Nine Pet Peeves Of Hotel Housekeepers

Hotel housekeepers usually have about 15 minutes to clean a guest room — sometimes up to 45 minutes for checkouts. That schedule is tough enough, but too often guests make things even harder. Here are nine pet peeves from housekeepers, according to an article on the Herald Courier website.

• The room is trashed. An obvious one, but surprisingly common. Things are broken, garbage is everywhere. There's no way this can get cleared up in 15 minutes, much less 45 minutes — plus it's gross.

• Workers are accused of stealing. People often lose it when they misplace something and don't realize that an accusation can cost someone their livelihood.

• People grab things off the housekeeping cart. Amenities on the cart may be reserved for special guests — or cost extra, like minibar items. "Losing" these items can get a housekeeper in hot water.

• "Do Not Disturb" signs are left on the door. It's an inconvenience when the room is vacated for the day — or worse, when someone checks out. Not being able to clean the room until the last strike of checkout time can throw off the housekeeping schedule.

• No tip. Even cleaning up for neat guests is a lot of work and housekeeping wages tend to be on the lower end.

• Hand towels are used to remove makeup. Some of these textiles can be bleached clean, but others often need to be discarded. Some hotels will ask housekeepers to "work" the stain until it's gone, adding extra work on top of an already busy day.

• Guests that ask for late checkout. The longer guests stay in their rooms, the less time housekeeping has to turnover the room for the next round of occupants.

• Guests don't flush or wipe down the toilet. This one's pretty self-explanatory. (See first pet peeve.)

• Guests don't use the trash cans. Any trash left out has to be thrown away by the housekeeper. When you’ve only got a set number of minutes per room, walking around to collect bits of trash here and there can take a long time.

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