GROSS! Always Tip Your Room Service

[XCashier]

Wow, and here I am feeling guilty when I leave an unmade messy bed and a stuffed garbage can when I check out.

That's pretty much how I leave my hotel rooms. I would never even consider leaving food containers and other garbage ground into the carpets and piled up under the bed.

To that über-slob in the OP, you deserve this:

[radx]

Geesh.. I'm amazed at how much a "guest" can get away with. I have a few questions though.

1) If a guest steals a towel who ends up paying for it?
2) Is it not possible to send an invoice to whoever makes a huge mess in a room? There should be a certain defined level of mess someone can make and if you go beond that you Pay. Simple enough to my ears at least.

I have an old colleage who worked in a hotel as well. There was this time when the girls refused to clean a TV-set that a guest had apperently .. well I dont want to go into details..but then just refused to clean up the mess.. and the manager cleaned it up in the end. What surprises me about the story is how much a guest can get away with.

[Seshat]

The worst time I had was when we had a bunch of forest-fire fighters staying. They'd be out fighting fires for 16 hours straight, come back to the rooms, shower, eat and fall asleep. Sometimes they didn't even take time to shower they were so exhausted so you can imagine the state of the bed linens and the bathroom after encountering all the dirt/soot/ashes they'd track in, not to mention the carpets.

Absolutely horrible to clean, but also absolutely understandable behaviour from the firefighters!

I didn't find out until later, but their company had sent a check to my boss as a way of a "thank you" to me for all the work I did. She didn't give it to me! The only reason I found out was because my mother was their accountant and came across the canceled check (with annotated "for the cleaning lady" at the bottom) which she KNEW I had never received. Thanks to her I received the full amount.

Good for them! Good for your mother! And TOTALLY sucky behaviour from your boss. I'm sure your boss should have known - or guessed - the condition of the firefighters' rooms, and how much work you put into cleaning them.

[PepperElf]

They're going to have to strip the bed anyway and change it, and if you leave your towels together on top of one, it can be easily gathered up.

if the place strips the beds... some places only strip the sheets after use but have a longer rotation for the top blanket


stilll... bleh... @ leaving gross things lying around!
makes me scared to wonder what their own places look like if they think it's acceptable to leave bodily fluids handing out everywhere

[TruthHurts]

When I used to clean hotel rooms, I only used gloves when I did toilets and linens. That was because my hands are so small the normal small sized rubber gloves were too loose.

I understand guest leaving a nasty room, one guest literally got sick all over the bathroom, tubs, toilets, and the floor. He didn't even have the decency to tip or warn the front desk.

[Kagato]

I didn't find out until later, but their company had sent a check to my boss as a way of a "thank you" to me for all the work I did. She didn't give it to me! The only reason I found out was because my mother was their accountant and came across the canceled check (with annotated "for the cleaning lady" at the bottom) which she KNEW I had never received. Thanks to her I received the full amount.

If an employer tried that here in NZ, that would have "lawsuit" written all over it. Employer theft is not tolerated, and that is essentially what it was. An employer stealing an employees tip.

[dalesys]

Two fitting strips from a webcomic CS's own stripper (Jennie Breeden) pimps, Girls With Slingshots:

Reaching under the bed

Reporting the incident

[Mordecai]

I can see leaving Chinese food cartons on various surfaces.

I can't see myself ever willfully doing that. I think it has to do with my dad always making me help clean our hotel rooms before we checked out, but I feel like an asshole when I leave trash lying around, regardless if I'm on vacation or not.

[Alpha Strike]

I had a feeling I knew the general direction this story was going...and I was right... I probably would have run away, too...

You really are a very good writer, though

Ugh. All I can say after reading that story - and trying to eat lunch at the same time - is that she's a little bit TOO good of a writer.

[cawaker]

heh my mom cleaned hotel rooms briefly as a young adult also and she's never told me any stories like this but suffice to say she's belted it into my head to leave the room as clean as you found it and leave a tip of some sort, even if its change left over from gambling all night.

[Dreamstalker]

They're going to have to strip the bed anyway and change it, and if you leave your towels together on top of one, it can be easily gathered up.

That's what I do. I also always tip at least something even if the mess left is minimal.

[otakuneko]

(What possesses someone to take a hotel towel that has seen so many strange crevices, anyway?)

Tradition.

But don't ask me how the whole towel-swiping (and swiping things in general from a hotel room, like those little shampoo bottles and coffee samples) thing got started.

[Cookiesaur]

I was so completely not cut out to clean up after other people, you have no idea. I was shocked every day at that job at how filthy people could be; messes stress me out, and it's a wonder I didn't pick up drinking. I am eternally grateful to whatever housekeeper is willing to do so for me, and leave me tiny chocolates in return for a few dollars. They're like wonderful, sanitary fairies. Fairies in aprons and sensible shoes.

[Shpepper]

Geesh.. I'm amazed at how much a "guest" can get away with. I have a few questions though.

1) If a guest steals a towel who ends up paying for it?
2) Is it not possible to send an invoice to whoever makes a huge mess in a room? There should be a certain defined level of mess someone can make and if you go beond that you Pay. Simple enough to my ears at least.

At the hotel where I work, if there is anything over the normal cleaning, the room is held for the GM to look at and then the "guest" is billed accordingly. It is on our registration cards that guests can and will be charged for anything missing or broken and for any additional cleaning due to mostly smoking. Our GM is a stickler for it too. He takes people to court over it if they choose not to pay the invoice and usually wins.

[Peppergirl]

At the hotel where I work, if there is anything over the normal cleaning, the room is held for the GM to look at and then the "guest" is billed accordingly. It is on our registration cards that guests can and will be charged for anything missing or broken and for any additional cleaning due to mostly smoking. Our GM is a stickler for it too. He takes people to court over it if they choose not to pay the invoice and usually wins.

Wow - a manager with a spine? Can you clone him and pass him around?