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Staying in a hotel? Bring your own drinking glasses

by Martha Edwards (RSS feed) on Dec 12th 2007 at 12:31PM

I wouldn't call myself a major germaphobe or anything, but like most people, I like to know that the things I eat and drink are somewhat hygienic. So this video really grossed me out -- you too? I usually bring my own Nalgene bottles with me when I travel to drink from and thank goodness I do. Bleh.

What's living in your hotel room?

Click... if you dare.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)

zima3000 Dec 12th 2007 7:21PM

Oh, that's like nothing. How do you think chain hotels can afford the rates they charge you? Bingo! By hiring $5/hour housekeepers (among other things). Now, how hard would _you_ work for $5/hour?

Signed: Hospitality industry insider who usually tries to stay at B&Bs.

Jacqueline Dec 12th 2007 10:09PM

Sounds like it's time for a travel bar kit (hey, you can use it for drinking more than just booze) - http://www.3luxe.com/category/Bar_and_Wine_Accessories/Travel_Bars

Seriously, though, I'm not a germaphobe either but seeing stuff like that unnerves me - apparently "out of sight, out of mind" also applies to things like this! Of course, I'd probably be disturbed if I got a close-up view of most hotel and restaurant kitchens - I'd bet most people would.

harrison Dec 14th 2007 8:27PM

How often do they steam clean the mattresses??

chris Dec 14th 2007 8:44PM

heres a story i think its an urban legend actually but this guy goes to an island with his family and this is back when digital cameras werent popular but after they got back and had their pictures developed they saw pictures of the maid having their toothbrushes in their butts while other housekeepers took the pictures. after hearing that story i always take one time use disposable items like that.

SKIDDERS Dec 14th 2007 8:46PM

Im not surprised!! We actually caught a hotel housekeeper washing the room glasses this exact way. It was a luxury hotel in a cosmopolitan city. The manager refused to even apologize. We contacted the hotels headquarters and still no concern...thus a common industry practice. We never went back there. We try to use only bottle water and throw away cups.

SANDRA Dec 14th 2007 9:16PM

I ALWAYS BRING MY OWN "DISINFECTANTS" TOWELS, EATING UTENSILS, DISHES,CUPS, SOAP, BED LINENS, BLANKETS AND MY OWN TOILET PAPER WHENEVER I STAY AT ANY PUBLIC LODGING PLACES ANYWHERE.

"10 lbs. of prevention is worth 10,000 lbs. (if curable at all) of cure"!

Yanno?

Ebony Dec 14th 2007 9:05PM

Wow that's crazy and so nasty!!!!!! I'm glad I never use those glasses.

Carolyn Dec 14th 2007 9:09PM

I don't even sit on the bedspreads and blankets. I always pull them back or take them off the bed first. I can only hope and pray that the sheets are clean-but have my doubts about that. The last hotel I stayed at, I looked under the matress cover on both sides of the bed for bugs- didn't see anything thank God!

Jeri Dec 14th 2007 9:07PM

The nastiest thing in a hotel room and I don't care if it's a 5 star or a 1 star hotel, is the bedspread. I was watching Court TV and a murder was commited in a hotel room, the woman was raped and murdered and wrapped in the bedspread, when they took the bedspread to the lab to collect DNA, there was 37 different semen stains on it. Now when I go to a hotel, that is the first thing to come off and it goes in a corner.

Sue Dec 14th 2007 9:09PM

Yuk! But please don't paint all service industries with the same brushstroke as these hotels! I manage a family restaurant, and I eat there, all my staff eat there, as well as all our families. The only gross things I encounter are usually perpetrated by the public (i.e. bathroom habits/hygiene)!! A little proactive training goes a long way. You cannot expect an employee to come to your business with common sense or proper home-training any longer - those days are gone! Everything needs to be taught to the staff, and checked on periodically.

Caren Dec 20th 2007 8:15PM

I know for absolute certainty this practice is widespread. I worked for a luxury beach resort in Destin, Florida 20 years ago. I was instructed to "wash" the glasses with glasscleaner (think windex) when we ran out of clean ones on the cart. I quit after my second day.

SWEET C......... Dec 14th 2007 9:13PM

THE BED SPEADS HAVE GROSSED ME OUT, I ALWAYS TAKE SLIPPERS, GET A CAN OF LYSOL AND USE...

Tina Dec 14th 2007 9:23PM

I have been a hotel manager for 16 years. Our owners pay our housekeeing staff per room at just $3.00 per room. Therefore, the faster they clean the rooms, the more rooms they can do, thus, the more money they make. How well do you think your room gets cleaned? It puts me in a bad position, because, the most important aspect to me is a clean, sanitary room, but, I just can't blame them. I think it is a real injustice and owners should never pay this way. The owners feel that this is a good idea because it prevents the maids from "milking the clock" but, I feel it is a major backfire. Housekkepers have the hardest, dirtiest, and most important job in the hotel industry and they should be compensated as such. So, who pays in the end? You, the guest, because your not getting the cleanest, most sanitary room that you pays for and deserve. Also, please tip your housekeeper accordingly, so many never remember to do this, it does make a difference, is appreciated, and compensates for being underpaid by the owners. Oh, by the way, the #1 most unsanitary object in a hotel room.......a jacuzzi. Now, we are talking real gross!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

cis Dec 14th 2007 9:18PM

I must say, I used to be in the hotel business as a room attendant before I had my children. What happens in hotel rooms with cleaning them is appalling!!! I seen other room attendants wiping out glasses with the same rag they used to wipe a toilet seat!! When I travel now I automatically request new bedding. From the sheets to the blanket to the comforter.Bedding is sometimes left on beds for months... I've seen some stay on for as long as a year!! Imagine what is on those comforters!!! Room attendants are required to clean so many rooms during the course of an eight hour sift... You can not possible change comforters and blankets everytime someone checks out.Most hotels do not even have enough extra bedding to change them out. It would take me almost a complete month to change all my bedding.And that was if I had easy check outs. I always take my own glasses when I go to hotels now. I worked for hotels for 10 years and I never once seen them steam clean mattresses! It is sad to say but the best way to stay at a hotel is clean it yourself when you get there and change the bedding!!

bojo43 Dec 14th 2007 9:22PM

Even though the $5 an hour for cleaning is a joke we need to take pride in our work. That's what has been lost In America. Any job is worth doing right. We have neglected to teach our children that and so we encounter these horrible practices. Take pride America in any job you do. Remember someone will wait on you or clean up for you and they may care even less than these hotel workers do!

CHARLIE Dec 14th 2007 9:30PM

HAVING TRAVELED ON BUSINESS FOR 16 YEARS I USE TO LIKE TO TAKE OFF MY CLOTHES AND LAY ON THE BED SPREAD AND WATCH TV. THEN MY SON IN LAW WENT TO WORK FOR A RESORT HOTEL AND HE TOLD ME THAT BED SPREADS ARE NOT CHANGED UNTIL THEY SHOW BY SIGHT THAT THEY NEED CHANGING IN MOST HOTELS. ANYONE SETTING WHERE I LALY ARE SETTING ON MY NUDE DIRT. I WAS DOING THE SAME. I GOT OUT OF THAT FAST. NOW THE BED SPREAD IS PUT ON THE FLOOR.

Jenny Dec 14th 2007 9:52PM

Earlier this year I stayed at a nationally known hotel. When we were checking out in the morning I checked under the bed just to make sure we hadn't absent mindedly kicked anything under there or forgotten anything. Imagine my surprise to see an un-cooked bratwurst staring my in the face!!!! EEEEWWW!!! We brought it to the manager's attention, he was not concerned at all! We still haven't gotten an apology from the hotel OR corporate office!! I refuse to stay under their "roof" ever again!! Another time my mom and her boyfriend were staying at a hotel and went to climb in bed. They pulled back the sheets to find a used condom layng there!! GROSS!! At least they were compensated and switched to another room.... house keeping made up the bed freshly for them while they waited!! ALWAYS ALWAYS CHECK HE BED....IN, ON AND UNDER!!

Melba Dec 14th 2007 10:01PM

I was too scared to look at the video because I know whatever horribleness it shows has to be true. I am certain that the comforters are on the bed way too long in many hotels. I believe the more one pays, the better and cleaner linens one gets. I think most hotels DO change the sheets every day, although, a lot of hotels are now asking whether you mind the same sheets for 3 days....which I don't, if I've been the only one using them! From now on, I'm not drinking from ANY glass in a hotel room. I have imagined how the glasses are washed and I'm sure it's not in a dishwasher.......the only real way to sanitize. I must say, that on a trip last year on the east coast, I stayed at a chain hotel and after about 3 days I suddenly developed a lesion above my eye. It turned out to be impetigo (usually only children get this) and I'm certain I contracted it from the hotel we stayed in. This is very disheartening because now I know you cannot use the bedspread as a blanket at night. Oh, God, what can we do? I think I shall start to call ahead and demand that ALL the linens (including bedspread) be washed before I set foot in the room.

LaughingDudester Dec 14th 2007 10:10PM

This is nothing. Last year, my family stayed at a holiday inn, and we found a used condom in the bed. Gross. We told the people at the front desk, and they ended up giving us our room for free, and paying for dinner, and breakfast the next morning. We dont stay at holiday inn's anymore.

Lisa Dec 14th 2007 10:27PM

Need to bring your own glasses, towels as well as your sheets. One upscale hotel i stayed in I had to call to have the sheets changed. Seemed they had left some lipstick and hairs behind that gave away the sheets had never been changed. Yucky!

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