Hotel hygiene

[whateveryousay]

I’m currently on holiday in a 5* hotel. Will
state now that I am fully aware that I am very privileged, and that yes, this is a first world problem.

So I came back to our room after breakfast today, and housekeeping was making up the room. Lovely, smiley woman, signalled that I could come in as she was nearly done.

She then picked up our coffee cups which were draining on the counter next to the coffee machine, gave them, and the counter, a wipe with what looked like one of our used hand towels, and left. She did seem to be in a big hurry, I assume because she has to get through a certain number of rooms within a time-frame.

I was a bit non-plussed, and said nothing at the time (I realise now that that would have been better). But I’m now wondering how long those coffee cups have been ‘on the go’, and does she just rinse them in the sink and give them a dry with a dirty hand towel between guests too….ugh. I feel a bit grim thinking she just used my/DH’s towel, never mind a stranger’s.

I really want to complain and ask for new cups every day, but I’m not a massive dick, and realise that cleaning up after relatively rich people for little pay is not a great job, and I certainly wouldn’t want her to lose it.

What would you do?

I'm an ex housekeeper. From what I've seen, hospitality cleanliness is more 'make it look clean', than hygienic cleaning. I've seen my supervisor taking washed cutlery from the dishwasher and dry them on the bottom of her pinny. This was 3 hours into shift, I know where that pinny has touched when she's cleaned bathrooms etc.

Don't worry too much about stuff that isn't going into your mouth, but wash your own cutlery etc. Even Premier Inns etc. The ones I worked in were all handwashed, never went through the dishwasher. Most people aren't washing their hands after cleaning bathrooms, after taking dirty bedding off etc, then they're putting your cups and teaspoons out. Ok if you're not bothered about stuff like that, I've never been ill from it, before I knew. But now that I've seen how half of housekeeping cleans, I don't trust anyone 😅

What do you think will happen if you touch them?

To be fair, it's how we were trained. You had 30 minutes to do a changeover and in that time you had to fetch clean linen and towels from the closet. Move the hoover/ chemicals from the previous room. Spray everything in the bathroom and wipe down/ clean the loo, refresh toiletries spray floor and wipe on your way out the door. Strip and change the bed (massive superking beds so takes about 8 minutes.) Clean the cups, refresh the tea coffee tray. Give everything a decent dusting and hoover. Change rubbish bags, bag up old linen and towels, drag down a flight of stairs or two and outside to the store, to the kitchen for fresh milk and cookies and then back upstairs.

To do a same day refresh, you get 15 minutes. Really it's down to poor management. Cleaners are always undervalued as housekeeping is a department that doesn't generate an income so all they can do is minimise expenditure and increase efficiency but it's not to the benefit of the guests.

I'm always teetering on the edge of a new mild phobia (can't use public swimming pools).

I LOVE going to hotels though - it's very rare these days that i do, and am at present one of those who throw themselves joyfully star-shaped onto the bed and then immediately run a bath and have the kettle on for a cupper without a thought to hygiene.

I wouldn't want to spoil it for myself so i'm not reading any more😅 😖

If it was one of your own used towels, I would be less bothered but it's still gross. When we were away in Italy last year, I watched the housekeeper wipe/dry the cups/glasses with the once blue but now brown cloth that had also been used to wipe down the surfaces in the bathroom and kitchen.

DS and DP had been unwell that holiday with D&V which I now suspect to have been from this revolting towel.

Bleugh.

Same here! Take my own antibacterial wipes and give surfaces a wipe down.

I do wonder when people get sick on holiday and blame the food it's more to do with one cloth being used for everything. Toilet to tables! The worst is the fruit bowl. I was at a beautiful 5* hotel in India and after watching the cleaner clean my bathroom and toilet (wearing gloves) be used the same poop-water gloves to fish out two shiney apples out of a bag to replenish my bowl. Turned my stomach! So obviously when he left I tossed them into the bin. Did that every day for a few days. Then one day I came back to a tidy room with towel swan, rose pettles and a lovely note... "i see you like apples so I left you extra!'. Yuck!

Never use a hotel glass or cup without rinsing it first!

I don't care how 5* a hotel is, I have never used their cutlery, cups and never the kettle 🤢

Doesn't everyone boil the kettle to clean the mug before using it? I always have and assumed everyone knew that cups weren't necessarily always changed.

What's wrong with the kettle?

People pee in them.

You realise hundreds of people have slept in that bed before you, and all that will have been changed is the top sheet and pillow case (hopefully!). I'd say the cups are the least of your worries.

Or leave a shite in them

🤢 Why????

MN makes me feel sane and laid back. I give cups and glasses a quick rinse under the bathroom tap and have lived to tell the tale. I am in my fifties and have yet to fall foul of a shower wall that has been cleaned with another guest’s towel.

Maybe I have been extraordinarily lucky.

And the word ‘ick’ needs to be banned.

This is all just life. Do you touch a door handle in the office, do you touch the touch-screen of a self-checkout, do you touch a handrail going down the stairs, do you sit on seats on buses and trains, and every time think oh yes I must wash my hands as soon as possible just in case I'm now contaminated. When you're cooking do you touch the packaging of food products that have been put out on a shelf by a member of staff and maybe picked out for you by a different member of staff, or been caressed by any numbers of previous customers in the shop, and wash your hands in between every touching of said packaging and touching the food itself or eating?

Actually, I do all of that! The joy of OCD.

That's an old wife's tale. They are required to use proper equipment and are certainly not allowed to use the used towels. I have family who work as hotel-managers. Hotels have random visits from inspectors who do tests on rooms that was just cleaned. Using a used towel filled with bacteria to wipe anything down would be easily identified (they use strips to check) and that would mean a hefty fine and the cleaner would lose their job. Using a towel (used or not) for cleaning is unheard off, especially in a 5* hotel.

And it would be easier for the maid to fetch new cups from her trolley than use a towel, so I'm not sure I buy this story.

OP that’s disgusting but yes, highly likely that’s what she does every time. 😂

its funny to see this post, because we had to sack a cleaner some many yrs back after it was revealed that she would make her own assessments as to whether a bed needed it’s linen changed (we own a boutique hotel) after guests would check out.

it’s absolutely disgusting.

People need to do their jobs right, or find something they can half ass.

Unfortunately she is 100% correct!!

I worked on a luxury mega yacht in my early 20’s as a stewardess and we were instructed to wipe/dry the shower/counters with the used towels.

That's up to you, but please don't suggest that what you're doing is normal and rational behaviour, because it's not. It's OCD. Let's not normalise extreme hygiene paranoia when the risks of picking up anything harmful the surfaces in a serviced hotel room are, in fact, absolutely minuscule.

@MoreThanEnoughSoFar I'm a housekeeping manager at he glasses are washed in the bathroom sink, the towels are used to clean, if they can get away with not changing pillowcases they will, honestly I can go on and on.

I've worked in a few hotels and I've never seen or heard of anyone official coming around and testing rooms, it's either the company your friend works for or another country I'm guessing?

I’m not on holiday in the UK, to the person who suggested I was making this up, and the rooms would be tested for bacteria 😂
I highly doubt that is a world-wide rule, even if it is the case where you are.
Anyway, I know what I saw, and will be boiling the kettle later, and giving those cups a good wash.
For whatever reason, sleeping on a stranger’s pillow case does not bother me nearly as much as drinking out of a cup that has been dried with a towel that may have also dried someone’s arse does 🤷🏼‍♀️.

😂