Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect hotel room to be cleaned before 4pm

36 replies

Monster6 · 19/04/2025 14:56

Exactly that really. Away with family for Easter holidays in a big northern city, not a quaint rural location. In massive hotel chain (Marriott esque) have just returned from day’s activities hoping for a nice rest in a made up/slightly tidier room only to be confronted with the room ‘as it was’ when I left 5 hours ago. 😞 asked politely at reception to be told ‘housekeeping usuallly complete between 4.30-5pm…but!! If it was a ‘special request’ they could get to it sooner?!?! AIBU?! but it just feels you don’t really get the service you pay for nowadays. I think I’m just getting less willing to accept crap service as I get older.

OP posts:
Original poster
Monster6 · 19/04/2025 16:58

@Lovelysummerdays yes, exactly this sentiment. It’s a holiday for us, and we are paying for the service the hotel offers…we put the ‘please clean our room’ hanger on the door at 9.30am, and it’s one of life’s small pleasures to come back to a ‘done’ room. I really just feel all these little areas of service that we thought were a given (probably till Covid) haven’t really bounced back.

OP posts:
FlutteryButterfly · 19/04/2025 16:59

TuesdaysAreBest · 19/04/2025 15:06

I complained about this in a big London chain and was given a comp breakfast worth £30. I won’t go back. I had been out all day and just wanted to crash, not face a dirty room.

But why would the room be dirty? Untidy yes but can't understand why it would be dirty unless you disrespected the place?

Original poster
Monster6 · 19/04/2025 17:02

PowderMonkeys · 19/04/2025 15:11

Did you accidentally leave on a DND?

I worked as a hotel room cleaner at a high end hotel in the US years ago, and it was very time-pressured — managers were very clear on your priority having to be to clean rooms guests had left so they were available for new guests to check into, and on an unlucky day, departing guests would leave at noon, leaving you three hours to fully clean all your rooms before new arrivals started checking in. Our shift started at 8 am, but in practice, bar the odd guest, no one staying over wants their room cleaned that early, as they’re sleeping, or at breakfast with the DND still up, and as it wasn’t a business hotel, few guests checked out early.

I get that none of this is the guest’s problem, and it’s certainly not the guest’s fault the hotel doesn’t hire an army of cleaners who only have to turn over three rooms between 12 and 3, but presumably from the hotel’s POV, few employees want a job that’s only three hours a day, and they don’t want to hire cleaners who stand around in the corridors outside rooms they can’t clean because the guest is inside.

That is one job I don’t miss. And it’s spoiled hotels for me, because I know how much hard work goes into making a room look as if no one else has ever stayed in it.

@PowderMonkeys thanks for the thoughtful reply. It is a tough gig, and you’re right conditions will be totally squeezed now and fewer staff. Thank you for the flip side 😊

OP posts:
Original poster
Monster6 · 19/04/2025 17:03

FlutteryButterfly · 19/04/2025 16:59

But why would the room be dirty? Untidy yes but can't understand why it would be dirty unless you disrespected the place?

Show quote history

@TuesdaysAreBest i really don’t think the poster meant ‘dirty’. Just not fresh/made up/replenished.

OP posts:
Original poster
Monster6 · 19/04/2025 17:06

UD…room now done. Beds made, all tea tray items replaced, bin emptied, Loo roll replaced, fresh towels, dresser tidyed, 🧘.

OP posts:
IsItSnowing · 19/04/2025 17:28

I hate hotels that do housekeeping in the afternoon. We usually go out in the morning and back after lunch for a rest and to chill before going out again.
I always ask for it to be done in the morning and sometimes it is, sometimes not. Chain hotels are the worst in my experience, but the more budget ones actually seem to be more efficent in fact.
I know it's not really dirty, it's mainly that I want clean towels to shower before I go out again. If it's not been done I ring and ask for towels which they usually bring to be fair. It would just make theirs and my life easier if they took notice of a simple request in the first place.

Original poster
Monster6 · 19/04/2025 17:38

Exactly what we do too @IsItSnowing. I genuinely don’t think hotels let housekeeping run into late afternoon in the past. To have the room not cleaned till 5pm is bonkers. They probably hoped we’d just tell them to forget about it…

OP posts:
FedupofArsenalgame · 19/04/2025 17:58

Monster6 · 19/04/2025 16:55

I’m not sure I understand @LlynTegid ? What ‘tourists’? 🤣

Show quote history

Football fans

Tbrh · 19/04/2025 21:05

I assume they finish by then, which means most rooms will be earlier and some late. It can be annoying, but doesn't usually bother me as we are out most of the day. Often we'll just ask for new towels and the rubbish to be emptied as we don't need the room cleaned daily.

Marnie76 · 20/04/2025 11:46

Why do you need fresh towels everyday? Not good for the environment, do you do that at home?

Ireallywantadoughnut36 · 09/07/2025 11:16

You're right, especially if you've done stuff like put towels you want changed in the bath or youre short of tea bags, because by 5pm you might want to be in relaxing with a cuppa and having a shower for dinner and they'll all be wet/waiting and the tea will be gone and your cups dirty from the morning. It only takes 20 mins max to make the beds, change the towels, wipe the bathroom over and reach crockery and consumables.
I do think it's a lack of staff at the moment, they probably don't have enough to prep new rooms for check in and also service existing guests, so it's the existing guests that suffer. I'd just ask reception if it can be done earlier tomorrow because you want an early night etc

New posts on this thread. Refresh page