Consumer Fraud and hotel housekeepers

I just read “Confessions of a Hotel Housekeeper”, an article written by Allison Rupp published on February 2009 in Yahoo travel. In the article claims that Ms. Rupp worked at the Yellowstone National Park’s history Old Faith Inn in 2004 and wrote about hotel housekeepers that “cut corners” such as “instead of Vacuuming, I picked up Some Crumbs”. To my surprise, the writer did not mention that some of the guests might have noticed that she did not do her job.

I’ve stayed in many hotels ranging from the best and highly priced to the moderately priced one. I could always tell when the housekeeper, changed the sheets, vacuumed the carpet and actually clean the room. Often, I’d deliberately mark the sheets, pillowcases, strategically put something on the floor just to check on the housekeepers.

Very recently, I was a long-term guest at a hotel. I whether I was in the room when the housekeeper clean, I could always tell whether or not she cleaned. In that hotel, the housekeeper was the laziest and dirtiest person ever. She cut corners “Rather than scrub the tub with hot water, sometimes it was just a spray-and-wipe kind of day”. She did wipe the tub rather than clean it, I could tell because the water lines were visible and the marks that I’d deliberately leave had not been removed. Sometimes, the housekeeper would forget the spray bottle which she used to spray and wipe rather than wash. I could see the color of the detergent that she used, and that would get so disgusted that I’d want to regurgitate. I knew exactly how often she changed the sheets because I’d write the dates on the sheets and on the pillowcases.

What hotel housekeepers must realize, is that they may end up on You Tube as they deceive their employers and put the people who pay for their salary at risk. Worst of all, they can end up on You Tube for the world to see just how often they think that they can really fool the guests. After reading “Confessions of Hotel Housekeeper” I’m even more disgusted with hotels and their cleaning staff. It is one of the reasons that I often ask the housekeeper not to clean my room; I don’t even want them in my room. Normally, I’d inspect the room and disinfect it myself after I check in.

My recipe to hotel guests, let the hotel housekeeper do the cleaning in front of you or don’t let the housekeeper in at all. The fact that housekeepers fail to sanitize hotel rooms is a critical problem that hotelkeepers must weigh in. It is a health problem that put consumers at risk.

If you’ve experienced similar problems or problems with consumer fraud or have been defrauded, share your thoughts in protest of consumer fraud.