Search Results for: smell

Staying in a hotel is always a very exciting experience, being in a different city and being treated like royalty is always fun. Most people, unless they have worked at a hotel, are not aware of everything that really goes on behind the scenes or the “desk” in this case. Here are some eye-opening secrets that hotel employees share. 1. They Lose Their VIP Roster For Breaking A Rule While it’s true that most hotel maids have broken some fairly significant rules (and haven’t been shy when it comes to admittance), they still take a big risk when it comes to getting caught. If a maid gets busted trying on your clothes or giving an annoying guest attitude, they’ll lose their VIP roster and have to clean the less desirable and cheaper rooms. They can also have their hours docked. Today Show 2. They Clock Out By 5:30 A small, but useful piece of information that most hotel guests aren’t aware of is that hotel maids clock out by 5:30. So, if you plan on requesting something from housekeeping, you’ll get it much quicker and in better condition, if you ask for it earlier in the day. The only service you’ll get in the evening hours at a hotel is a “fresh towel.” 3. They “Use” Your Bathroom You may or may not have seen this one coming but hotel maids are human, after all; when she’s gotta go, she’s gotta go! The hotel maids will go not just #1, but #2 in the bathroom you’ve booked to use on your vacation. In cases like this, it’s best to abide by the well-known ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rule of thumb. As long as the bathroom is clean and looks untouched, then does it really matter at the end of your stay? burstdaily.com 4. They Only Pat Down Duvet Stains Ask almost any hotel maid and they’ll tell you the truth – duvets, coverlets, and sheets rarely get washed. An anonymous maid told the DailyMail that if she comes across a duvet with a small stain that can be blotted out, she’ll pat it down with water until it’s barely visible. With the sheets, if they aren’t wrinkled and have no stains, they almost never get changed. Instead, the maid will smooth out the surface and lint roll the bed to freshen it up. burstdaily.com 5. They Take Food Off Your Room Service Plates Most hotel maids don’t pack a lunch before heading out for their work day. Instead, they grab small things off the fresh plates of room service orders before they are delivered to the guests. Next time you take a look at your pricey, yet delicious room service and notice how small the portion is, just remember, the kitchen didn’t skimp you. Most likely, the maids were ready for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. burstdaily.com 6. They Literally Nap In Your Room A hotel maid revealed that staff sometimes have a nap in the guest’s hotel rooms. Especially if they are cleaning a large suite and have more time allocated to clean it. They also use the bathrooms in guests rooms if they are really busy, even though they are not actually allowed to. So you should know that you’re never really the only one using your bathroom or bed at the time of your stay. gettyimages.com 7. They Fight Over Rooms Senior members of the hotel’s cleaning staff will call dibs on the more expensive rooms and private suites. As a guest, if you leave anything behind and choose not to claim it at a later date, then the maid who cleaned your room can take it home with her as a lovely parting gift. Same goes for trolleys – the senior staff members take the best ones and leave the entry-level maids with older, more rickety ones. 8. They Want You To Steal Contrary to what you would obviously assume, hotel’s actually want you to steal their towels, soaps, and shampoos. It is not only their way of making you feel like you really got your bang for your buck and had a memorable stay, but it is also advertising for them. If you leave with a memory from the hotel, perhaps with their logo on the towel it will keep the hotel in your mind. Furthermore, ordering towels in bulk does not actually cost them so much. However other items such as the iron, they will bill your credit card. www.slate.com 9. They Allow You To Cancel Without Paying The Fee A hotel worker reveals the secret to cancel your reservation without paying any fee. If you wait to cancel after the cancellation time, call first and ask to change the date of your stay. Hopefully, another clerk will answer the phone and then the cancellation fee will no longer be relevant as there will be a new cancellation date. Some clerks will even help you with this hack. 10.They Take Revenge Against Rude Guests Some maids are able to control their desire for vengeance on others. In the past, hotel maids have reported colleagues for misconduct against a rude guest or saw them getting payback first hand. An anonymous maid on the Huffington Post confessed that one of her co-workers used a bathroom towel to mop the floor in one of the rooms and simply hung it back up for re-use when the guests return. goodhousekeeping.com 11. They Get A Higher Salary If You Keep Your Room Clean Wait, what?! Most hotels pay their housekeepers per room that they clean, which means that if you keep your room as clean as possible, they will be able to clean more rooms and eventually get a higher paycheck. And in general, they will just like you much more. pinterest.com 12. They Snoop Around Your Stuff In case you were wondering (and we know you were), hotel maids do in fact enjoy snooping around your hotel room, you are not just paranoid. With long and somewhat boring days, they find it very exciting to find a stain on your bed and come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories of how it got there. They also find it super interesting to explore your possessions and figure out what kind of person you are, and makeup fantasy stories of what you do. Whatever it takes to get through the day, right? 13. They Have Probably Stalked You Online Once you book a room, some hotels are actually looking at your personal social media accounts, such as your Facebook and Instagram. It is so important to them that you have a pleasant stay that they want to know exactly what you like and what your personality is. With this, they will aim to tailor your room to the type of person you are. Although this is slightly creepy, it surely makes for a great time and will help them keep their hotel successful. 14. They Don’t Scrub The Tubs As we’ve gone over, hotel maids don’t usually have the time to clean the room as spotless as they’d prefer. When they reach the bathroom, instead of scrubbing the tubs, they’ll just run the faucet or shower and rinse it out instead! Therefore, the next time you check into your hotel room, you might want to make sure the tub smells like bleach or cleaner. If it doesn’t, dump some of that fancy hotel shampoo in there and let it run for a minute or two. denverpost.com 15. They Lend Out Forgotten Chargers Hotel maids are always finding and turning in forgotten items to the front desk. The most common items left in rooms are usually small electronics and phone or laptop chargers. If you forgot yours at home, a housekeeper will usually let you borrow (or keep!) one that was left behind by a prior guest. Just ask next time and you shall receive! burstdaily.com 16. They Will Give You A Discount If You Complain Hotel workers also admit that complaining is always the best way to go and will most likely score you a discount on your room rate. If it’s an older person they are dealing with, they very rarely will question their claim. If you give the clerk a complaint about your rate, you are surely going to be given a 10% discount, and the hotel understands that selling the room at even 30% of a discounted price is still better than having an empty room. But they also reveal that you need to know the right time to haggle, not in front of a large group of other guests. gettyimages.com 17. They Put You On Their Black List A hotel worker revealed some valuable information for anyone that was planning on misbehaving at a hotel – some hotels actually have a blacklist for people who do not respect the rules of the hotel, and they share them amongst other hotels. So if you were ever planning on not paying or not leaving your room on time, and you manage to aggravate them enough you might never be able to stay in many hotels again. You might want to think twice before doing anything. techeblog.com 18. They Are Friends With The Police Hotels often have great relationships with the local police… for the most part. This seriously helps them protect themselves with all of the thousands of people coming in and out of the hotels all the time and helps keep things safe and sound. You can sleep well tonight. However, if the police department isn’t a fan of the hotel for one reason or another, they can have a pretty hard time. burstdaily.com 19. They Will Never Talk About A Celebrity Guest Many hotels will try to respect the privacy of celebrities and other high-profile guests and offer them a quiet stay at their hotel. So you probably won’t know if you are staying in the same hotel as a celebrity. Apparently, these kinds of people check in at quieter times and the hotel management helps them enter discreetly. 20. They Lie It is the hotel’s job to make you feel welcome and happy. Therefore, there are some standard lies they have to say basically on auto-repeat to all guests, such as that all the rooms are the same, that they surely remember you, that there is nothing they can do, that they appreciate your feedback, they are sorry you were made to feel uncomfortable, that they did not mean to come off as rude, they hope to see you again and they are deeply apologetic. getaroom.com 21. They Case Pillows Like Ninjas Hotel maids know that there is a much better way to case a pillow. Since they would rather not have 50 pillows touch their faces every day, they throw a karate chop down the middle of the pillow and shove it in, folding it like a bun. This way is much better than the standard way of tucking under your chin and pulling the pillowcase on similar to a pair of jeans. dailymail.co.uk 22. They Do A “Magic Trick” To Get The Mirror Sparkling In order to get hotel mirrors sparkling clean and completely perfect without a single streak, hotel maids actually use furniture polish. Apparently, Windex is no longer the coolest cleaning item in town. Spray a thick base of this stuff and you will find yourself with a spotless mirror. Although furniture polish is quick and works extremely well, it can cause a lot of buildups and will be very hard to scrub, so do not try this at home. tripadvisor.com 23. They Hate Your Ridiculous Requests Hotel workers are generally guided to say yes to every legal and appropriate request from the guests. But several hotel maids revealed that sometimes the requests get incredibly ridiculous and impossible. One guest, for example, asked them to “make the rain stop”. In a sense, this is rather flattering thinking that hotel workers are so powerful, but it can also be rather frustrating to deal with such ignorance to reality and difficult to offer a polite response to such requests. youtube.com 24. Bellmen Want To Help You Bellmen are seriously disturbed by your wheeled suitcase. Bernard Sadow invented the wheeled suitcase in 1970 and from there this has only hurt the bellman’s career, as he used to be a complete necessity and a more useful member of the hotel system. They do not want to hear, ‘no, thanks, I got it’. They have a family to support and need to be needed by the hotel and need your extra tip money. winnipegfreepress.com 25. Being A Regular Pays Off If you travel often, you are best off using the same hotel every trip, or at least the same hotel chain. If you get to know the staff of the hotel, you will be treated as a special guest, and establish nice relationships with the staff as they start to recognize you. Furthermore, you can get free upgrades on your room, discounts and all kinds of other exciting and unique perks that would not otherwise be available to you if you were a one-timer. collegehumor.com 26. Do Not Pay For The Minibar A hotel worker reveals that you never actually have to pay for using the minibar. They are inevitably the most argued charges on every hotel bill. Since it’s maintained by a person, there are always mistakes in the keystrokes, double stocking, delays in restocking and tons of other errors that cause the minibar charges to be the most voided item on the bill. detroitnews.com 27. Sunday Is The Day To Check Out Apparently, the ideal time to check into a hotel is on Sunday Early on in the month. This is because people on vacation are usually leaving and business people have not yet arrived. Therefore the hotel will not only be quiet but will also allow you to have more rooms to have to choose from. Furthermore, it also leaves room for discounts to be given. 28. Front-Desk Hackers It’s a commonly used hacking trick when an imposter calls your hotel room in the middle of the night to take your credit card number. If this happens to you, it’s best to hang up the phone and go to the front desk and confront any payment disputes (if there even is one). Rule of thumb: the front desk won’t ever call you after late night hours. imdb.com 29. They Knock 3 Times For A Reason Usually, that reason is hotel protocol but on an off-day, a housekeeper will use these 3 knocks as your final chance to get your room cleaned or your towels changed. It’s also your 3-strike rule for them barging in, in which case, you forgot to leave the Do Not Disturb sign up. CNN Travel 30. They Read Your Private Notes & Info This may return us to the snooping aspect of a hotel maid’s job but their favorite part of checking you out, and who you are as a guest, is reading your notes and documents. Leave a simple package behind and they can see where you live or came from. Write down your thoughts on a bedside pad and they’re inside your head. We think we’d rather have them try on our clothes. pinterest.com 31. They Have Access To That Small Safe Most hotel room safes aren’t actually that “safe.” Hotel staff, in general, has access to it if need be and this surprisingly includes the housekeeping department. Since these mini-safes aren’t really insured against external theft, it might behoove any guests carrying valuable items to ask the front desk to hold these materials for them in their personal safe. colorshotel.com 32. They Void The Bill For This Reason… Earlier we discussed how mini-bar bills are the most avoided bills in the hotel industry. It’s easy to complain or deny that you were the last guest to break into that forbidden fridge. However, the reason hotels will void your mini-bar bill isn’t that they’re “good for it” – it’s because they’re just tired of hearing the same excuse from every guest that tell their maids someone drank that small, over-priced beer before you checked in. consumerist.com 33. They Want You To Smoke So They Can Charge You It’s a pain in the neck to get the smell of cigarette smoke out of a hotel room and at times, the hotel maids are at loss for what they can do to clean it properly (if they have time). The reality of the situation is that they want you to smoke so they can charge you up the wazoo for damages. This way, they make a little extra dough for cleaning supplies or, well, whatever else they want to spend it on. bearcom.com 34. They Talk About That Affair You’re Having… If you thought to blacklist guests from not just one hotel, but many, was pretty harsh then you’ll love this one. Hotel staff, especially housekeeping, definitely keep tabs on those guests that check-in to have an affair or a one-time encounter. We may have already covered that yes, maids gossip about their guests. However, if you’re a regular and your face is familiar to them for obvious reasons, you’ll never live it down. 35. They Have A Secret Cleaning Weapon Hotel maids have a discrete arsenal of cleaning weapons that can be at home in your pantry or in your bathroom. Instead of soap, vinegar and water do the trick and leave a surface spotless (if they have time). Another trick of the trade if the benefits of using a toothbrush to clean the cracks and small corners in hotel bathrooms. That’s not a bad tip to remember for house cleaning, either. huffingtonpost.com Credits: worldation Share this story on Facebook with your friends.