If you’re a hotel housekeeper/cleaner…

[Didjesuspoop]

What things can/do guests do to make your life a little bit easier? I ask this after a recent stay in an amazing hotel when my husband looked at me like I had 2 heads for emptying the bin and stripping the bed! Is there anything that saves 5 minutes of your time when cleaning a room and/or are there things guest do which make your job harder? Currently so poorly so thought I’d post out of curiosity and have my mind taken off things! :)

I used to be a housekeeper and turndown assistant in a top hotel - 5* hotel that was in a further leading category.

1. If a hotel has room service, leave the tips for the cleaning staff under pillowcases and the room service trays outside the room. Room service gets to rooms faster than cleaning staff and would often take what wasn't meant for them.

1. Flush the toilet. If there's a toilet brush in the room, scape your own poo out. You're paying for the service of being in a nice place, not to get off on the idea of some "minion" scraping your shit off the toilet.

1. If you happen to be in possession of a king's ransom worth jewellery made of of diamonds, emeralds and gold, plus loose stones, please don't leave it all over your bed and then complain that your bed hasn't been turned down. We're not paid enough to touch valuables like that! I'm assuming most Mumsnetters leave theirs in the safe at home though 😉

1. I have never had a drink from a hotel cup/mug without washing it first - or used the spoons. I used to wash them straight away when I arrived and boil then empty the kettle. Now I usually travel with my own mug :) Although during lockdowns a lot of places switched to paper cups in the room and that was a bit more reassuring (that was more 4** star rather then leading 5 stars which I don't regularly stay in!)! I had thought that there was less room for problems with Nespresso machines in rooms but recently had one that had had someone put milk through the water channel a fair time earlier. Can still smell it now. The hotel changed it quickly but I now always run them before making a drink! Oh and always empty the water reservoir and refill it yourself!

These practices are unnervingly common. I never allowed it but I’ve had new housekeepers who picked up these habits.

I always wash any hotel cups glasses and spoons before using.

It's a time thing. You have 30 minutes to clean a room (very standard in hotels) during that time you have to strip/ remake bed, empty bins, wipe every surface, lamps, mirrors, clean bathroom, put out fresh towels and toiletries, refill tea tray, fresh milk etc.

I absolutely did not have time to go down 2 floors and run stuff through a dishwasher. It's a rare hotel that washes it's cups/ glasses though ime check out the housekeeping trollies next time you stay; you'll spot the odd bar glass but not the rooms cups/ glasses

I worked in another hotel and there were no cleaning cloths just bits of old towel. During my almost non existant training the head housekeepr said just try and remember not to use the same cloth for cleaning the cups as you do the toilet and laughed.

Giveitall I did a hospitality training course years ago and can remember our very prim and proper tutor giving us clear instructions to check the room very carefully for 'unsavoury' items. Being a rather naive 16 year old I didn't really know what she meant .

I did that job briefly a very very long time ago and I would say - flush the toilet and clean it if it's visibly dirty.

If you're a guest, wash the glasses before you use them - they are really just rinsed and dried with whatever is lying around. I always wash them now myself as soon as I get to a hotel.

And if you order room service, tip the delivery person a pound or two. It's so appreciated. An effusive smile is not nearly as sincere as a gold coin.

I used to run a 4* B+B with 12 bedrooms and really I didn't expect guests to do anything other than leave the room in a reasonable state. If something had been spilled, or there was blood somewhere it was very useful to be told. It takes less than a minute to strip a bed and you can keep an eye out for stains as you do it. Ditto emptying bins - grab them, throw the rubbish in the black sack, but a fresh bag in and put them back. Yes please flush the loo and brush it if you need to, but we're going to clean loos, baths and sinks anyway so don't get carried away.

Oh, and mugs and glasses - we always put ours in the dishwasher. Replaced with clean from the trolley. It's horrible that so many places don't bother. We kept our B+B as we would want to find it if we were staying.

Re the mugs and glasses, why don’t you bring up a load of clean ones on the trolley from the dishwasher then replace the clean ones with dirty? Why wash them up with a manky old pillowcase?

this always gets mentioned on these threads and is really bizarre to me!

Yeah I just don’t get this.

it probably takes more effort to rinse and wipe used glasses and cups in the room than it would to replace them with clean ones from the dishwasher you’ve brought up on the trolley or whatever.

anyway from now on I’m going to demand fresh cups and glasses from the hotel bar 😁

I would never strip a bed or empty the bin in a hotel room. I stay in hotels to have a rest from domestic chores. Always leave it tidy though with dirty cups spoons erc together and leave a tip of course.

@Tarnation as a holiday home owner would you please tell this guest what you expect us to do with all the cushions that are heaped on beds when we arrive? The floor is often the only option.

I absolutely fucking HATE cushions on the bed! They’re so pointless, they serve zero purpose and they are always dirty / never ever have washed covers

Why don’t hotels / holiday homes just get rid?

Oh god, the cups! My first job at 16 was cleaning rooms in a posh hotel in Windsor. I was TRAINED to wash the cups out in the bathroom sink with a USED towel (don’t create extra laundry) 🤮The reasoning was that we couldn’t use the dishwashers because the restaurant and bar needed them and it would take too long. I remember it changed just before I left, I think a hotel inspector or someone found out and gave management a bollocking. That was 20years ago, I can’t believe it still happening!!

I always wash cups with boiling water but hoped they'd use clean these days 🤢

That’s grim. Depends how desperate for a job I was but I don’t know that I could go along with that if I worked there.

Probably not relevant but many years ago I used to work with a current (Tory) MP, and we were all discussing what we liked about staying in hotels and she said that in a previous job she worked away a lot and so would always save shaving her legs for when she was staying in a hotel so she didn’t have to wash the bath out afterwards. That still pisses me off to this day and I think of it every time I stay in a hotel. I try to leave things as tidy as I can, used cups altogether, rubbish in the bin, towels in bath etc. never thought of stripping bed but will now. I’ve worked as a cleaner before and that’s hard work, I think being a chambermaid must be even worse

I am a hotel housekeeper. Large chain. All our cups are dishwashed and if we run out of clean ones we leave the room without cups and tell afternoon staff to put them in after the dishwasher has finished. None of us would ever rinse and reuse.

Personally I don’t think guests need to strip the bed

Don’t leave wet towels on the bed though

No used condoms on the floor

No used sanitary pads on the floor

Please bag up shitty nappies

I’d prefer it if you tried to wash away any beard/leg/pube trimmings as they are a bastard to clean off when they’ve dried on

A dozen half empty cans of Stella are annoying to deal with

Ditto cold cups of coffee

Try not to spray fizzy drinks all over the walls

Try to piss in the toilet rather than in the general vicinity

Don't shit in the bath

If you’re sick on the carpet please don’t leave without letting us know

Bins bagged up is a nice touch but again it’s not necessary

All of the above are extremely common occurrences and you can’t tell which guests will behave in that way by looking at them - class is absolutely no indicator.

Yes, cleaning the bath after shaved legs/pits/bikini line is not the best. I was cleaning about 20 years ago and we had a separate bucket on the trolly with dishwashing liquid a sponge and a tea towel for cups and spoons. After that I worked in a 5 star hotel and there was no policy about cups so anything could have been happening.

I work in housekeeping. We take the used glasses and cups downstairs and wash them in hot soapy water every time.
I've been there a year and in that time no one has ever tipped (except post weddings which is shared between all the staff). I did recently find £600 in an empty room but sadly not a tip. The rooms are very clean too - we're given nearer an hour per room.
My list is mostly the same as @Morristj

I should add that in my hotel we’re given 19 mins to clean each room.

I wouldn’t strip a hotel bed (I’m on holiday and plus I wouldn’t want to see the mattress). I really don’t think that is necessary.

I’m never drinking out of a hotel cup again!

Holiday cottage cleaner here and I've also cleaned hotel rooms in the past. We (I clean with DH) ask guests to strip beds and leave it reasonably clean and tidy. It does make things a lot quicker.

We're sometimes surprised by how messy people leave the cottages. DH found dirty cups put back in the kitchen cupboard on Saturday. We commented that surely people wouldn't do that in their own homes but maybe they do....

If I saw someone in the hotel stripped the bed I would assume that there was something dirty in it.