13 Stories From Hotel Workers That Will Make You See Your Stay Differently

Have you ever stopped to think about what really goes on behind hotel doors when no one’s around to see? Behind the polished lobbies and freshly made beds lies a world full of untold stories. Hidden in everyday routines are moments that range from funny to downright unexpected — from staff secrets and surprising guest habits to little details most people never notice. Some are harmless, others a bit shocking, but all of them might just change the way you look at your next hotel stay.

• When you leave your luggage—intentionally or not—we keep it at the bell desk, in a small room that’s not visible from the outside. There, your luggage is handled in the worst possible way. If it’s big enough, we sit on it. If it’s small enough, we play football with it. © Anubhav Karanseth / Quora

• Working the night audit at a hotel right now. I think it’s fairly common knowledge that under the beds and the underside of the mattresses are rarely cleaned—or even checked. The same goes for behind headboards, under dressers, and similar areas. If you stay at a hotel that isn’t busy at least 60–70% of the year, there’s a very good chance it has never been remodeled or deep-cleaned. © cold_white_silence / Reddit

• The glasses for toothbrushes are not always properly washed, as the cleaners are often in a hurry. Many times, they are just rinsed under the tap—if that at all. Check for lipstick marks. © Roslagen / Reddit

• If you ever need to cancel a hotel reservation, but it’s already past the cancelation deadline, just call and move your reservation up a few days. Wait five minutes. Call back, now well within the cancelation window, and cancel your stay for free. © King_Whistle / Reddit

• On a related note, stop trying to weasel your way to a cheaper room. You want the AAA rate? You better have an AAA card. Military rate? Whip out that military ID. If you don’t have those things, I’m not going to take your word that you’ll “get it faxed over in the morning”. And for the love of god, don’t try to bribe me.© Ceranius / Reddit

• Spread a towel out on the counter before putting your stuff on it, because some of my coworkers would go from the floor to the shower to the toilet to the sink with the same rag. We typically got 10 rags a day to clean, color-coded to match the cleaner they were used with (e.g., bathroom is pink, window/glass is blue, dusting solution is yellow), and we used 2 or 3 per room. If you have 15 rooms, that means the same cleaning rag could be used for 3 bathrooms, and that’s the best-case scenario for a guest. I knew coworkers who would clean twelve rooms or more with just two rags: one for bathrooms and one for everything else. Nobody cared; the goal was just to remove all traces of the last guest and make it smell nice. It was the most disgusting and demeaning job I’ve ever had. © v1508 / Reddit

• Never sleep directly on a pillow in a hotel. Always bring your own pillowcase and cover it. We can’t tell guests this, but the hotel pillows are actually rarely washed.
  The pillowcases get changed, sure, but the pillows themselves? They’re only cleaned if there’s an obvious stain or odor. Most of the time, they just get reused over and over again. I’ve seen pillows in rooms that have been there for months, maybe even years, without being properly cleaned.

• During housekeeping, hotels use different colored cloths to wipe your drinking glasses, cutlery, toilets and sinks to avoid contamination. They just didn’t bother separating these cloths after wiping and moving to the next room. © Curry Sauce / Reddit

• If you like big bathrooms, ask for a handicap accessible room with a ’roll in shower’, normally about twice the size of a standard bathroom, but without the tub. © maevtr / Reddit

• It doesn’t hurt to ask if there’s a better rate. Depending on the property, if you’re nice, the front desk has the power to do a lot with your rate. At one property I worked at if we were almost full, and it was past 9 pm, I could cut $50 off the rate if I felt like it, at most, though I can only really give a 10% discount, but I can do it for almost any reason. © Laid_Low_Ludlow / Reddit

• Ask the hotel to remove such fees as Wi-Fi, newspaper, gym and pool. These are often included, but they will remove if requested. © S***AndF***y / Reddit

• Housekeepers only change the sheets, not the coverlet or the second blanket, unless it’s been stained, and we’re unable to hide it. © MissMarionette / Reddit

• I worked the night shift at a hotel and had to prepare breakfast. I will never eat scrambled eggs at a hotel again, unless I see the cook actually breaking the eggs.
  It’s disgusting how much food can just be bought en masse and prepared in under five minutes. Ready-to-cook egg mix. Just pour it into a pan and heat the ooze up... Five minutes later: scrambled ’eggs’. Doesn’t taste good at all. © Dire87 / Reddit

Life as a whole can be pretty surprising. Many of us have gone through moments when we thought we had everything figured out, but a sudden twist changed everything around us and the way we see the world.