7 Easy Ways to Be a Respectful Hotel Guest

As a discerning hotel guest, you understand that every aspect of your stay should be curated to perfection. From the room decor to the room service, every detail matters. But, did you know that you can make your stay even better by being a considerate guest? Yup, it’s true! By following some simple hotel etiquette tips, you can make the housekeeping staff’s job easier and ensure that your room is always in top-notch condition. In this article, we’ll give you the lowdown on how to be the best hotel guest ever.

1. Don’t fold dirty towels.

According to hotel staff, the proper method of handling used towels is to place them in a designated area such as the bathtub or bathroom floor. Folding them and leaving them on a shelf may cause confusion for the staff in determining whether or not they require cleaning.

2. Leave tips.

It would be polite to do some basic cleaning before checking out of your hotel room. For example, you can pick your hair out of the drain and clean up any bodily fluids from different surfaces. It may surprise you, but some people don’t even flush the toilet after using it! However, there’s absolutely no need to make up the bed because the hotel’s housekeepers will have to take it apart anyway.

3. Don’t make up the bed.

Tips are very appreciated in the service industry since their salaries are usually low, but on top of that, the work they do is quite hard. So it’s important not to forget to thank people who’ve provided you with a comfortable stay with a tip. Just remember: different people may clean up your room every day, so you may want to consider leaving tips not only at the end of your stay. Experienced travelers advise that if it’s not the last day of your stay, leave a note along with tips so that the housekeepers can be sure their coworkers get the money as well.

4. Gather your garbage.

It’s always a good idea to be kind to the hotel staff and dispose of your trash in the designated bin instead of leaving it all over the room. The housekeepers have a tough job and gathering up bottles and boxes from different areas takes up a lot of their time. If you’ve accumulated a lot of waste, you can ask for a plastic bag to make it easier to collect everything. This is a common practice among many travelers, and it helps keep the room tidy for everyone.

5. Open the windows to allow fresh air in.

Housekeepers have to clean up rooms very quickly in order for other guests to be able to check-in and it’s not always easy to ventilate the space. You’ll do them a real favor by leaving the windows open to freshen the air in the room, hotel managers say. In the warm months of the year, you can even turn on the air conditioning.

7. Don’t use anything you don’t really need.

If you travel alone and get a room with 2 beds, don’t use both of them. You can get along pretty well with just one bed, thus not creating more work for housekeepers. This also refers to everything else that can stay untouched.

6. Arrange all the furniture and accessories as they were upon arrival.

You need to put the TV remote control on the TV stand, cutlery on the table, and chairs in their place, travelers suggest. A housekeeper has about 20-30 minutes to make the room look perfect, so arranging such things will really make their work easier.