To think these women are arseholes?

[Flypaperforarseholes]

Spent the weekend away with a group of women (most of whom I don't know) for a friend's birthday.
10 of us in total, 2 of whom (including the Laura, whose birthday we were celebrating) I have been friends with for 10+ years.
Shared a twin with Nora, on Sunday morning, before going to breakfast, we packed ready to check out. I then stripped the beds and collected the used towels together.
We went down for breakfast and Laura laughingly asked if I'd stripped the beds yet. It is a bit of a standing joke amongst us because it's something I've always done in hotels. One of the other women, Paula, asked what it was about and I explained. She was quite taken aback and asked why I felt the need to do it/don't I like to relax etc. She drew it to the attention of the whole group and took to calling me Mrs Mop for the rest of the day. A bit irritating but didn't bother me really.
This evening, a message from Paula came up in the watsapp group which had been set up at the planning stage of the trip.
"Thank you for a lovely weekend, girls. Laura, do give me flypaperforarseholes number, good help is so hard to come by these days. LOL!"
A few laughter emojis and "LOL"'s from some of the other women. Nothing from Paula or Nora yet.
Am I BU to think these women are arseholes?! It hasn't bothered me massively, in large part due to the fact that I found Paula a pretentious bore of a woman and thus give a minimum of fucks about what she thinks of me but I'm surprised that this such a small thing seems to have become quite the focal point for her. I'm assuming she doesn't realise I'm on the group chat because I haven't actually messaged on it. These women are school mum friends of Lauras and I don't want her to get caught in the middle so haven't replied...yet.

The OP doesn't need to justify bed stripping, plate stacking or anything else.

Surely the issue is a group of grown women decided to be bitchy about it on a group chat to her face and behind her back? Why is it ok to carry on like this?

You can disagree about how things are done why do you need to belittle or humiliate someone by ganging up on them?

I agree brassbrass

Enjoyable as all this discussion of etiquette is, I think we can all agree, regardless of your opinion on plates and beds, that being horrible to the OP about it is not very nice.

Agreed. Adults should be able to just say, "I'd prefer it if you didn't strip my bed."

You take the trolley back at the supermarket but you don't sit withe the cashier and scans the goods or start working on someone's trolley of stock on the shop floor. The best way to help someone in these jobs is to be.polite, not leave a mess around, you don't need to do their job. I work in a.supermarket so my comments aren't 'insecurity about my background '

The things that piss me off about being a shop worker are rude customers or those who leave half eaten.baguettes at the back of the shelves or, worse, cold items.discovered three weeks later covered in green..I also like the ones that hand.me their rubbish when I am on the shop floor and am.just.as.far from.the bin as they are but they're above all that, apparently

I would be embarrassed as fuck by the message Laura sent. I don't want a friend fighting my battles for me. If my friend was an arse to another friend I would deal with it at the time, or if not maybe have a quiet word later, but a group chat message like that? Embarrassing as hell.

YANBU the comment was at best not funny at worst demeaning. I would have ignored it too.

Love Laura's response though!

"Paula likes to feel superior to others, this comes from insecurity."

I agree with this from earlier in the thread.

Laura sounds like a loyal friend.

I was taught to always strip beds and leave towels in the bath by very wealthy European family and by a very wealthy Jamaican family. If they can do it... Not sure I like the "leave those jobs to the help" attitudes on this thread.

NavyAndWhite more have said they appreciate it than have said they don't...

@NavyandWhite just because a few have said that doesn't mean they all feel that way. If someone decides to strip the bed it doesn't effect you. You don't have to do it, if they want to just let it be.

NavyandWhite yes, despite that. There is no way that I can possibly know whether the person looking after my room on that particular visit will be in that group or not so I'd rather try and do the right thing than not do anything at all.

Why not do the norm? Which is to not strip the bed. Who says it's the right thing? As an ex chambermaid I think it's the wrong thing for reasons I've outlined in previous posts.

Roussette do you think you speak for all chambermaids?

And surely this thread shows that there is no norm. There seems to be a fairly even split, no?

Of course I don't. Neither do you Horlicks. But no one can deny that the 'norm' is to not strip the beds.

I've never known anyone do it TBH and I know it would've annoyed me if guests had started doing my job when I had my own way of doing it when I was a chambermaid.

Equal split maybe but I would go with the normal behaviour of guests to err on the safe side

Maybe it should be the norm.

But based on what?? Roussette says it's not the norm but how representative is she? You might not know anyone in RL does it but how do you know that all the people you know don't do it? Have you asked them? A few people on this thread do, a few don't. I know a good handful of people who do it, although thinking about it none of them British. Is your experience of other people's behaviour in this respect more valid than mine?

No, as I've said horlicks it's an equal split but I honestly do not think most guests strip the beds in a hotel ! Where have I said tht my experience of other people's behaviour in this respect is more valid than yours?

I have never ever heard of one person doing this, but obviously we move in different circles. I'll ask my friend who is Housekeeping Manager of a large hotel in Birmingham... betcha she'll say it's rare. Me saying that is not saying my opinion is more valid. It is just MY opinion and that's what a forum is for. Expressing an opinion. However, if friend who runs the large hotel in Birmingham says she has never known it, I might just go with that

Even though some chambermaids have explained why they don't like beds being stripped Horlicks?

I think all but one chambermaids/ex chambermaids who have commented have said that they find it helpful.

Would he be expected to strip his bed too?

No-one is expected to do it! It is, as has been said quite a few times now, something people do to be nice.

I've stopped in hotels with loads of people over the years, but never a stripper. I've never seen anyone do it. It would be like watching a companion quickly clean the toilet before you left, or dusting the surfaces.

You wouldn't have a quick sweep round when you were waiting at the hairdressers, or put the tried on clothes back from the rack by the fitting room in M&S. They could be helpful things to do, of course, but I don't know. Is it a bit patronising to the person whose job that is? "There you are, I thought you'd like some help with your crappy tasks..."

I'm sorry it makes your job harder Roussette.

I do just think it's a shame that actions like this done with good intentions (even if not always welcome) are the things that are picked up on by those who would likely never lift a finger to help anyone (and by this I mean Paula - to bring it back to the thread!!) and thereby gradually discouraged over time.

Fair enough Horlicks Maybe I'm odd not wanting my job interfered with but that's just me!

I just think there are other things you can do to make people's life easier and this isn't one of them necessarily.

And as Navy said, it's a treat for me to stay in a hotel so bottom line is... I just don't want to be stripping beds because that's 'home' not 'treat'.