You clean your rooms, right?

[thehippie777]

SC: walk-in guest


SC: Have any rooms? I have 2 adults, 2 children...need 2 beds, nonsmoking.
Me: Well, I have a couple rooms rooms left. I have either a 2 queen, but it's in smoking. Or I have a king suite in non, it has a king and a pull out sleeper sofa. The suite I could lower down to our base rate of 134, or I can lower the smoking room down to 99.
SC: oh...well I guess we can take the smoking. *gives gross out face*...(pauses) then asks, "You clean your rooms, right?"
Me: (kind of give him a *wish I could be sarcastic* look) Well, yes...but the smell really depends on the person who last smoked in them... (No, we prefer to have you swim in filth! Clean the rooms! What do you think this is, a hotel??? pah!)

I can't stand dumb questions stated in a way that makes the person sound...well less then brilliant. I think the SC was missing some words like, "really well" or "how bad do the smoking rooms smell?", the latter I still kinda can't stand cuz...uh they are SMOKING ROOMS. It takes a super deep clean to clean nonsmoking rooms that were smoked in.

[Evil Queen]

Yeah... wait until the guest gets mad because your housekeepers don't clean every day! OMG!

My housekeepers clean every other day. This seems to be the norm to me, as it was this way for the other two hotels I worked at. Why does everyone assume the hotels clean every day? And why can't they ask for cleaning services every day?

[thehippie777]

That's a new one by me. Although at the hotel next to us, housekeeping is extra for stays more then 1 night long. So I guess it works lol

[Snowbird]

I was traveling with someone that was sensitive to smoke but we were desperate for a room, so we took the last available, which was smoking but we were assured that it hadn't been used or smoked in for some time (we didn't even ask, we were just told that).

I will never, ever do that again, it was naive of us to think it would be alright. In fact, I think I'd sleep in my car first. Someone, maybe multiple people on that floor, were chain smokers and the smell invaded until it was nearly impossible for even me to breathe. We had to leave early, less a lot of cash and sleep.

It sort of sounded as if he assumed a regular cleaning will clear out the smoke smell, which is naive as well. Maybe you could only mention the non-smoking price next time, since that's what he asked for first? Might stop folks from being tempted by their cheapskate side into taking a room that they don't want in the first place and the complaints that would surely come afterwards from the most classic SC's.

[Phantomgrift]

I can understand the "do you clean them" question though.
DATELINE and other such shows created a two-edge sword a while back when they ran exposes on hotels and motels that did indeed have atrocious or non-existent cleaning policies.
Things were downright nasty at the places highlighted.

The double-edge is apparent though.
On the one hand, it does highlight places that truly did need outing.
On the other hand, it creates a whole new level of paranoia for SC's which in turn leads to a host of headache for places that never had any problems to begin with.

[ebonyknight]

My housekeepers clean every other day. This seems to be the norm to me, as it was this way for the other two hotels I worked at. Why does everyone assume the hotels clean every day?

Uh, because while it may not be the industry policy, it is just a basic assumption?

I don't see what's so outrageous about that assumption. After all, if they make the bed, empty the trash and change the towels, is it really a stretch to assume that they wipe down the place and vacuum as well????

[blas]

It depends on what hotel you stay at. If you stay at the one Sheriff works at.....well...I highly doubt he cleans. He already got fired, but re-hired (damn I wish I could be rehired after being fired for being incompetent!). He probably harrasses guests and other housekeepers all day long.

Don't ever stay where he works.

[ajr1971]

We clean rooms everyday unless the guest asks us not to.

As far as the smoking rooms. If people ask if they smell, I tell them we do our best, but I will not guarantee they won't notice it, depending on how sensitive they are. Plus, all of our smoking rooms are lumped together on one floor, so I also tell them even if the room seems fine, they may smell smoke from the other rooms.

Always best to lay everything on the line, and guarantee them nothing. That way if they try and score a discount at checkout, they don't have a leg to stand on, since they are not offered a discount if the room is smoking and they wanted non. The rate is the same on all rooms no matter what, and if they know what they're getting into before they check in, then it's not our responsibility if they couldn't handle it.

[Sparky]

"You clean your rooms, right?"

Oh no ma'am! The housekeepers do that.

[Evil Queen]

Uh, because while it may not be the industry policy, it is just a basic assumption?

I don't see what's so outrageous about that assumption. After all, if they make the bed, empty the trash and change the towels, is it really a stretch to assume that they wipe down the place and vacuum as well????

Okay, I can believe that.

I think, just to make things easier, I'll make my housekeepers clean everyday unless told to otherwise. More work, yes, but it would probably be better in the long run.

[thehippie777]

I can understand the "do you clean them" question though.
DATELINE and other such shows created a two-edge sword a while back when they ran exposes on hotels and motels that did indeed have atrocious or non-existent cleaning policies.
Things were downright nasty at the places highlighted.

The double-edge is apparent though.
On the one hand, it does highlight places that truly did need outing.
On the other hand, it creates a whole new level of paranoia for SC's which in turn leads to a host of headache for places that never had any problems to begin with.

Yeah thanks to shows like Dateline, I have had some odd paranoid guests.

People who claimed we kept all of their personal info on our key-cards, just because other hotels do or something. They watched as I deleted their cards... But I wonder, how do they know I actually erased them? They didn't know how the keycard system works.

And, of course, people with black lights...

[thehippie777]

We clean rooms everyday unless the guest asks us not to.

As far as the smoking rooms. If people ask if they smell, I tell them we do our best, but I will not guarantee they won't notice it, depending on how sensitive they are. Plus, all of our smoking rooms are lumped together on one floor, so I also tell them even if the room seems fine, they may smell smoke from the other rooms.

Always best to lay everything on the line, and guarantee them nothing. That way if they try and score a discount at checkout, they don't have a leg to stand on, since they are not offered a discount if the room is smoking and they wanted non. The rate is the same on all rooms no matter what, and if they know what they're getting into before they check in, then it's not our responsibility if they couldn't handle it.

Yeah that's a good approach.