After working as a Supervisor in the Housekeeping department
of the 4 Diamond Grand Hyatt Denver ( suit, tie and all), a VERY brief stint as
a room cleaner at the Jasper Park Lodge and finally a great time as Executive
House Keeper at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites Valemount, BC ( not to mention
being a hotel guest myself ) ,
I thought I
would share my Top Ten Tips for staying in a hotel room!
These tips are in both your interest, the interest of the
housekeeping staff and the environment in general.
Let me start by saying that the job of the housekeeper is a
very difficult one. Back breaking labour, very low wages, the disgusting things
that sometimes need cleaning up and very little recognition make it one of the hardest jobs going - in my opinion.
I remember when I first started as an Intern at the 511 room
Grand Hyatt in Denver, Colorado. Being a student of the Hotel management
program at the College of New Caledonia and an International Intern, I didn’t have to
clean rooms – I got to be a “Supervisor” straight away. This basically involved
inspecting the rooms after they had been cleaned to ensure quality and managing
the staff on a given number of floors.
My first day as a fresh faced Canadian at the Hotel, I was
assigned to learn how to clean a hotel room “Hyatt” style , learning from an
elderly Mexican lady named Hermalinda.
She was a fantastic person but the irony of this situation was not lost
on her.
As she showed me the proper way to make a corner fold on the
bed sheet, she said to me “So, I train ju and then ju be my supervisor?”
I didn’t know quite what to say to that so I was like “ Ummm
... yeah. Sorry about that... “
Needless to say this was not only humorous but a great
lesson in treating these ladies (and men) with the utmost respect.
So without further a due , here is the Top Ten:
1) Leave
a money tip. If you’ll tip a waiter/
waitress for an hour of bringing you some food and cleaning your table – do something
for the housekeeper who cleans your bathroom!
They don’t get tips or any recognition very often and it will make their
day!
2) Once
in your room, always turn the deadbolt closed ( and/or have the latch on). This is for your safety - but also privacy. If a housekeeper makes a mistake or is given
the wrong room number by the Front Desk ( which has been known to happen) they
will think you have checked out already and may just barge into your room with
their master key.
This happens. A lot more than you’d think. And it can be horribly horribly awkward.
Unfortunately I am an eye witness
to this as I once un-assumedly walked into an occupied room. What I saw in the
following moments still haunts me to this day.
An ordinary middle aged couple
were engaged in a very intimate, very amorous, very naked activity on the bed (
by the way - see tip # 3).
I looked up and he looked up and
we made eye contact.
Then she looked up and we made
eye contact.
He said “Hello?” . I said something like “I’m so so sorry” and
ran to a bathroom my good friend Diane was cleaning and hid there until they
checked out.
3) Don’t
touch the Duve cover – Ever. Ever. Ever.
This is changing lately, but for
the most part Hotels clean their Duves
or Duve covers very RARELY. In fact, once a year if your lucky.
If you can imagine all the things people may
do or leave behind UNDER the covers, you can be assured that they do the same
ON the covers – see example in Tip #2 . (The white bed sheets and pillow cases are
okay as they get washed everyday).
4) Don’t
be afraid to ask for a late check out – they usually give them out no
problem. Just remember to keep the Do
Not Disturb sign on the door.
5) You
may be the type to negotiate the price of the hotel room. That’s okay but doesn’t
always happen.
Another way to go is to simply ask for an upgraded room ( at the
original price). This is easier for the Hotel to swallow as they would rather give
you some extra amenities and pay more labour hours or electricity than drop the
price tag.
6) If
you are staying multiple days and you do not need or want your room cleaned
each day – make sure you keep up the Do Not Disturb sign – or even better give
your instructions to the front desk or House Keeping ( i.e. – “just refresh the
towels and coffee packets” ) This can save on a lot of unnecessary work,
cleaning product use and Energy.
On this note also, if you don’t
need your towels washed during an extended stay, keep them hanging up –
anything left on the floor is assumed to be dirty or garbage.
7) Don’t
leave the luggage cart you used to bring up your luggage INSIDE your room. If you don’t want to bring it
back down to the lobby just leave it in the hallway and hotel staff will be
happy to take care of it. ( Otherwise they run out of luggage carts and have no
idea where to find them... making other guests go without)
8) As
for valuables such as wallets, electronics and jewellery etc... make sure to
hide these away in your luggage. The vast majority of housekeepers are honest
folk who don’t want to lose their jobs but there’s no need to tempt fate!
The Front Desk may also have a safe for you
to keep especially valuable items in.
Also, if you do think something
has gone missing, make sure to look for it thoroughly first and if you do
contact the Hotel staff be non accusatory at first, just asking for help
finding this object. Its quite
humiliating to make a raving scene and then realize it was at the bottom of
your purse the whole time or stuck in the fold out bed ( true story).
9) When
leaving your hotel room at the end of your stay , gather all your luggage
together and then do a scan of the room.
The most popular places where things are left behind? The fridge, drawers, under the bed skirting
and in the wall sockets.
10) Towels,
Linens and TVs are not the type of things you can take home from a hotel
room. Nor do you want to trash your
hotel room . Not only are these things deeply disrespectful to the staff – you have
to remember –
They still have your credit card info and are more than happy to charge your card after the fact!
