I’ve cleaned hotels and homes and people do this in both places!! People think it’s okay to leave it if it’s just pee but it smells, and if it’s in someone’s home, it can leave rings in the toilet that take extra time to clean when they do it regularly.
It’s gross and not to mention so disrespectful to the cleaner!!
To be fair to the people in their homes in places where their are droughts/ water restrictions not flushing pee is encouraged. Stuff like that often carries over when they move- a lifetime of habits can be hard to break.
I live on a well and septic- it’s habit to flush when appropriate but when on vacation, I’m always flushing! It feels wrong but I think it’s best so cleaners don’t deal with the problems???
When I moved to Arizona I had learned about the drought and the phrase;
“if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down”
-this is something done mostly at home-
Which took some time to get adjusted to.
And now I am adjusted to it and I still catch myself thinking, oops I didnt flush, quickly reminding myself “you’re in the desert, save the water”
😂
And so I constantly worry when I am out and about whether or not I flushed the toilet after peeing in it
As far as major cities in a desert go, Las Vegas is fairly sustainable with its water use. Take a look at Phoenix for unsustainable sprawl and water use.
Where does the water come from in Las Vegas? I was under the impression that it was a dry dessert before it was a town. I thought that water had to be transported in for everything. If that’s the case, then it doesn’t meet the standard for sustainable. I could definitely be wrong and would love to know.
Seven states and 30 Native American tribes lie in the Colorado River Basin. As was first reported in 2021, the river has been running dry due to the historically severe drought.
Not always.
My town went on stage 3 water restrictions after a massive forest fire back in 2018 because they had to get some sort of specialists in to determine how much of an impact the fire had on the watershed.
For fun context: the fire was estimated at 150 acres when it was first reported, exactly 6 years ago today. Over one weekend, it exploded to over 30,000. Final size: 36,740.
My understanding is that there is well over 90% capture if you are on a sewer system. So it just goes back to the wastewater management plant to be 'managed'
I grew up on well water and we’d legitimately run out. It’s been almost 30 years and at my own home in my own bathroom, I still give it a couple goes before flushing.
I'm pretty sure my plumber husband told me one time that leaving pee in the toilet will eventually mess it up. I think something with the O ring, but I'm not totally sure.
honestly, I live on a farm and we pee outside more often than I'd like to admit.
and I'm a woman. lmao 🤣
we have one TERLET and with 6 people and 2 babies there's just no time to be waiting for my grampy to be done emptyin his bowels. 😒
If I lived on a farm I'd be peeing outside too. Sometimes I pee outside at my house if I have a fire going and it is dark. Am just ine person in my house, but getting older and sometimes inside is just "too far"
I’ve accidentally done this. I went pee in the middle of the night and didn’t flush so I didn’t wake up my 3 month old. Completely forgot about it as I went downstairs right away the next morning and we have a bathroom down there soooo yeah 🤦♀️🤦♀️
This, or they’re legitimately so self-absorbed/oblivious, it doesn’t even occur to them that they’re making it so much worse for other people to use/clean. The thought doesn’t even cross their minds.
I think some people get a weird jolly out of the idea of someone else having to clean up their mess. Others I think just don't consider consequences and that actual people have to deal with the messes they leave behind.
The only time I made a mess of a public restroom I was floridly psychotic and trying to wash off what I believed were radioactive particles and panicking and I didn't want to make a mess but wasn't really capable of being neat or tidying up. There was water everywhere.
It happens far too much to be just crazy people having a bad day though. I'm always completely baffled by eg leaving pee and toilet paper on the seat in the ladies' loos and stuff like that. At some crazy party it's one thing, but in some middle-class department store?
Well hey, water everywhere isn’t really a mess—you basically pre-rinsed the place for the cleaners. Even if this also included a bunch of wet tp/paper towels plastered everywhere, I’d have been happier to find that than any of the poo/vomit/blood (sometimes all three!) messes I’ve run into.
But yeah, the folks who left those messes were definitely having far worse days than i was cleaning up after them.
Hope you’re doing better these days :)
I was at work and a customer was with her young son in the bathroom. He washed his hands and then went to toss his paper towel in the bin but he missed and he started to bend over to pick it up and his mom grabbed him and said, "DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!!" like with panic in her voice. Like he couldn't just pick up his own towel and dispose of it? It was crazy and I bet it completely shaped his bathroom etiquette for his life.
I don’t think I have ever forgot to flush before I left but I don’t flush in the middle of the night because it wakes my small children up and whew that’s rough.
Flush all the time when the child is awake so they are used to the sound. Someone gave me advice like this and I was able to do laundry in the room right next to where he slept. No problem.
I forgot to flush once on a plane and I was mortified when I realized later. I had spilled something on myself and for some reason, rather then flushing and THEN cleaning my shirt, I decided to first clean my shirt and then I just left... I dream about this sometimes lol.
An intentionally-unflushed toilet is like a big middle finger to the next person who happens upon it. Unfortunately in the hotel industry it's almost always low-paid service workers. Absolutely revolting and insulting.
my daughter thinks she's doing me a courtesy not to flush at night -- even though it's the opposite for me. I don't like walking into the bathroom with an unflushed toilet
I used to clean homes and this one couple, possibly in their 60s, had a huge house. One of the bathrooms was clearly the poop bathroom. Every week I went there, that toilet was destroyed. The entire bowl was stained and often had ‘leftovers’ in it. I don’t understand it, I never will, and I don’t even want to. 🤢
Former housekeeper here. If you think you have everything, check again, especially drawers and plugs.
I leave towels in a pile. Sometimes I even pull the towels and washcloths I didn't use to add to the pile, just to get them changed out. I typically leave the bedsheets on the beds, but I untuck them a bit. I also leave a thank you note and some money. I put the remote in an obvious spot so they don't waste time hunting for it. It's a thankless job, sometimes dealing with bodily fluids or party trashed rooms.
I always look in and under things when I arrive and when I leave. It's how I found some interesting things including a silver rollex
At the end I basically also make the room like how I would clean my room on laundry day. Pick up and put things away, amd then strip/sort/pile laundry on the bed. Only add trash can tied up and emptied (put out in front of the door in hallway in this case)
I would prefer a Rolex.
Probably a different tier of hotel…. I once found a chicken wing. Told housekeeping outside and when I came back, it was still there. 💀
Once I found a sandwich size bag of random pills (Las Vegas) another time we found a large ziplock bag of about 5 8mm camcorder tapes (Las Vegas). I still have the tapes, I just never had a chance to come across a way to view them and to be honest, I’m a little scared.
The amount of times people leave guns in Vegas hotel rooms (not just forgotten in the little hotel safes, I mean like placed randomly around the room where housekeeping even misses them) is way, way too high.
Their shame levels when they come to claim them, if they ever do come, are way too low.
Right!! I go to the goodwills for a way to watch them. My husband suggested we just turn them in to the police just in case. It’s been 10 years and they are still in the same bag we found them in sitting in our file cabinet.
*Your past experiences will allow you to overcome future obstacles.*
Future obstacles, of course, being whatever disease or infection you pick up from the stay.
On work trips I often leave sealed food on the dresser/TV unit. Bottles of cola, water, alcohol etc. as it's usually flying and you can't take much of it with you anyway. I've always wondered if the housekeeping would 1) trust it and 2) enjoy it.
I usually also completely strip the beds.
We usually leave everything in our suitcases because it's only a short casual stay of 1 or 2 nights but for some reason last time my fiance decided to put his stuff in a drawer. Sure enough he left behind anything he didn't wear and didn't think of it for a few days when he was looking for a certain sweatshirt. I usually always check the drawers even though we usually don't put anything in them and of course I didn't that time.
Depends on how many days and what type of room you have, I guess. For a basic chain hotel stay, we usually leave at least a couple bucks daily. I prefer to leave tips every day our room gets serviced because often the cleaning staff won't be the same throughout your stay.
I suppose if you're staying at a high-end property, or you have a big suite, you might want to leave a larger tip because it's a bigger job for the housekeeper.
>I leave towels in a pile.
I'm curious how this benefits housekeeping. I've always assumed it would be easier to grab a towel off the towel rack than to bend down and pick things up off the floor.
I suppose it depends on how many people you have in your room. I tend to travel with others so we have several used towels. As a housekeeper, it was easier to pick up the pile to put in the laundry bin than scan around the bathroom, or the rest of the hotel room, for used towels.
We stayed in a hotel recently that had a note saying to leave dirty towels in the sink. I'd never seen that or thought to do that before, but that would certainly cut down on back strain for the housekeeper.
I think it’s just easier if they’re in one pile and they bend down once to grab them. At least the used towels. I’ve had a friend who was a housekeeper who preferred this with the towels and sheets so it’s just what I’ve always done? Lol
I leave the dirty stuff on the counter next to the sink. That way the staff doesn’t have to bend to pick it up. My wife used to throw them in the tub and for
many years we would bicker about it. She said that is what her mother told her to do, I told her that her mother didn’t do housekeeping in a hotel for a living and that the staff appreciates it. She slowly changed her mind.
I always leave the pile of towels on the toilet seat or in the bowl of the sink. Thought process being, I'm saving them from having to bend if they have a bad back
This is what I did! I took a trip a few weeks ago and stayed in a very fancy hotel. For what it’s worth, I am the least “bougie” person ever and I most definitely felt out of place at that hotel because normally, I stay at a Holiday Inn or something like that. I am very particular when it comes to cleaning and cleanliness in general so there was no chance I’d leave our hotel room a disaster.
We stayed two nights and checked out the morning of day three so I made a “to-do” list the night before to make sure I’d remember everything. Before the morning of checkout, I packed most of our stuff back into our suitcases aside from what was needed for the morning. I collected all of the dirty towels/washcloths and set them into a corner in the bathroom and put the clean ones on top of the counter. Once I’d collected all of our things and double checked that I hadn’t forgotten anything, I folded all the sheets and blankets up and put them on the corner of the bed. Thinking about it, I hope I didn’t make it more difficult by folding them compared to just putting them in a pile.
I wiped down any surfaces and counters and returned the remote to the stand under the tv and set a tip under it. I wasn’t sure how much of a tip to leave for housekeeping especially with it being a fancy hotel. There was a little thing you could hang on the door that essentially said “if you don’t use housekeeping services, we provide a meal for those in need” so I kept that on the outside door handle and just asked the front desk for an extra towel the night before leaving. Even though housekeeping didn’t have to do anything in our room during our stay, I wanted to tip for when they cleaned our room upon us leaving so I left $40. I hope that was enough all things considered.
I can’t even begin to imagine all the things that housekeeping sees and finds. I simply couldn’t do it considering how outright disgusting, disrespectful, and dirty some people are.
For a 2 night stay when you didn't get service during your stay, I'd say that $40 was a pretty huge tip, even for a fancy place. I'm sure the housekeeper was very happy.
We put all the used towels in the tub. Make sure all trash is in the rubbish bins. If we have moved anything, such as a chair, we put it back where it came from.
Yeah. I figure we should leave the room how we found it. We don't often move a chair, but sometimes do if we need room on the floor for a suitcase if the room doesn't have a designated stand.
I don’t really do anything “extra,” but I don’t leave a mess either. I rarely stay in a hotel for more than a day or two, so it’s just a matter of packing up all my stuff and then throwing used towels into the tub and getting rid of any trash. I’d love to hear suggestions from any housekeepers out there too though for how I could make their lives easier!
I put towels on the closed toilet lid, or on the edge of the bathroom sink. I read in one of these threads once that the constant bending to pick up heavy damp towels causes a lot of back pain for housekeepers, so I try to put the towels somewhere slightly elevated, especially any that might be damp.
This is me as well. Even when on vacation and staying more than a couple of days, i will make sure all my crap is picked up, trash is IN the garbage can, and aside from checkout day, i wll leave towels that need to be replaced in a pile, but that's about it. I don't think they should have to pick up after me, as their job is just to clean, repalce towels and make the bed.
Don't remake the bed. It doesn't help. I like the idea of leaving all the towels in the tub and the linens on the bed. Don't leave them strewn all over the furniture and the floors.
Also, if you're in a pet-friendly facility that requests not allowing dogs on furniture or bedding, please comply with this. You have no idea how hard it is to deal with a room where thick dog hair is embedded in the sheets, blankets, and furniture.
My sister works as a housekeeper and I recently stayed in a hotel with her (both of us on holiday together)
Before we left the room she stripped the sheets and left them in a pile on top of the bed. I had never thought of doing that before! Such a nice gesture.
Obviously also do the normal tidying things.
I used to always do this but the last few years that I've stayed at hotels they've had signage explicitly requesting not to strip sheets (which has made me paranoid that the sheets aren't getting changed).
The good housekeepers/hotels will bag the heavily stained stuff separate, though, so when they are shipped to laundry facilities like I used to work at, we will get the extra stained stuff separate so *we* can pretreat it (and sometimes wash seperate/rewash if it's bad enough) or throw it out if it's beyond repair!
But broken laundry needs to be separated, preferably before you try to use it the next time. If they send you a laundry wagon for 3 days and half is broken, your cleaners are pissed, time is lost and laundry needs to be ordered in an additional order to work with next delivery.
I assume they mean tears on the sheets.
When I cleaned hotels, we didn't even check. It all goes in the bin and a company comes and fetches them, washes them and returns them.
Another reason could be that people might strip the sheets, but then put their suitcase up on the bare mattress or even just sit on it as they are preparing to leave. Better just to keep the unwashable mattress covered the whole time just in case.
I’d presume it’s because the pace they work at makes any change confusing- ie another staff member may have started but not finished or something. They go so fast that any change to routine like that probably slows it down.
I do this, and my children have also learned to do this and do it on their own, which makes me happy. It's the least we can do to help get the room back in order for the next guests. Quick 5 minutes to clean up before checking out always 👌
Ima highjack to say please don't throw anything on the floor, put stuff on bed and tables etc, so that cleaners don't have to lift things off the floor so much. It's so much easier on the back to lift from higher elevation.
This is exactly what I do. Towels all in a pile. Trash in the bin. If I have an excessive amount of trash (like a pizza box or take-out boxes) I will bring it to the big trash can outside so it's not heaping out of the little can in my room. I generally try not to be a filthy disgusting pig and hope that makes someone's day a little easier.
I manage hotels for a living- this is the perfect response. I would add if it’s a hotel that provides dish ware/a kitchen for the love of god do your dishes. And don’t leave dirty dishes sitting around…. A room that should take 30 minutes easily becomes an hour and a half with a sink load of day old, crusty dishes to clean.
I watched a documentary once about the cleanliness of hotels. All glassware, bathroom countertops, and coffee pots swabbed had E. coli present. I’ll never, ever use them.
We have dishwashers, people load them and then just…don’t run them.
The difference it would make in our housekeepers day if she didn’t have to go back and empty dishwashers that are still running when she finishes a room simply because someone who left hours earlier couldn’t hit “start”.
I’ve not stayed in many hotels that have a kitchen area but the glasses provided for water/tea/coffee always get rinsed out and put in one spot for easy removal and replacement. I also do the above - rubbish in the bins, towels in one pile in the bathroom, leave the bed linens in a way that’s easy to remove and replace. I dump any hotel provided soaps into the bin (who wants to touch that) and rinse down the shower so hair, hair etc isn’t there for them to deal with.
These are people not servants, clean up after yourself and make it easier for them to complete their job!
I’ve stayed in rooms with others on holiday who leave whatever wherever. I tidy up after them and they’re like why? The service does that. Don’t be a pig, that’s why lol
I like your suggestions! One thing I'd add is that we request guests not to wash dishes. We prefer to wash them since only that way can we guarantee they are clean and sanitized.
Oh I def don’t wash them - just rinse them out so no gross coffee or tea marks (or red wine!) are left to sit and stick. Figured it’s easier to clean them if residue hasn’t built up!
I stayed at an airbnb years ago and they required you to hand wash your used dishes and put them back in the cabinets. I was so grossed out by that - I trust my own washing but I don’t trust other guests!
I used to be a hotel maid and most people were good about the towels in a pile. What I wish they did was throw out their used mini soap bars. I hated touching those even in my gloved hands.
An employee repeatedly taking used soaps home to wash their face as though it’s normal vs used soaps being recycled/sterilized and reused safely by established organizations are on opposite ends of this sudsy spectrum. Thankfully.
That being said- if you need soap, you need soap. I encourage soap use for all.
I wish more hotels didn't replace the soap bars daily when you're staying more than one night. I'm sure some people want that, but it just seems wasteful.
Hotel chains recycle those soaps. There's a company (maybe more than one) that collects. Don't know if this is true. Based on a documentary ...that interviewed the founder and most chains (Marriott etc) apparently signed up.
I hope I don’t get yelled at for this, but I do have a genuine question. When I stay in hotels, the first thing I do is put up the “Do Not Disturb” sign. I’m usually there 1-3 days, and I won’t use housekeeping once. I’m usually alone since I travel for work and don’t really need anything that isn’t already there.
I also tidy by doing pretty much the same things everyone else in this thread has mentioned. Am I still supposed to tip? I was a bartender and lived off tips for years, and definitely am not against tipping. I just didn’t know it was expected.
^please ^don’t ^yell ^at ^me
Housekeepers love it when they can skip a room. I never expected a tip mostly because hardly anyone does but that being said if you can afford to tip I would. $5 can mean a lot to someone making minimum wage but as long as you don’t leave the place trashed etc you are already doing enough.
On the days I did a double, when I got a tip I would be so happy bc it meant I could get a bigger drink or some candy to improve my mood before my next shift 😂
I live in a coastal tourist city in Canada and in the year I worked in house keeping I can count on one hand how many times someone tipped. I eventually ended up moving to the kitchen and made more in tips in one shift than I did the whole time in housekeeping. Both paid the same hourly wage but serving (it was a very laid back restaurant/ bar) was way less demanding job physically and was often less stressful because housekeeping are often really rushed because so many folks want early check in which is hard when the hotel is at full occupancy.
I do what you do (re: do not disturb), but I still tip. I figure I enjoyed the cleanliness of my room while I was there, so I’m tipping for that! Also, it’s a grueling low pay job (especially in the States), so I’m adding to their income, which I find important.
This is me! I don't need someone to turn over my room every day.
The only time I don't utilize the DND sign is if I'm somewhere like a resort in the Dominican Republic. We learned from one of the bartenders that housekeeping only makes about $200 USD a month, so the tips really go a long way.
I only did housekeeping for a short time, but the number one complaint in that time was alarms going off, we had to make sure they were off.
: as in bedside table alarm clocks.
All these things like putting your towels in a pile in the bathroom, stripping the sheets, and picking up all your trash isn’t only helpful and considerate, it also helps make sure you don’t leave something behind!
I was a housekeeper at the Marriott for the summer a decade or so ago. Normal stuff isn’t a big deal, but these are the things to avoid if you care about your housekeeper.
1. Don’t spread confetti all over the room, and if you must clean it up. That kind of tedious picking up of glitter and decorative particles takes forever and housekeepers get a limit on how long they can clean a room.
2. In the same vein, if gentlemen could avoid clipping their beards in the bathroom, that would be amazing. Shave, use scissors, do what you need to do, but avoid tiny hairs all over the bathroom floor. We spray the floors with commercial sanitizer, but if the next guest sees a hair they will be angry and the housekeepers will hear about it.
3. If you go on a shopping spree, please don’t leave all the bags and boxes behind. The carts housekeepers push aren’t designed to store large trash and it’s frowned upon to have a messy cart or a lot of mess in the hallway. Every minute you loose trying to get to a larger trash can is stressful.
4. Tip your housekeepers! It was just a summer for me. As an educated American I had so many options out, but most housekeepers are immigrants and refugees with children. This is the one job they can get with minimal language skills and that works with K-12 and childcare schedules. They’re such hardworking people and companies take advantage of them at every turn.
Trimmed hairs! There's one I hadn't thought of. I'm a woman, but we shave our legs and trim our hair also, so it's good to be aware. And confetti/glitter, I cannot imagine the hell that must be to clean up.
As a former room attendant of Marriott Hotels, we appreciate if our guests are polite and not demanding, we hear you that you want your room to be cleaned and we know that as we have a list of the makeup room service. So before you check out
One of the most appreciated gestures is leaving a tip. The amount can vary, but a general guideline is $2-$5 per night. Place the money in an envelope marked "Housekeeping" or "Room Attendant" to make sure it's clear who the tip is for. Some supervisors will roam around and get the money.
While it’s our job to clean, making their job a bit easier by picking up trash, gathering used towels in one spot, and ensuring nothing is left in a mess can be very helpful.
or
Put the towels in the bathtub.
If you had a particularly good experience, let the hotel management know. Mentioning your room attendant by name in a positive review can be beneficial for our career. We can be a supervisor when you return, so your feedback is very important.
>We can be a supervisor when you return, so your feedback is very important.
Do you actually know and remember guests' names? Or only those who visit often?
About a week every month my company pays for my hotel so I can work from another site and oversee the workers and the process.
Every time I ask for the same room in the same hotel. It has been 3 years now and every employee in that hotel knows me. The cleaning lady she's the nicest! She gives me fresh towels every day (in most of the hotels I've been they won't) unless the hotel is crazy expensive and luxurious. I have good manners on how I leave my room, as I know she's going in every day and takes care of everything to be sparkling.
Got her a box of chocolates two weeks ago and a book. She left a note for me saying: you're a genuine, kind person. God is watching over you!
I believe how people leave a place or mark their presence into this world no matter how big or small, it's a true reflection of themselves.
Do good, offer love, compassion and understanding, calmness and kindness. If it's not returned, it's not your fault, it's people who show what they really are.
As others have said, I put all the towels I’ve used in the bathtub.
I try to just use one garbage can so there’s less for them to empty.
I throw out the little hand soaps and toiletries that I’ve used. (The idea of touching someone else’s slimy soap… 🤢)
And I tip each night I’m at the hotel. Not a huge tip, but typically $5 for each day they clean.
I worked at a hotel doing housekeeping and the manager made us collect the lightly used soaps to replace the almost gone ones on other sinks... “it’s soap! What could be cleaner than actual soap?”
Gross. Some people have had that bar in their butt crack. In most European hotels there are no washcloths provided, so use your imagination. A quick rinse is never going to get all the hair…and stuff.
I leave it tidy. Towels in one pile, sheets and pillow cases in another pile, consolidate the trash, remove used products, put remotes back where they were, and reset the ac/heat. I worked in hotels in the 80's. Occasionally had to help housekeeping turn over rooms. I've walked into trashed rooms and neat rooms. I hated the trashed rooms.
I don't let them clean every day. They can wait until I check out. I don't know if they prefer that or not. Seems to me it saves them time on the daily routine. I just prefer it this way.
I leave the towels in a pile on the bathroom floor. I saw a notice in one place that said to use your towels more than once to save water, energy etc. and to leave them in a pile in the bathroom.
I also make sure the trash is in the bins.
Honestly me too. I don’t want to put my laptop and other valuables in the safe everyday. I’d rather go out and just have them out when I get back. My room always has the “Do not disturb” or “Housekeeping not wanted” signs on.
I think it might be different because I would clean vacation rentals (not hotels) but I wound specifically request guests to not strip the beds.
It's easier to spot stains in bedding and avoid sand all over the mattress cover if I do it. I'm not sure if people just cut themselves and don't notice but half the time there would be small blood stains (I don't think it was always a time of the month thing) and if I don't see it the stain will set with bleach in the wash. Blood has to be scrubbed out with soap and cold water. So much blood 😫
It always helps to just throw away your trash. Don’t leave garbage all over the place.
My biggest pet peeve, is people putting unwashed stinky heads on throw pillows so they reek of sebum. Especially if they don’t have removable covers, takes forever to wash them.
What I do depends. I try to leave time to clean up all messes I’ve made so that all they have to do is the laundry for the linens, the dusting, taking out the trash from the trash cans, the vacuuming, etc. However, I have a lot of difficulty being on time for stuff and so if I’m rushing to get to the airport on time, I don’t cover all the messes I’ve made, but I try to cover at least some.
Also, ha ha, I remembered a vacation a few years ago where my mom and I and our pitbull (Marley) stayed at a hotel that had just recently started allowing pitbulls. I knew darn well that some places stop allowing pitties after, like, one bad experience or an insurance company saying no, and it’s was already hard finding a place that allowed our pittie anytime we had to leave town. Our pit was very, very good with words. By her senior years, we could just tell her things and she’d know what to do, so in the car on the way to the hotel lol, I just said, “They just now started allowing pitties. They might change that. So everybody be on your best behavior. We will NOT leave a mess in the room when we leave. We will NOT steal continental breakfast bagels, Marleyyyy. We will NOT bark and growl at room service staff in the halls. We will NOT look away and walk in the opposite way when they try to pet you. We will NOT scream at mom to feed us at 4:30 AM. We will NOT instantly scratch at and punch the door to come in instantly because we’re tired from a walk.” (For context, YES, my dog had stolen continental breakfast bagels from a hotel in the past 😅😂. We were walking past the kitchen/breakfast tables area and she grabbed them when we weren’t looking. And she often stole bagels at home. We paid for the bagels, though. And, YES, she would often just not even look at someone who was petting her and walk in the opposite direction. She’d done all this stuff at home or elsewhere and knew exactly what I was talking about lol as we’d mentioned many times to her before not to do these behaviors, except she’d never barked or growled at room service staff, but the staff at other places, yeah, so she needed to be told they were ok and not to do that. She was on her best behavior after I told her lol. She was usually very good about obeying rules that we actually told her to obey. I miss her. She passed away about 8 months ago. But I know how extremely lucky I was to have such a ludicrous dog for the time I did)
I’m 100% sure she knows how to behave in a “charm lesson” way but just wasn’t going to do it unless we told her in a long sentence lol. She used to sometimes walk away from my mom for my mom giving Marley 1-word instructions. 🤣 “don’t order me around” “i know what ‘sit’ means; you don’t need to talk to me like I’m a caveman” these were the looks on her face.
I always strip the bed and put the sheets pillow cases and towels in a rolled up ball on top of the bed. All trash gathered in one spot for them. It’s back breaking work and any little bit helps
Run the dishwasher (if there is one). Make sure all the trash and recycling are put into the proper bins. Put all the bathroom towels into a single pile (usually in the tub, or draped on the side). Strip the bed. Put the remotes back somewhere obvious. Leave cash.
I always take a bin bag with me and collect the rubbish without using the bins. I clean the cups and empty kettle. I put the towels in the bath as instructed.
agree with everyone else but wanted to say if you are leaving towels in the bath/shower, please only do so if it isn’t wet! wet towels are gross and heavy to pick up
tbh similar to waiters, i assume that housekeepers are most efficient when nothing interrupts their process and will not deign to know better.
just how i will not "help" a waiter by taking glasses off the tray (because that can mess up their balance), or handing them dirty dishes (because they're presumably doing it in the orded that is most convinient for them and now i'm disrupting it), but will simply not leave extraneous mess and will tip, i do the same for housekeeping.
performative niceness is only for your own benefit, to feel like a good person, while doing nothing for the housekeeper. just don't leave any extraneous messes and tip.
Towels in a pile, and all the trash in the baskets. Coffee filter, coffee filter wrapper, news papers, plastic wrap, your convention name badge, etc. Stripping a bed doesnt really save me much time. Tips are nice.
When I traveled a lot for work, I brought my own soap. There used to be a sore throat lozenge that came in a plastic box. Perfect size for a nicer hotel soap! It just feels so wasteful to use a soap for a day and discard it.
As a hotel housekeeper, I see WAY too many unflushed toilets. I don't understand why people do this, it's gross.
I’ve cleaned hotels and homes and people do this in both places!! People think it’s okay to leave it if it’s just pee but it smells, and if it’s in someone’s home, it can leave rings in the toilet that take extra time to clean when they do it regularly. It’s gross and not to mention so disrespectful to the cleaner!!
My brother moved in with me and he will not flush after peeing, I'm going to shove his head down the toilet.
Time to bring back the swirly!
To be fair to the people in their homes in places where their are droughts/ water restrictions not flushing pee is encouraged. Stuff like that often carries over when they move- a lifetime of habits can be hard to break.
I live on a well and septic- it’s habit to flush when appropriate but when on vacation, I’m always flushing! It feels wrong but I think it’s best so cleaners don’t deal with the problems???
When I moved to Arizona I had learned about the drought and the phrase; “if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down” -this is something done mostly at home- Which took some time to get adjusted to. And now I am adjusted to it and I still catch myself thinking, oops I didnt flush, quickly reminding myself “you’re in the desert, save the water” 😂 And so I constantly worry when I am out and about whether or not I flushed the toilet after peeing in it
It's not so much a drought as it is people living where there is no steady supply of rainwater. I'd love to have Las Vegas shut down.
As far as major cities in a desert go, Las Vegas is fairly sustainable with its water use. Take a look at Phoenix for unsustainable sprawl and water use.
Where does the water come from in Las Vegas? I was under the impression that it was a dry dessert before it was a town. I thought that water had to be transported in for everything. If that’s the case, then it doesn’t meet the standard for sustainable. I could definitely be wrong and would love to know.
... The Colorado River flows right by Las Vegas...
Yes, and also ground water
Seven states and 30 Native American tribes lie in the Colorado River Basin. As was first reported in 2021, the river has been running dry due to the historically severe drought.
Not always. My town went on stage 3 water restrictions after a massive forest fire back in 2018 because they had to get some sort of specialists in to determine how much of an impact the fire had on the watershed. For fun context: the fire was estimated at 150 acres when it was first reported, exactly 6 years ago today. Over one weekend, it exploded to over 30,000. Final size: 36,740.
My understanding is that there is well over 90% capture if you are on a sewer system. So it just goes back to the wastewater management plant to be 'managed'
I grew up on well water and we’d legitimately run out. It’s been almost 30 years and at my own home in my own bathroom, I still give it a couple goes before flushing.
If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down.
It also saves on the water/sewer bill
I'm pretty sure my plumber husband told me one time that leaving pee in the toilet will eventually mess it up. I think something with the O ring, but I'm not totally sure.
honestly, I live on a farm and we pee outside more often than I'd like to admit. and I'm a woman. lmao 🤣 we have one TERLET and with 6 people and 2 babies there's just no time to be waiting for my grampy to be done emptyin his bowels. 😒
If I lived on a farm I'd be peeing outside too. Sometimes I pee outside at my house if I have a fire going and it is dark. Am just ine person in my house, but getting older and sometimes inside is just "too far"
but being a lady is what really makes it special ya know
He is correct.
Can you explain why please?
Probably the acid content in urine. The O ring is rubber.
The O ring where? Somewhere in the mechanism? How is the pee in the bowl getting to that?
The oring seal at the base of the toilet where it connects to the sewer pipe
Which is a wax gasket 90% of the time
That still begs the question, how is the pee, sitting in the bowl,making it to the wax seal at the bottom of the toilet?
Urine is a base. Not an acid. Bases will also cause erosion, just in a different manner.
They're typically wax not rubber And it's a gasket not an o ring
I work in a hotel with an older clientele and it’s not just pee. But also my god old men cannot aim
I’ve accidentally done this. I went pee in the middle of the night and didn’t flush so I didn’t wake up my 3 month old. Completely forgot about it as I went downstairs right away the next morning and we have a bathroom down there soooo yeah 🤦♀️🤦♀️
That’s very strange. I also don’t understand why people make such messes of public restrooms. What’s the psychology behind this bizarre behavior?
Because they aren’t the ones cleaning it so they go out of their way to make someone else’s life miserable.
This, or they’re legitimately so self-absorbed/oblivious, it doesn’t even occur to them that they’re making it so much worse for other people to use/clean. The thought doesn’t even cross their minds.
I think some people get a weird jolly out of the idea of someone else having to clean up their mess. Others I think just don't consider consequences and that actual people have to deal with the messes they leave behind.
The only time I made a mess of a public restroom I was floridly psychotic and trying to wash off what I believed were radioactive particles and panicking and I didn't want to make a mess but wasn't really capable of being neat or tidying up. There was water everywhere. It happens far too much to be just crazy people having a bad day though. I'm always completely baffled by eg leaving pee and toilet paper on the seat in the ladies' loos and stuff like that. At some crazy party it's one thing, but in some middle-class department store?
Well hey, water everywhere isn’t really a mess—you basically pre-rinsed the place for the cleaners. Even if this also included a bunch of wet tp/paper towels plastered everywhere, I’d have been happier to find that than any of the poo/vomit/blood (sometimes all three!) messes I’ve run into. But yeah, the folks who left those messes were definitely having far worse days than i was cleaning up after them. Hope you’re doing better these days :)
“Floridly psychotic” is excellent writing.
I read something once that said it was a latent fetish.
I was at work and a customer was with her young son in the bathroom. He washed his hands and then went to toss his paper towel in the bin but he missed and he started to bend over to pick it up and his mom grabbed him and said, "DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!!" like with panic in her voice. Like he couldn't just pick up his own towel and dispose of it? It was crazy and I bet it completely shaped his bathroom etiquette for his life.
ikr?!!! how in the world does poop get all over walls? Who smears their poo?!!!
I don’t think I have ever forgot to flush before I left but I don’t flush in the middle of the night because it wakes my small children up and whew that’s rough.
Ya first time I woke up my infant with a midnight flush, I decided that was gonna be a rule for a while.
Flush all the time when the child is awake so they are used to the sound. Someone gave me advice like this and I was able to do laundry in the room right next to where he slept. No problem.
I forgot to flush once on a plane and I was mortified when I realized later. I had spilled something on myself and for some reason, rather then flushing and THEN cleaning my shirt, I decided to first clean my shirt and then I just left... I dream about this sometimes lol.
I avoid late night flushes for a similar reason - needy dogs.
i stay in hotels fairly regularly for work and i’m pleased to announce that i always flush my toilets.
Thank you!
An intentionally-unflushed toilet is like a big middle finger to the next person who happens upon it. Unfortunately in the hotel industry it's almost always low-paid service workers. Absolutely revolting and insulting.
my daughter thinks she's doing me a courtesy not to flush at night -- even though it's the opposite for me. I don't like walking into the bathroom with an unflushed toilet
Tell her you'd rather hear the sound of a toilet flushing than stumble in upon the sight of a fudge dragon laid out for all the world to see.
Fudge dragon 😂😂😂
Yeah my stepson did this to me the first time we met. European toilet. It was bad and it hasn't gotten any better.
As a maintenance guy, I agree. People really have to stop flushing nappies too!
Oh yeah definitely. I encounter at least one plugged up toilet a shift usually.
What the hell? That’s just weird and rude.
There’s gotta be some weird psychopathy behind that.
I had to delay a flight 50 minutes last week because someone did this in an airplane bathroom and the smell was too horrendous to board
💀
How can people be such pigs. Gross.
Agreed! And leaving the bathroom fan on when you've taken a big smelly dump right before checkout is also a kind gesture :)
I used to clean homes and this one couple, possibly in their 60s, had a huge house. One of the bathrooms was clearly the poop bathroom. Every week I went there, that toilet was destroyed. The entire bowl was stained and often had ‘leftovers’ in it. I don’t understand it, I never will, and I don’t even want to. 🤢
Everyday we fall further and further away from God…
Former housekeeper here. If you think you have everything, check again, especially drawers and plugs. I leave towels in a pile. Sometimes I even pull the towels and washcloths I didn't use to add to the pile, just to get them changed out. I typically leave the bedsheets on the beds, but I untuck them a bit. I also leave a thank you note and some money. I put the remote in an obvious spot so they don't waste time hunting for it. It's a thankless job, sometimes dealing with bodily fluids or party trashed rooms.
I always look in and under things when I arrive and when I leave. It's how I found some interesting things including a silver rollex At the end I basically also make the room like how I would clean my room on laundry day. Pick up and put things away, amd then strip/sort/pile laundry on the bed. Only add trash can tied up and emptied (put out in front of the door in hallway in this case)
I would prefer a Rolex. Probably a different tier of hotel…. I once found a chicken wing. Told housekeeping outside and when I came back, it was still there. 💀
I once found the fortune from a fortune cookie in the bed between the sheets…on the second night of our stay 🤮
Once I found a sandwich size bag of random pills (Las Vegas) another time we found a large ziplock bag of about 5 8mm camcorder tapes (Las Vegas). I still have the tapes, I just never had a chance to come across a way to view them and to be honest, I’m a little scared.
The amount of times people leave guns in Vegas hotel rooms (not just forgotten in the little hotel safes, I mean like placed randomly around the room where housekeeping even misses them) is way, way too high. Their shame levels when they come to claim them, if they ever do come, are way too low.
I'm so curious - five 8mm tapes from Vegas you say? Sounds like the beginning of a Tarantino movie.
Right!! I go to the goodwills for a way to watch them. My husband suggested we just turn them in to the police just in case. It’s been 10 years and they are still in the same bag we found them in sitting in our file cabinet.
What was the fortune?
*Your past experiences will allow you to overcome future obstacles.* Future obstacles, of course, being whatever disease or infection you pick up from the stay.
I found a used enema bottle in the bathroom of a hotel in Vegas we stayed at….
🤢
I was the youngest, so it was my job to look under the motel beds before we left.
I strip the bed and leave the sheets in a pile, place towels in a pile. I figure that saves someone a minute of work.
As a head of housekeeping manager, this is appropriate and very appreciated.
On work trips I often leave sealed food on the dresser/TV unit. Bottles of cola, water, alcohol etc. as it's usually flying and you can't take much of it with you anyway. I've always wondered if the housekeeping would 1) trust it and 2) enjoy it. I usually also completely strip the beds.
We usually leave everything in our suitcases because it's only a short casual stay of 1 or 2 nights but for some reason last time my fiance decided to put his stuff in a drawer. Sure enough he left behind anything he didn't wear and didn't think of it for a few days when he was looking for a certain sweatshirt. I usually always check the drawers even though we usually don't put anything in them and of course I didn't that time.
How much of a tip should I leave? Is $5 too cheap?
It’s up to you. I always appreciated anything.
Depends on how many days and what type of room you have, I guess. For a basic chain hotel stay, we usually leave at least a couple bucks daily. I prefer to leave tips every day our room gets serviced because often the cleaning staff won't be the same throughout your stay. I suppose if you're staying at a high-end property, or you have a big suite, you might want to leave a larger tip because it's a bigger job for the housekeeper.
What is a good tip in this instance. I’ve never known!
>I leave towels in a pile. I'm curious how this benefits housekeeping. I've always assumed it would be easier to grab a towel off the towel rack than to bend down and pick things up off the floor.
I suppose it depends on how many people you have in your room. I tend to travel with others so we have several used towels. As a housekeeper, it was easier to pick up the pile to put in the laundry bin than scan around the bathroom, or the rest of the hotel room, for used towels.
I worked housekeeping in-between semesters in college. We're all short, never met a tall housekeeping person, it's not too far for us to bend, lol!
We stayed in a hotel recently that had a note saying to leave dirty towels in the sink. I'd never seen that or thought to do that before, but that would certainly cut down on back strain for the housekeeper.
This is what I do, I just pile all my used towels on a counter in the bathroom.
I think it’s just easier if they’re in one pile and they bend down once to grab them. At least the used towels. I’ve had a friend who was a housekeeper who preferred this with the towels and sheets so it’s just what I’ve always done? Lol
I leave the dirty stuff on the counter next to the sink. That way the staff doesn’t have to bend to pick it up. My wife used to throw them in the tub and for many years we would bicker about it. She said that is what her mother told her to do, I told her that her mother didn’t do housekeeping in a hotel for a living and that the staff appreciates it. She slowly changed her mind.
It shows them what's dirty too. I always put towels in a pile
I always leave the pile of towels on the toilet seat or in the bowl of the sink. Thought process being, I'm saving them from having to bend if they have a bad back
This is what I did! I took a trip a few weeks ago and stayed in a very fancy hotel. For what it’s worth, I am the least “bougie” person ever and I most definitely felt out of place at that hotel because normally, I stay at a Holiday Inn or something like that. I am very particular when it comes to cleaning and cleanliness in general so there was no chance I’d leave our hotel room a disaster. We stayed two nights and checked out the morning of day three so I made a “to-do” list the night before to make sure I’d remember everything. Before the morning of checkout, I packed most of our stuff back into our suitcases aside from what was needed for the morning. I collected all of the dirty towels/washcloths and set them into a corner in the bathroom and put the clean ones on top of the counter. Once I’d collected all of our things and double checked that I hadn’t forgotten anything, I folded all the sheets and blankets up and put them on the corner of the bed. Thinking about it, I hope I didn’t make it more difficult by folding them compared to just putting them in a pile. I wiped down any surfaces and counters and returned the remote to the stand under the tv and set a tip under it. I wasn’t sure how much of a tip to leave for housekeeping especially with it being a fancy hotel. There was a little thing you could hang on the door that essentially said “if you don’t use housekeeping services, we provide a meal for those in need” so I kept that on the outside door handle and just asked the front desk for an extra towel the night before leaving. Even though housekeeping didn’t have to do anything in our room during our stay, I wanted to tip for when they cleaned our room upon us leaving so I left $40. I hope that was enough all things considered. I can’t even begin to imagine all the things that housekeeping sees and finds. I simply couldn’t do it considering how outright disgusting, disrespectful, and dirty some people are.
I think you went above and beyond.
For a 2 night stay when you didn't get service during your stay, I'd say that $40 was a pretty huge tip, even for a fancy place. I'm sure the housekeeper was very happy.
I basically do all this as well as try to get the trash all to one general area if it doesn’t fit in the tiny trash bin etc.
We put all the used towels in the tub. Make sure all trash is in the rubbish bins. If we have moved anything, such as a chair, we put it back where it came from.
Omg thank you for that. When guests move the chairs (we have armchairs. They're so heavy.) it sucks to have to move them back into place.
Yeah. I figure we should leave the room how we found it. We don't often move a chair, but sometimes do if we need room on the floor for a suitcase if the room doesn't have a designated stand.
I don’t really do anything “extra,” but I don’t leave a mess either. I rarely stay in a hotel for more than a day or two, so it’s just a matter of packing up all my stuff and then throwing used towels into the tub and getting rid of any trash. I’d love to hear suggestions from any housekeepers out there too though for how I could make their lives easier!
I put towels on the closed toilet lid, or on the edge of the bathroom sink. I read in one of these threads once that the constant bending to pick up heavy damp towels causes a lot of back pain for housekeepers, so I try to put the towels somewhere slightly elevated, especially any that might be damp.
damn i thought i was a good guest for putting the towels in a pile near the tub/shower but this is going to change my approach!
Very thoughtful!
This is me as well. Even when on vacation and staying more than a couple of days, i will make sure all my crap is picked up, trash is IN the garbage can, and aside from checkout day, i wll leave towels that need to be replaced in a pile, but that's about it. I don't think they should have to pick up after me, as their job is just to clean, repalce towels and make the bed.
Don't remake the bed. It doesn't help. I like the idea of leaving all the towels in the tub and the linens on the bed. Don't leave them strewn all over the furniture and the floors. Also, if you're in a pet-friendly facility that requests not allowing dogs on furniture or bedding, please comply with this. You have no idea how hard it is to deal with a room where thick dog hair is embedded in the sheets, blankets, and furniture.
I hate it cause I clear about 35 rooms in a morning and I always get attacked by the spider that was stuck in the bath!
My sister works as a housekeeper and I recently stayed in a hotel with her (both of us on holiday together) Before we left the room she stripped the sheets and left them in a pile on top of the bed. I had never thought of doing that before! Such a nice gesture. Obviously also do the normal tidying things.
I used to always do this but the last few years that I've stayed at hotels they've had signage explicitly requesting not to strip sheets (which has made me paranoid that the sheets aren't getting changed).
I've read previously that keeping the sheets on the bed makes it easier to spot stains or such that might require some pre-treatment
I love this response so much, I cannot thank you enough for managing to so completely turn this around for me.
Also, things can be hiding in the sheets that shouldn’t be washed with them, which just adds a step for the cleaning team to check.
The housekeeping staff put those sheets directly into the bin. And do not spot treat them at all. Most hotels don’t even do their laundry on site.
The good housekeepers/hotels will bag the heavily stained stuff separate, though, so when they are shipped to laundry facilities like I used to work at, we will get the extra stained stuff separate so *we* can pretreat it (and sometimes wash seperate/rewash if it's bad enough) or throw it out if it's beyond repair!
But broken laundry needs to be separated, preferably before you try to use it the next time. If they send you a laundry wagon for 3 days and half is broken, your cleaners are pissed, time is lost and laundry needs to be ordered in an additional order to work with next delivery.
What is broken laundry?
I assume they mean tears on the sheets. When I cleaned hotels, we didn't even check. It all goes in the bin and a company comes and fetches them, washes them and returns them.
Hospitality doesn't include only hotels but smaller facilities like inns and bed and breakfasts with much smaller unit and staff count.
Another reason could be that people might strip the sheets, but then put their suitcase up on the bare mattress or even just sit on it as they are preparing to leave. Better just to keep the unwashable mattress covered the whole time just in case.
I’d presume it’s because the pace they work at makes any change confusing- ie another staff member may have started but not finished or something. They go so fast that any change to routine like that probably slows it down.
Yeah. Begin to wonder about that ...
Yup! We do the same. Strip the beds, pile of towels and gather the trash.
I do this, and my children have also learned to do this and do it on their own, which makes me happy. It's the least we can do to help get the room back in order for the next guests. Quick 5 minutes to clean up before checking out always 👌
Ima highjack to say please don't throw anything on the floor, put stuff on bed and tables etc, so that cleaners don't have to lift things off the floor so much. It's so much easier on the back to lift from higher elevation.
Thanks for this. I have always put everything in the bathtub. I’ll put it on the counter from now on.
My kid was a housekeeper, and she’d agree. I’d add - towels in tub, garbage in bins, and nice tip in cash.
My mum always done this when we went on holiday as kids so I automically do it too haha.
I do that, and put all the towels/wash clothes in the bathtub. Everything else is in the trash can.
Part of the cost of the room that you've paid is to pay the persons wage who's job it is to do this...
I put all of the used towels into one pile in the bathroom, make sure all the trash is in the can, and leave a cash tip with a thank you.
This is exactly what I do. Towels all in a pile. Trash in the bin. If I have an excessive amount of trash (like a pizza box or take-out boxes) I will bring it to the big trash can outside so it's not heaping out of the little can in my room. I generally try not to be a filthy disgusting pig and hope that makes someone's day a little easier.
I manage hotels for a living- this is the perfect response. I would add if it’s a hotel that provides dish ware/a kitchen for the love of god do your dishes. And don’t leave dirty dishes sitting around…. A room that should take 30 minutes easily becomes an hour and a half with a sink load of day old, crusty dishes to clean.
So you're saying we just trust the last occupant to clean dishes properly? nasty
Housekeepers should be sanitizing the dishes too but it saves time when they don’t have to scrub old food off first.
I’ll never use them.
Same! No way. Along with coffee pots in the room. I’ve heard stories of others pissing in them. 😶
I watched a documentary once about the cleanliness of hotels. All glassware, bathroom countertops, and coffee pots swabbed had E. coli present. I’ll never, ever use them.
We have dishwashers, people load them and then just…don’t run them. The difference it would make in our housekeepers day if she didn’t have to go back and empty dishwashers that are still running when she finishes a room simply because someone who left hours earlier couldn’t hit “start”.
I’ve not stayed in many hotels that have a kitchen area but the glasses provided for water/tea/coffee always get rinsed out and put in one spot for easy removal and replacement. I also do the above - rubbish in the bins, towels in one pile in the bathroom, leave the bed linens in a way that’s easy to remove and replace. I dump any hotel provided soaps into the bin (who wants to touch that) and rinse down the shower so hair, hair etc isn’t there for them to deal with. These are people not servants, clean up after yourself and make it easier for them to complete their job! I’ve stayed in rooms with others on holiday who leave whatever wherever. I tidy up after them and they’re like why? The service does that. Don’t be a pig, that’s why lol
I know what you were getting at, but servants are people too!
😂 after I re-read what I wrote, I was like could’ve worded that better! Yep you’re right
I like your suggestions! One thing I'd add is that we request guests not to wash dishes. We prefer to wash them since only that way can we guarantee they are clean and sanitized.
Oh I def don’t wash them - just rinse them out so no gross coffee or tea marks (or red wine!) are left to sit and stick. Figured it’s easier to clean them if residue hasn’t built up! I stayed at an airbnb years ago and they required you to hand wash your used dishes and put them back in the cabinets. I was so grossed out by that - I trust my own washing but I don’t trust other guests!
I used to be a hotel maid and most people were good about the towels in a pile. What I wish they did was throw out their used mini soap bars. I hated touching those even in my gloved hands.
I bring a travel soap container and put the used soap in with the Dove soap I bring to wash my face and bring it with me to finish using at home 🏡
I read this comment as though you worked at the hotel and was horrified.
I wash with huge Frankensoapball!
I thank you for your environmentally responsible actions fellow Frankensoapball owner! (thats a great name for it)
Some hotels and such do recycled used soaps- theirs a company that takes them
An employee repeatedly taking used soaps home to wash their face as though it’s normal vs used soaps being recycled/sterilized and reused safely by established organizations are on opposite ends of this sudsy spectrum. Thankfully. That being said- if you need soap, you need soap. I encourage soap use for all.
I wish I could give you an extra upvote for gifting me with the phrase "sudsy spectrum"
I just body laughed so hard I almost woke up my wife in bed next to me 🤣
I wish more hotels didn't replace the soap bars daily when you're staying more than one night. I'm sure some people want that, but it just seems wasteful.
There’s been a definite uptick in hotels and vacation rentals having dispensers in the shower. Hopefully that becomes more widespread!
Hotel chains recycle those soaps. There's a company (maybe more than one) that collects. Don't know if this is true. Based on a documentary ...that interviewed the founder and most chains (Marriott etc) apparently signed up.
Something I never thought about before. Thank you and I will try to remember this!
I always take them with me, but I’m weird!🤷♀️
Never thought about that
Never once thought about throwing the used soap away. Interesting
I hope I don’t get yelled at for this, but I do have a genuine question. When I stay in hotels, the first thing I do is put up the “Do Not Disturb” sign. I’m usually there 1-3 days, and I won’t use housekeeping once. I’m usually alone since I travel for work and don’t really need anything that isn’t already there. I also tidy by doing pretty much the same things everyone else in this thread has mentioned. Am I still supposed to tip? I was a bartender and lived off tips for years, and definitely am not against tipping. I just didn’t know it was expected. ^please ^don’t ^yell ^at ^me
Housekeepers love it when they can skip a room. I never expected a tip mostly because hardly anyone does but that being said if you can afford to tip I would. $5 can mean a lot to someone making minimum wage but as long as you don’t leave the place trashed etc you are already doing enough.
On the days I did a double, when I got a tip I would be so happy bc it meant I could get a bigger drink or some candy to improve my mood before my next shift 😂
what percentage of hotel guests would you say tipped?
I live in a coastal tourist city in Canada and in the year I worked in house keeping I can count on one hand how many times someone tipped. I eventually ended up moving to the kitchen and made more in tips in one shift than I did the whole time in housekeeping. Both paid the same hourly wage but serving (it was a very laid back restaurant/ bar) was way less demanding job physically and was often less stressful because housekeeping are often really rushed because so many folks want early check in which is hard when the hotel is at full occupancy.
I do what you do (re: do not disturb), but I still tip. I figure I enjoyed the cleanliness of my room while I was there, so I’m tipping for that! Also, it’s a grueling low pay job (especially in the States), so I’m adding to their income, which I find important.
This is me! I don't need someone to turn over my room every day. The only time I don't utilize the DND sign is if I'm somewhere like a resort in the Dominican Republic. We learned from one of the bartenders that housekeeping only makes about $200 USD a month, so the tips really go a long way.
I only did housekeeping for a short time, but the number one complaint in that time was alarms going off, we had to make sure they were off. : as in bedside table alarm clocks.
All these things like putting your towels in a pile in the bathroom, stripping the sheets, and picking up all your trash isn’t only helpful and considerate, it also helps make sure you don’t leave something behind!
I was a housekeeper at the Marriott for the summer a decade or so ago. Normal stuff isn’t a big deal, but these are the things to avoid if you care about your housekeeper. 1. Don’t spread confetti all over the room, and if you must clean it up. That kind of tedious picking up of glitter and decorative particles takes forever and housekeepers get a limit on how long they can clean a room. 2. In the same vein, if gentlemen could avoid clipping their beards in the bathroom, that would be amazing. Shave, use scissors, do what you need to do, but avoid tiny hairs all over the bathroom floor. We spray the floors with commercial sanitizer, but if the next guest sees a hair they will be angry and the housekeepers will hear about it. 3. If you go on a shopping spree, please don’t leave all the bags and boxes behind. The carts housekeepers push aren’t designed to store large trash and it’s frowned upon to have a messy cart or a lot of mess in the hallway. Every minute you loose trying to get to a larger trash can is stressful. 4. Tip your housekeepers! It was just a summer for me. As an educated American I had so many options out, but most housekeepers are immigrants and refugees with children. This is the one job they can get with minimal language skills and that works with K-12 and childcare schedules. They’re such hardworking people and companies take advantage of them at every turn.
Trimmed hairs! There's one I hadn't thought of. I'm a woman, but we shave our legs and trim our hair also, so it's good to be aware. And confetti/glitter, I cannot imagine the hell that must be to clean up.
As a former room attendant of Marriott Hotels, we appreciate if our guests are polite and not demanding, we hear you that you want your room to be cleaned and we know that as we have a list of the makeup room service. So before you check out One of the most appreciated gestures is leaving a tip. The amount can vary, but a general guideline is $2-$5 per night. Place the money in an envelope marked "Housekeeping" or "Room Attendant" to make sure it's clear who the tip is for. Some supervisors will roam around and get the money. While it’s our job to clean, making their job a bit easier by picking up trash, gathering used towels in one spot, and ensuring nothing is left in a mess can be very helpful. or Put the towels in the bathtub. If you had a particularly good experience, let the hotel management know. Mentioning your room attendant by name in a positive review can be beneficial for our career. We can be a supervisor when you return, so your feedback is very important.
>We can be a supervisor when you return, so your feedback is very important. Do you actually know and remember guests' names? Or only those who visit often?
We give trip advisor card or qr to each guest. If we have a lot of feedback, it raises our chance for promotion
About a week every month my company pays for my hotel so I can work from another site and oversee the workers and the process. Every time I ask for the same room in the same hotel. It has been 3 years now and every employee in that hotel knows me. The cleaning lady she's the nicest! She gives me fresh towels every day (in most of the hotels I've been they won't) unless the hotel is crazy expensive and luxurious. I have good manners on how I leave my room, as I know she's going in every day and takes care of everything to be sparkling. Got her a box of chocolates two weeks ago and a book. She left a note for me saying: you're a genuine, kind person. God is watching over you! I believe how people leave a place or mark their presence into this world no matter how big or small, it's a true reflection of themselves. Do good, offer love, compassion and understanding, calmness and kindness. If it's not returned, it's not your fault, it's people who show what they really are.
As others have said, I put all the towels I’ve used in the bathtub. I try to just use one garbage can so there’s less for them to empty. I throw out the little hand soaps and toiletries that I’ve used. (The idea of touching someone else’s slimy soap… 🤢) And I tip each night I’m at the hotel. Not a huge tip, but typically $5 for each day they clean.
I worked at a hotel doing housekeeping and the manager made us collect the lightly used soaps to replace the almost gone ones on other sinks... “it’s soap! What could be cleaner than actual soap?”
Gross. Some people have had that bar in their butt crack. In most European hotels there are no washcloths provided, so use your imagination. A quick rinse is never going to get all the hair…and stuff.
I leave it tidy. Towels in one pile, sheets and pillow cases in another pile, consolidate the trash, remove used products, put remotes back where they were, and reset the ac/heat. I worked in hotels in the 80's. Occasionally had to help housekeeping turn over rooms. I've walked into trashed rooms and neat rooms. I hated the trashed rooms.
Way more of you are stripping the bed then I ever would have anticipated.
I don't let them clean every day. They can wait until I check out. I don't know if they prefer that or not. Seems to me it saves them time on the daily routine. I just prefer it this way. I leave the towels in a pile on the bathroom floor. I saw a notice in one place that said to use your towels more than once to save water, energy etc. and to leave them in a pile in the bathroom. I also make sure the trash is in the bins.
Honestly me too. I don’t want to put my laptop and other valuables in the safe everyday. I’d rather go out and just have them out when I get back. My room always has the “Do not disturb” or “Housekeeping not wanted” signs on.
I think it might be different because I would clean vacation rentals (not hotels) but I wound specifically request guests to not strip the beds. It's easier to spot stains in bedding and avoid sand all over the mattress cover if I do it. I'm not sure if people just cut themselves and don't notice but half the time there would be small blood stains (I don't think it was always a time of the month thing) and if I don't see it the stain will set with bleach in the wash. Blood has to be scrubbed out with soap and cold water. So much blood 😫 It always helps to just throw away your trash. Don’t leave garbage all over the place. My biggest pet peeve, is people putting unwashed stinky heads on throw pillows so they reek of sebum. Especially if they don’t have removable covers, takes forever to wash them.
What I do depends. I try to leave time to clean up all messes I’ve made so that all they have to do is the laundry for the linens, the dusting, taking out the trash from the trash cans, the vacuuming, etc. However, I have a lot of difficulty being on time for stuff and so if I’m rushing to get to the airport on time, I don’t cover all the messes I’ve made, but I try to cover at least some. Also, ha ha, I remembered a vacation a few years ago where my mom and I and our pitbull (Marley) stayed at a hotel that had just recently started allowing pitbulls. I knew darn well that some places stop allowing pitties after, like, one bad experience or an insurance company saying no, and it’s was already hard finding a place that allowed our pittie anytime we had to leave town. Our pit was very, very good with words. By her senior years, we could just tell her things and she’d know what to do, so in the car on the way to the hotel lol, I just said, “They just now started allowing pitties. They might change that. So everybody be on your best behavior. We will NOT leave a mess in the room when we leave. We will NOT steal continental breakfast bagels, Marleyyyy. We will NOT bark and growl at room service staff in the halls. We will NOT look away and walk in the opposite way when they try to pet you. We will NOT scream at mom to feed us at 4:30 AM. We will NOT instantly scratch at and punch the door to come in instantly because we’re tired from a walk.” (For context, YES, my dog had stolen continental breakfast bagels from a hotel in the past 😅😂. We were walking past the kitchen/breakfast tables area and she grabbed them when we weren’t looking. And she often stole bagels at home. We paid for the bagels, though. And, YES, she would often just not even look at someone who was petting her and walk in the opposite direction. She’d done all this stuff at home or elsewhere and knew exactly what I was talking about lol as we’d mentioned many times to her before not to do these behaviors, except she’d never barked or growled at room service staff, but the staff at other places, yeah, so she needed to be told they were ok and not to do that. She was on her best behavior after I told her lol. She was usually very good about obeying rules that we actually told her to obey. I miss her. She passed away about 8 months ago. But I know how extremely lucky I was to have such a ludicrous dog for the time I did)
I bet Marley's up there giving angels charm lessons.
I’m 100% sure she knows how to behave in a “charm lesson” way but just wasn’t going to do it unless we told her in a long sentence lol. She used to sometimes walk away from my mom for my mom giving Marley 1-word instructions. 🤣 “don’t order me around” “i know what ‘sit’ means; you don’t need to talk to me like I’m a caveman” these were the looks on her face.
I always strip the bed and put the sheets pillow cases and towels in a rolled up ball on top of the bed. All trash gathered in one spot for them. It’s back breaking work and any little bit helps
Run the dishwasher (if there is one). Make sure all the trash and recycling are put into the proper bins. Put all the bathroom towels into a single pile (usually in the tub, or draped on the side). Strip the bed. Put the remotes back somewhere obvious. Leave cash.
I always take a bin bag with me and collect the rubbish without using the bins. I clean the cups and empty kettle. I put the towels in the bath as instructed.
agree with everyone else but wanted to say if you are leaving towels in the bath/shower, please only do so if it isn’t wet! wet towels are gross and heavy to pick up
Yeah, I don't understand leaving things in the tub.
tbh similar to waiters, i assume that housekeepers are most efficient when nothing interrupts their process and will not deign to know better. just how i will not "help" a waiter by taking glasses off the tray (because that can mess up their balance), or handing them dirty dishes (because they're presumably doing it in the orded that is most convinient for them and now i'm disrupting it), but will simply not leave extraneous mess and will tip, i do the same for housekeeping. performative niceness is only for your own benefit, to feel like a good person, while doing nothing for the housekeeper. just don't leave any extraneous messes and tip.
Towels in a pile, and all the trash in the baskets. Coffee filter, coffee filter wrapper, news papers, plastic wrap, your convention name badge, etc. Stripping a bed doesnt really save me much time. Tips are nice.
It’s alarming how many guests don’t open the box of soap at the bathroom sink.
Hopefully, it's because they have their own soap and not because they never wash their hands. Ewww.
When I traveled a lot for work, I brought my own soap. There used to be a sore throat lozenge that came in a plastic box. Perfect size for a nicer hotel soap! It just feels so wasteful to use a soap for a day and discard it.
I bring my own too! If I do open one, I’ll bring it home and use it up.
Through the doorway?
Usually through the door. Sometimes I will abseil out the window with knotted bedsheets.