As someone who has worked has worked in the service industry, I believe that it’s so important to treat the people who work at the restaurants, hotels, and businesses that you visit while traveling well. Today, a friend of mine who worked as a hotel maid (or housekeeper) is here to dish why your hotel maid might hate you—and how to be a better hotel guest.
Thanks to Jacky from Nomad Epicureans for her blood, sweat, and tears and for enlightening us about her years in the hotel industry.
Do you know that feeling when you finally fall into your luxuriously soft hotel bed after a long day of exploring a new place? Even if you are a budget traveller, you’ll stay at a hotel sooner or later. And dang, are hotels amazing! You don’t have to clean up after yourself, and you don’t have to drag yourself out of bed early to prepare breakfast.
Admittedly, I have been a bad hotel guest in the past, but working in the industry for a while certainly opened my eyes. Housekeeping is hard, grueling work. And yes, housekeepers get paid to do their job and many actually enjoy their work. However, once in a while you come across a guest who makes you hate your entire life. If you would like to know how to make a housekeeper’s life just a tiny bit easier, read on…
Mistakes that hotel guests make at hotels
Call us a hotel maid
We hate being called hotel maids. It’s sexist and outdated. Call us housekeepers.
You answer the door naked
Please don’t be naked
I know, I know. Sometimes the housekeeper will knock on your door at the worst possible time. Maybe you’re just stepping out of the shower or maybe you are still fast asleep. In any case, for the love of God, do not open the door. You think it’s awkward for you? Think about us. This happens often.
Many people don’t think about this and open the door out of reflex. While this is understandable, it puts your housekeeper in an extremely uncomfortable situation. They will be required to ask you if you wish your room to be cleaned. At the same time, they are instructed not to put themselves into unsafe situations. And entering a room with a naked customer does not evoke a feeling of safety, does it?
How to be a better guest in the future: You have two options. Either make sure that the “Do Not Disturb” sign is on your door while you’re in the room. Or just call through the door and ask the housekeeper to come back later.
You feng shui your room
Hotel rooms are beautiful and carefully designed for maximum comfort. Or are they? Because many travelers seem to have the need to feng shui their room during their stay. Perhaps you do have a valid reason for moving a 100 kg bed to the other side of the room or stack your bedside tables on the desk…
Do you know who will have to carry that bed or those bedside tables back to their original place? Exactly, your housekeeper. And how some people think one person alone can move heavy furniture is way beyond me. Never mind the fact that this is clearly not in a housekeeper’s job description.
How to be a better guest in the future: Most likely your housekeepers will happily accept any rearrangement of furniture during your stay. However, please move back anything you have rearranged before you leave 🙂
You forget what a trash bin is
Surprisingly, most people do not throw their trash in the bin. I’m serious. Seems like such a simple thing, right? No housekeeper will mind picking up a piece of trash you dropped accidentally. If you leave a piece of trash on every single surface, your housekeeper will not like you. They have to bend down to pick up every single thing. Just imagine doing that 500 times a day, not fun.
How to be a better guest in the future: Please put all your trash in the bin. Simple!
You think rules don’t apply to you
I think that we can all agree that you want to make the most of your holiday. So naturally, you would want to relax in your hotel room for as long as possible. However, hotels have check-out times for a reason. If your hotel’s check-out time is 12:00, housekeepers expect you to be out of your room at 12:00. Not 12:01, not 12:05, and certainly not later than that.
This may sound pedantic, but if you have ever seen a housekeeper, you may have an idea of how much stuff they are carrying around. Mop, vacuum cleaner, cleaning agents, fresh towels, linen, and more. If I am carrying them towards your room, it’s because I assume your room is empty. If it’s not, I need to carry everything back again, re-check my list, and find another empty room. Even if this only takes me 3 minutes, just remember that a housekeeper will make 1-2 beds in 3 minutes. 3 minutes can make a big difference.
How to be a better guest in the future: Please leave the room by check-out time or inform the front desk in a timely manner of your late check-out.
You help yourself to goodies from the housekeeping cart
It’s tempting to pass a housekeeping cart full of goodies in the corridor. You could treat yourself to a year’s supply of soap bars if you wanted to. Or grab 10 fresh towels, just in case. Apart from the fact that this is plain theft, it’s a pain for your housekeeper. Towels are often counted out exactly to the number of rooms they are going to clean. If you take two additional soaps, it means that your housekeeper will have to go back to their storage room and get more. Storage rooms are often far from the rooms. As housekeepers are on a tight schedule, this can be a problem.
How to be a better guest in the future: Ask your housekeeper if you need anything. They will never refuse any of your requests if you’re nice about it.
You’re not who your parents raised you to be
Yup, it is somebody’s job to clean up after you. To a certain extent. I have seen things in hotel rooms, you wouldn’t believe. Dog poop in the middle of the floor. Shower doors covered in soap from top to bottom (including the outside?). Towels stuffed down the toilet drain. A collection of used condoms under the bed. A whole loaf of soggy wet bread in the bathtub. At least once a day, I found myself scratching my head and asking myself “Why?!”.
Whenever you’re about to do anything in a hotel room just ask yourself: Is this acceptable in your own home? If the answer is no, then maybe you should reconsider this behavior. In most hotels housekeepers will have a certain number of rooms they have to clean. In addition to inconveniencing the housekeeper, you might also be causing them troubles with their superiors. That’s because targets are based on the best-case scenario of what a room should look like after your departure. Not a worst-case scenario. And just to put it into perspective, disinfecting a poop-stained floor will take more time than is allotted to clean an entire room.
How to be a better guest in the future: Be your best self and try to keep your room tidy.
You forget to show appreciation
In many countries, the profession of a cleaner or a housekeeper is looked down upon. Even in the Nordics, guests would sometimes refuse to greet me and give me a dirty look instead. Housekeeping is not an inherently fun job, but housekeepers are customer service professionals and most of them enjoy being of your assistance. However, only a very small percentage of your room price goes towards the cleaning of your room and only a part of that goes towards your housekeeper.
How to be a better guest in the future: There are many simple things you can do to show appreciation to the person who literally cleans your crap and to be treated with respect. Start with a friendly “good morning” and mention good housekeeping in any feedback you give to the hotel. It is also nice to leave a note for the housekeeper simply saying “Thank you”. Just ask directly if you need anything. 🙂
If you want to go the extra mile, you can leave a tip. I don’t quite understand why it’s customary to tip a person who serves you a drink, but not the person who makes your bed and cleans your toilet.
If you are wondering how much to leave as a tip for your housekeeper, I go by the “coffee” rule: The minimum amount I leave will be enough to buy a decent cup of coffee (1-3€/day). If you have booked a suite, something in the 5€ range is a lovely tip.
Not everyone realizes that housekeepers are rotated frequently, so try to leave a tip daily. Just make sure to also put out a “Thank you” note at the same time as otherwise we are not going to touch any money in your room.
Have you learned anything about hotel maids?
Read more travel tips on Jacky’s blog!
I agree with everything written here. I’d also like to add, hockey players, or any team for that matter, why do you play in the hall and treat the whole hotel as your amusement park? I don’t know who’s worse- the kids or the parents. They treat these weekend tournaments as an excuse to get away and drink/party with the other parents. And these kids who sit in the hallways- parents too – you pay for the room- NOT the hallway. Please get out of the way, we’re trying to work! And construction workers– I pray you don’t leave your house looking the way you leave your hotel room looking. We have garbage bins for a reason, yet your garbage is anywhere but in the bin. And how in the world do you people sleep and leave the bed sheets in a bundle in the middle of the beds?? It literally looks like a tornado hit the bed. And people who check out late- why must you be so annoying? Please check out at the time checkout time is. We have to clean 14 or more rooms a day and adding late checkouts to that makes it worse. Sometimes we leave early, depending on the day and it’s such a pain to try to squeeze in cleaning a room in 15 minutes cause you didn/t wanna wake up. Anyways- treat the rooms and housekeepers with respect- thanks!
Tipping $1 or $2 per room would be greatly appreciated, but most people don’t tip. Thank you so much for the people that do! We enjoy seeing a tip of $1 to $5 makes us feel appreciated and rewarded for housekeeping!
I usually make my own bed, and if I am staying there for more than one night, I find the housekeeper with her cart and ask her for more coffee supplies and to not bother cleaning my room that day. When I leave I stack all the dirty towels in the bathroom and make sure all the garbage is in the bins. Sometimes I get funny looks from the people who stay with me, but I have two daughters in the service industry, and know I would like them to be treated!
I totally agree
From time to time my husband and I make use of hotels.
Before we check out, we make the bed neat, clean up after ourselves, as you say, make it easy for your housekeepers
Unfortunately there are people out there, who wasn’t raised very well, they THINK, that if they pay for a nights stay or a weeks stay, that because of paying, now they have the right to damage your property, making scratches on the wood of the tables, use and abuse your water and electricity etc etc
AND STEALING towels, clothes and so on!
Some people needs training before they book themselves into your hotel, even they need to be taught good manners, they don’t have SELF RESPECT, are lazy
The problem is obviously in the homes, lack of good parenting,,
It’s my greatest desire to have a hotel of my own, and I was thinking , if I have my own hotel, to put something behind the door, about our Hotel rules
No pets
No unbehae
A Good suggestion is to take somebody’s I.d when they check in, and if there is stealing, unbehave, damage etc etc, not to allow them again
Also to have a floor manager which you quickly can send in to check if all the towels etc etc is not stolen
You can pick up very easily who are those kind of people, in cooperation with a well trained staff member
You can also put on one of the tv channels, a short movie, or presentation of how your staff feel, about bad manners, bad treatment like the one I have red and comment on, for example, you know,
If it’s my Hotel, I will tell people that we cater for “smart people”. AND NOT FOR PIGS ,
A Hotel is no, pigstole
Regards
I, will put only luxuary showers in my hotel, and no baths, ( may be just a bridal suite for just married couples etc
Actually, I’d rather you’d bathed than showered personally. It’s a pain in the A to polish the translucent glass panes in the shower cabin everytime.
I agree with every thing you are saying.
When I was a young traveller, I must admit when the initial o wow, I’m actually staying here wore off a bit, I kind of loved to walk around as if I owned the place:) And yes, I really rather wanted to steal some items from their carts, probably a small towel, so handy. And I always took all items away every day so I could enjoy new everything:) But I actually started to feel bad about myself and so the happiness factor wore off and very quick indeed.
So I decided to just be myself and be the nice self which I truly am. Housekeepers are a fun bunch to take the time to talk too. Often from exotic countries and full of tips quite useful to me. Started making the bed myself (hell I was 17 and that was uncommon) using only one bin, used towels for three days and actually started leaving little notes everywhere just for fun:) A smiley, a thank you, a joke, etc:) And I started tipping (after I learned about the low low salaries!) left and right pillow and every day. I made sure I left the room to enable them to do their work or chatted a bit while the started. I felt much less entitled as many teens can feel, it made me feel good again and I got a lot of smiles, tips and even little gifts. I actually bought them little gifts too, predominantly in hotels in Asia (useful knick knack are a tad more affordable:). I went from complete blindness for the working conditions in the service industry (healthcare too) towards an open young adult with an adjusted attitude and gratitude for making my rooms smelling and looking good and all the things they do. The lower paid jobs are so often the most useful, visible and needed services rendered, tipping seems the logical thing to do nowadays. However, tipping with a mere thank you very much really ought to be enough!! Why must their salaries be dependent on the not so many guests who are thoughtful, understanding, respectful and such? Shouldn’t it just be much better paid to begin with? -Hotel-rooms-need to stay tidy-, It’s just a guess but mightn’t part three just be the most basic part of the products hotels are selling…? Why should the guests get to decide whether these people feel good in their skin at work and make a decent living at the end of the month or whether they feel unhappy in their jobs, unappreciated by guests and barely able to make ends meet? This system is downright wrong! This is not proper management, it’s a sly way hotels can keep money in their pockets:( Ps. gave my useless yet fairly large collection of soaps, toothy brushes, razors, etc etc to a homeless shower shelter:)
When I go to a hotel I clean my own room up after myself. I empty my own garbage. I strip my bed for them. I put dirty towels stacked on bathroom floor. I just don’t want anybody in my room. I don’t like people to clean up after me.
” If I am carrying them towards your room, it’s because I assume your room is empty. If it’s not, I need to carry everything back again, re-check my list, and find another empty room.”
Well that means, that your receptionists are c*ap if they don’t know which guest had already departed (you know, like apeared at the desk, paid and gave back the key) and whether the room is empty. For the guests still staying, there is something like KNOCKING ON DOOR to check whether the guest is inside or not. or listening for any possible noises.
The worst things I come across in my work as a housekeeper, is definitely when guests show in different waqys how they don’t respect you and your work. Starting from not responding to your greetings, not moving out of your way even a tad and braving those stairs towards you when you balance on the edge and life and death with your both hands full of heavy load of any kind, and ending at urinating (or worse) on the floor and spilling all sort of bodily and other fluids on the bedsheets every day of their stay and trashing the room to take revenge on whatever they weren’t happy with which you couldn’t have influenced in any way.
There is a universal wisdom saying: you shouldn’t mess with people who have access to your toothbrush, or serve you food and drinks. I would add that you especially shouldn’t do either in an establishment that does both, like in my workplace, because housekeepers there know the waiters and cooks very well too, an are mostly on good terms with them.