enjoy a hotel stay again am I?😞

You clean a hotel room before you stay in it? 😂😂 I've heard it all now...

@Kazzyhoward not particularly the point of the thread but all McDonald's is made to order nowadays.

OP I worked in hospitality up until a couple of years ago and everywhere I worked (an independent hotel and 2 independent cafes) had very strict hygiene standards.

Years ago I worked in a very nice hotel in Bavaria as a chambermaid. The standards were very high and our boss did spot checks. I still wouldn't drink out of a glass in a hotel room bathroom though, simply because they're just wiped clean. Everything else like cups etc were always replaced from one occupancy to the next. Don't know about British hotels though.

Worked in many kitchens and bars. The standard cleanliness of the kitchens was by far much better than the bar areas. We didn't share a mop bucket with the toilets for example.

This is what I wanted to hear!