just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you

[the_siobhan]

Somebody on my f-list posted this video a while back.

For those who don't want to click on it, it's a clip from some expose-style news show doing a segment on cleaning practices in hotel rooms. They film some housekeeping staff cleaning the used glasses by spraying them with a little glass cleaner, wiping them off with a (also used) hand towel and putting them back on the counter as clean. One of them without stopping to change the plastic gloves she wore while cleaning the toilet.

At the time I thought "Ew" but didn't put too much thought into it past that. Everybody knows there are businesses out there that cut corners to save money. And being paranoid about every single thing that might go wrong isn't really my thing.

But then the_axel and I were in a hotel on Friday night. And a housekeeping cart went by and I looked at it, and I thought about that video, and I wondered - if "proper" hotels do cart the glasses off each day to be washed and sterilized - where do they put them?

Because in our room alone there were two water glasses and two glass coffee mugs. Multiply that by every room on the floor and there was no way the housekeeping cart that was already piled high with towels and pillow cases and those little packaged soaps would have room for the space and weight taken up by all that glass. That would require a second person coming around with a separate cart just for dealing with glassware.

And in all my years of staying in hotels, I've never seen one.

So is there anybody on my f-list who has ever worked in a hotel and can shed a little light?

Because as much as I think most North Americans are bat-shit crazy when it comes to germs, if they aren't even using soap on the damn things - I'm bringing a travel mug every time I stay in one from now on.

Comments

[victorianrose23.livejournal.com]

ACK! ICK! *gag* Oh god. I don't even want to think about that. Well, yeah - no more drinking out of hotel glasses.

*shudder*

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

Unless you are staying in a dive that doesn't have a proper license, the glasses have been sanitized. See my other responses for further details.

The glasses are safe.

[panic-girl.livejournal.com]

That is weird. I know then when you check into a hotel the glasses are sometimes wrapped in paper though... so do they just have paper with them to wrap the glasses up with? The mysteries!!!

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Good question, especially if they wash them in the room sink..

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Usually, the policy seems to be that they wash the glasses in the bathroom sink with standard dish soap. I've seen it done.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

That I could live with.

Any of the kitchens I've worked in had an industrial-grade dishwasher that sterilized as well.

[panic-girl.livejournal.com]

Which would explain why my glasses aren't wrapped in paper after the first night of my stay... but where do the wrapped ones come from? Do they just wash them in the sink and wrap them? I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE MYSTERIOUS PAPER! Ahem, sorry, lost control there.

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

Where have you seen this done?

In Montana and Washington state, housekeepers do not have time to be washing your dishes. Carts are stocked by the staff who do the linens and glasses (sometimes two different sets of staff depending on the size of the hotel.)

As for the mystery of the cart, there's actually a door on the side, think of it like an inside out refrigerator door, so you see the shelves on the outside, open the door and there's a bin where the dirty glasses go. It's just like a magic trick or something.

[crimsonlines.livejournal.com]

You're saying this as someone who toured Haiti. I'm not understanding your sudden concern.

If you're at a hotel, you wash the glasses in the sink, as well as the ice container if you care to use it. Even if you don't, it's not a real concern.

Out of everyone I know, your sudden squick over clean glasses boggles my mind.

The glasses you drink out of at a pub haven't even been cleaned as well as the hotel glasses. Yet you're fine with a pint or a mixed drink from them.

Don't let sensationalist TV shows mess with your head. You've already dealt with worse sanitation. If you're concerned in a hotel, wash the glasses yourself.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

If you're at a hotel, you wash the glasses in the sink, as well as the ice container if you care to use it. Even if you don't, it's not a real concern.

How do you know this? Have you worked in a hotel?

I've worked in pubs. Pub glasses are cleaned with soap and extremely hot water.

The glasses and cups I drank out of in Haiti were washed in soap and hot water and sterilized. I know this because everybody took turns helping with the dishes.

I won't drink out of a glass that a stranger has just put down because quite frankly I get enough fucking colds as it is. I especially won't drink out of a glass that has just been dried with a towel that was picked up off the floor.

I can comfortably survive in places where the level of clean isn't standard normal - like say camping. Because I know about it and can compensate. If I walk into a hotel room knowing that the glassware has never been washed and there is dish soap provided so I can do it myself or I am advised to bring dish soap, I have no issue with that, because I can compensate to suit my comfort level.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

They carry some pretty noxious cleanser on most hotel carts -- I slopped some all over my hand helping one of the people move a stuck cart just the other day. I expect they could clean the glasses in the sink if necessary. This makes me really wonder about the wrapping-with-paper/plastic aspect. Ultimately, I expect that the opportunity to get germs off a zillion other surfaces in daily life is even more alarming. I think the one time that I've been worried about the glasses in a hotel, I washed it myself using the hand soap. However, when I stayed in a hotel just the other day, I took Airborne the whole time, and that stuff leaves some *seriously* hard-to-get-off scum around the rim of the glass, yet they were always totally spotless as far as I could tell.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'm curious now as to what they use. A little bleach would do it.

I get what you mean about getting germs off of everything. I started putting that bitter-tasting anti nail-biting stuff on my fingers, and I find I cut down the number of colds I get by about two-thirds.

Whenever people get fussy about doing things like picking up trash I tell them to wash their hands before they pick their nose and they'll be fine.

[empressjad.livejournal.com]

I saw the video a while ago, but even before that, I've been carrying a plastic tumbler with me. Also, I somehow always manage to end up with a glass or two from the hotel bar in my room...not that I know those are clean either, but I guess I feel better knowing there was alchol in there. The only paper I've seen on glasses in the rooms lately has been a little fitted paper cover over the open top.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

All the bars I've worked in had the glass washer right in the front for speed and convenience, so the customers could check for themselves if the glasses were being cleaned properly. (Come to think of it, one or two asked to test the heat of the water - and it was scalding. I always assumed they were from the health department doing a stealth check, but maybe not.)

I suspect most upscale bars don't have the dishwasher in the front like that. I've always worked in shitholes. :-D

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

I'd never thought about that. Now I have something else to worry about.

As if the thoughts of the dried jizz on the bedspreads wasn't bad enough.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You know you're in a real dive when it's not dry yet.

(True story)

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

Jeeeeezus Crispy Cream fucking DONUTS! You know what? My mother has been a housekeeper in cheap and fancy hotels in cities and small towns. I have been a housekeeper in a couple myself.

Excuse me while I rant for a fuckin' minute:

Those carts sound like glass is rattling inside them because they've got fucking GLASSES rattling around in them! The clean ones are on top, usually with paper caps or wrapped in paper. The dirty ones are rattling around in a bin on the inside. Those carts ARE fucking heavy!

You know those chase scenes in movies where someone swings a cart between them and the person chasing them like it's an empty grocery cart? Never fucking happen. Those carts weigh a ton.

There's a fresh cart full of fresh glasses for each section of the hotel. Moving to another floor? Get another fucking cart. Those glasses are cleaned and sterilized in an industrial machine, as are the sheets and towels. Every fucking day.

So, that tape was either shot a hotel that has lost its license/never had one or was STAGED. And BTW, you HAVE to change your gloves because if those industrial strength cleaners mix on your gloves, it can be dangerously toxic. You think the cleaners you use at home are strong? You ain't seen nothin'. FFS.

Done ranting.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I've never noticed the carts rattling, but I've never seen them moving. They've always been stationary in a hallway while the staff is in the room. And I honestly don't think the carts look big enough to hold glasses for every room, while they look like they have all the sheets and towels. (Mind you, I've never worked in a hotel so the volume taken up by that many sheets and towels isn't something I'm used to estimating by eye. Glasses I'm much more familiar with.)

So do hotels get checked by health inspectors the way restaurants do? How does the licensing work?

[quetzal.livejournal.com]

Those carts ARE fucking heavy!
yes. yes, they are.

i worked at a marriott in michigan as a housekeeper for a while. i can't speak for the other people i worked with, but if the glasses looked like they had been used, i always replaced them. trying to keep the dirty glasses separate from the clean ones when there was about 6 cubic inches of spare space on the damn cart was always fun. I never thought to replace the ice bucket though, unless it had beer in it (once. honeymoon suite. scored $22 of empty bottles and cans from it).

I did change several bedspreads and velour blankets (to the point where i think i ticked off the manager, because they had a limited number of bedspreads and velour blankets).

Sometimes I miss cleaning with that pink stuff. it killed messes dead. srsly. That soap caked an inch and a half high in a corner you can't scrape it out of? Use the pink stuff, and it's gone in about a minute and a half.

there was a secret door in every hallway that lead to the spare glasses/service elevator/laundry chute room, too. carts were often kept there, and since everyone had an assigned cart, if you knew who worked what floor that day, and how well they kept their stuff stocked, it wasn't too hard to swipe things you needed when you didn't have time to go down 7 floors to rummage in a toiletries bin. bonus: if you liked them, you'd replace the stuff you swiped.

i'm done babbling for now. ^_^

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

I've never done room cleaning, but the thing that struck me about that was 'which is faster, swapping dirty for clean, or cleaning in situ?' It has to be the swap, and faster = cheaper.

I have however done kitchen scrubbing/veg prep and other lowly jobs in very posh hotels and restaurants. Now there's stuff you ought to be concerned about.

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

P.S. Sorry for taking this personally and trampling all over your thread. I've spent way too much of my life living, working, and hanging out in hotels to sit idly by while tripe like that is being passed around as fact.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

No, no apologies, I posted so I could find out the answer. You gave me one. That's the whole point of posting these things, so I can tap the collective knowledge of people who know it's bullshit and can tell me why.

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

My guess is that they only change out the ones that have been used. For example, I never use the coffee mugs or the cups in the room. Well, sometimes one of the cups if I'm desperate for water and haven't had a chance to go grab some bottled water.

I have seen cleaning staff in the process of swapping out dirty cups/mugs for clean cups/mugs off the cart.

I normally see a tray of clean mugs on the carts - or at lest I have in the past. I just assume (and will stick with this assumption) that if they use up all of the clean mugs on the cart that they go back and get another tray of clean mugs and swap them out.

[firecat]

The comments in this post are fascinating.

I leave hotel housekeepers $5 a day but I always feel like I'm not leaving enough given what they do.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it sounds like a ton of work.

[kat1031.livejournal.com]

I've worked hotel housekeeping in the past... Granted it was the long past. We had room service, so we just left dirty glassware out in the hallway and someone from room service would pick it up while they were retrieving trays. We had clean glassware on the cart.

It's probably good policy to rinse out the ice bucket before you use it as it's probably a bit dusty from lack of use.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Fortunately I only tend to use the ice bucket to refill the beer cooler.