The grubby truth about hotel bedrooms (& you’ll never use the glasses again)
HOTEL workers at some of the world's fanciest resorts have revealed disgusting secrets from behind the scenes.
From which parts of the room are never cleaned to guests even giving birth at hotels, many warned guests not to always believe what they see.
The thread was shared on internet forum Reddit with a user posing the question: “People who work at 5 Star Hotels: what type of s*** goes on that management doesn’t want people to know?”
Since it was posted last week it has had a whopping 13,800 comments.
Here are some of the more juicy secrets which means you will never look at a hotel the same way again.
Bed bugs are anywhere
There were numerous posts with hotel staff discussing what a huge issue bed bugs can be - and it’s not just at the budget hotels.
One person wrote: “Every hotel has bed bugs at some point. It’s not the hotels fault, we noticed international travellers tend to bring them."
User aardw0lf11 wrote: "Tip about bedbugs: when you arrive NEVER put your luggage on the bed.
"When you arrive, keep lights off, put luggage in bathroom, and then at the head of the mattress peel back the sheets and mattress pad. Bedbugs tend to congregate there, but scatter when there is light. If you find bedbugs, you can request another room."
Worst cleaning situations include home births
According to hotel worker Chupawhat: ";Housekeeping gets the brunt of it.
"The worst was the couple that wanted a home birth but not, you know, at home (because gross).
"We had to deal with that hazmat situation. We pinged them as hard as we could with penalties and fees, though.”
Checking in late can pay off
Ex-hotel employee Mrkse7en wrote: “Checking in late at night sometimes means free upgrades or discounted upgrade rates.
"We would try to sell every last suite at night for almost 80 per cent off. We just wanted something, so they don’t go unoccupied. Sometimes if we were over sold on rooms, the late late arrivals (midnight) would get a free suite upgrade because we had no choice."
They also warned: "Of course this could also backfire if the hotel is sold out. You may get downgraded for being a late late arrival."
Hotel bars are used to fire people
User cavendishasriel wrote: A friend of mine is an employment lawyer here in the UK.
"If a company wants to get rid of someone (in the UK it’s quite hard to sack someone compared to the US) he advises they hold an event with a free bar.
"By law that counts as being on company time so any misdemeanour is gross misconduct and they can be dismissed without severance. Sneaky and why you should not let your guard down at company events."
Avoid the water glasses
Suer WitcherofWallStreet wrote: "Never trust glass in rooms. [Cleaning staff] are so stretched thin on time that they will clean the glasses with the same rags they clean the bathroom, after all their goal is to make the room look clean.
"I worked as a [cleaner] in a five diamond for years and there was over a year period that went by where we didn’t get a clean glass delivery.
"We didn’t have dishwashers in the room, so management was complicit. This was in a five diamond, one of the top resorts in the world."
Another poster agreed, saying: "It doesn’t matter if the room is $1000 a night. They still wash the tea cups in the bathroom sink or the bath tub."
Avoid the chocolate fountains too
Poster Unusual_Form3267 wrote: “Never ever ever (I repeat!) use a chocolate fountain from a hall of banquet hall!
"Picture this: it’s an expensive Sunday brunch. Well little Timmy just fisted strawberries directly into that chocolate, bit into both strawberries then triple dipped into the chocolate again. And some old rich lady just sneezed on it.
"And somebody else just dropped their snack into it. The best part: that chocolate gets strained and saved for the next weeks brunch.
"Chocolate is way too expensive to throw away. Chocolate also does this thing where it’ll seize if it has the wrong moisture content (from people dipping fruit, and the juices going into the chocolate.)
"So it’ll get so thick it won’t run through the machine. Wanna know how they fix that? They add canola oil until it’s smooth again."
Staff will ignore hotel affairs
An ex-hotel employee explained: "The hotel I worked at for a year had a strict privacy policy around this and you are told, well it’s drilled into you, ‘not our business'.
"My entry level job in the travel booking world started as a travel planner for a 5* chain in Melbourne Australia a couple of decades ago.
"My station was next to reception and it was not uncommon to have the affair couple check in then, while the affair partner was still checked in, the cheating spouse would return the following day with spouse (sometimes spouse and kids) and check into another hotel room.
"We were under strict instructions 'not our business'. But it wasn’t uncommon on holidays for both spouse and affair partner to be in the same hotel at the same time.”
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A version of this story was originally published by and has been reproduced with permission.