We stay at hotels quite often. Usually, at least two or three times a month. But, lately I have been noticing a trend that I do not like.
Housekeeping. This is one of the most important jobs in a hotel. If your rooms aren’t clean you will begin to develop a reputation and no one will want to stay in your hotels. Three times recently we have had housekeeping issues at different hotels. One hotel had a rag in the bottom of the shower when we checked in and the garbage cans had obviously not been emptied. It was late so we said we would not change rooms but please make sure it is well cleaned while we were out the next day. We left at 9:45 am and returned about 5:00 pm. My daughter texted me that our room had not been cleaned at all. Ugh! So, we called first and then went to the front desk. Our room was taken care of by a very apologetic woman who thoroughly cleaned our room.
This is not the first time our room has not been cleaned while we are staying at a hotel for several nights. Vacuuming, dusting, and a general cleaning each day are to me included in the price of the room. I know housekeeping is a thankless job and probably one of the lower paid jobs in the hotel. I see cut backs being made to the housekeeping staff. One hotel we stayed in we were there for three nights and not once was our room cleaned. They apologized saying they were fully booked and understaffed. I understand being short-staffed but you do everything you can to make sure you have a large enough pool of people to draw from to get the work done.
Now, I am not talking about low-end budget hotels I am talking the mid-range $125-$175 a night hotels. Have any of you experienced housekeeping issues at hotels recently?
What's for Dinner Moms? 
Gosh this would not fly down here Marci-Tourism is so big thus Motels/Hotels constantly booked. So sorry you have been experiencing this!
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Thank you! It has been at several big brand hotels too. That is what is bothersome. I know accountants/businesses tend to put profits over people (I live with a corporate accountant).
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Still you are paying top $$ for those services from your hard earned monies Marci and I would be livid personally! In fact, I will share with you my Father owns two Motels here on the beach (smaller ones of course) and he has had the same housekeepers over 20 years-he pays them well, treats them well and they do an outstanding job. When Daddy owned his Restaurant (over 25 years) he had the same employees many. many years. Things are just going downhill at a rapid pace I guess??? I know you all love Disney and I want to share with you a college friend of mine was having a hard time finding employment locally and decided she might like to apply at Disney World. This was about 11 years ago. She went down and through all the interviews (Resume, etc.) and was told she would have to start at housekeeping first. She was interested in Reservations. Now, I am not at all sure if it is the same today there? She was lucky and found work 3 months later locally and is still there as a co-manager. I found that strange that Disney did that? After having her family pay her education she was not about to clean rooms for Disney or anyone! Ha-true story.
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That sucks! Thankfully no, the rooms we’ve stayed in have been clean. I’m going to Las Vegas today. I hope I don’t have any issues like this or else they’ll hear from me. I’m not one to keep quiet, especially when I’ve paid good money.
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They fixed it for us but it has just been a pattern I have noticed over the last few months. I don’t know if it is because it is “off season” here in the Midwest so they don’t think they need as much staff but still….
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Exactly! You’re paying a lot per night too!
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I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels in my life and it’s funny because I’ve learned a lot of the times it’s the owners who has this MENTALITY of being cheap and making sure their hotels are understaffed. If a hotel is understaff and cannot clean a room properly, than why are they going to rent it out? I hate when businesses do that. They are so greedy.
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The worse part is these are brand name hotels too so maybe I expect more but you are right.
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Yes that happens all the time.
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I work in an hotel at the reservation department, so I don’t really have to deal with guests but I do see the complaints from the guest written down by our colleagues at the front desk. I see these complaints all the time. And like you said it is lower paid job but a clean room is the basis of a pleasant stay, which all staff wants for their guests
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Thank you! I agree without clean rooms these hotels will be going down hill fast. Maybe it is time to look at what makes the hotel run and be profitable and boost the wages or something.
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I’ve seen some less than clean rooms, but so far didn’t have to deal with no cleaning at all. I think it’s inexcusable. If you booked the rooms through a site that allows for customers reviews, I would highly recommend sharing your experience with fellow travels and giving the hotel a low grade. Sometimes they learn the hard way…
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I am always hesitant to fill out reviews but I guess I need to start.
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I love doing reviews.
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I would NOT have settled for that. I would have asked for a discount on the room, at least. Sorry about your bad luck with that. 😦
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They took care of it but I just don’t like seeing the pattern I see emerging.
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I know this isn’t really related to the subject but there is two hotels hiring where I live and I applied but never heard back from either one you would think they would want to hire someone even if they don’t have experience I mean it’s not hard to clean
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I know! At least let you know that they either hired someone else or something.
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Yes! I’ve been noticing this trend too, though I’m not sure if it’s the staff being hired (cliché, but good help is hard to find) or the fact these corporations are trying to milk as much as they can by cutting staff so they can max their profits and make the remaining staff work even harder. I once found a random bra in my room. How does that even happen? Lol
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I tend to lean more to corporations cutting staff. My partner is a corporate accountant and we talk about a certain mentality they have. If it takes someone say 30 minutes to clean a room they should clean 16 rooms in 8 hours so we only need x number of cleaners. Not figuring in breaks, overly messy situations that arise, or absences due to illness. Someday I will write about the corporate parking lot that cannot hold all their cars because of this type of thinking.
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Yes, I agree with that. It’s all about numbers in the end for these folks. They don’t do the job, so they don’t know or care about the reality, which is unfortunate because the employee is the one that suffers in the end.
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She once said once these decisions are made the people that make the decisions should have to do the job of those they decided on for a month before it goes into policy. They would quickly change their minds. 😉
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If only! Haha
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Sharing this with my daughter who is in the hotel business – very interesting…
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Thank you! I have had the non-cleaning occur at more than one hotel in three different chains. It would be interesting to see what she thinks.
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My SO travels for work all the time and he used to stay at corporate lodging hotels…until this happened. One night, he got to the hotel, took a shower and went to turn down the bed. Found a dirty, used towel on the bed along with some socks. He called the desk and they basically told him to deal with it. Before that, there were so many times where he would come in to unemptied trash barrels, unwashed showers (there was hair in the drain) and once, an unflushed and obviously uncleaned toilet. He isn’t one to complain but the dirty towel took the cake. Now, we suck it up when he travels. He pays out of pocket to stay in better known hotels (he does get reimbursed through work). He still runs into the same issues but they get taken care of when he calls to complain.
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Wow! I think that these hotels – there are Hilton and Marriott hotels among them, would be better but I guess I have to go higher up the chain to get a clean room!
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The ones that Brian’s work likes for them to use are lower end. Like Howard Johnson, Best Western…etc. He actually had to do that for a Hilton. Went up to the regional manager and got results.
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I know exactly how you feel!! Really frustrating! We stay at a hotel for about 4 nights per month and we often have same experiences in the US although my husband didn’t care much 😮
In Japan, by the way, it is also a lower paid job plus nobody tip. But they work very hard responsibly and efficiently. Any hotel rooms are always clean in Japan. I think in the US they should improve the workforce training ways.
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Yes, and the pay for such an important job.
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I usually stay at B&B 😊
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I have not done that. Staying in people’s homes freaks me out. I don’t even stay with friends or family if I can avoid it.
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Yep. I went to a swanky hotel in Vegas and had that issue with the bathroom not being cleaned and I told them I wanted a new room. I counted confirm if the bed had been changed and I didn’t want to catch something.
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Yes. Why would they leave their brand reputations open to these issues?
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I don’t think the housekeeping supervisor is going behind them to check that the rooms have been cleaned. That is so nasty.
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Working as a housekeeper in hotel is such a tough job! I can’t imagine how they are able to cleam so many rooms that fast. I respect their job a lot. I’m a hotelier, but never had a chance to work in Housekeeping department. I pretty sure, that they do not receive as much money asthey should. Inever really had big problems with housekeeping department while staying at hotels. Sometimes they forgoet to leave towel, or hotel cosmetics but it’s just a small thing. Usually everything is perfect:D
Best,
Kasia
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Thank you. I so think they are under staffed and under paid.
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