In the age of the pandemic and social distancing, how often do you want your hotel room cleaned? Do you prefer daily cleaning in your hotel room or only upon check-out?
Hotel Room Daily Cleaning During Pandemic
A story in the New York Times lays out the grievances of hotel housekeepers across the United States. These workers are upset that hotels are increasingly putting more emphasis on cleaners and less on housekeepers. As COVID-19 has changed the dynamic of so much of life, so too has it changed the nature of how your hotel room is cleaned.
At many hotels, daily cleanings have been replaced by cleanings upon checkout only. Sometimes this is mandatory, sometimes this is by choice. Hotels are also bringing in cleaning services to provided electrostatic spraying and other deep cleaning services that have replaced, in some cases, the traditional roles of housekeepers.
The result is hardly surprising: while hotels have struggled, housekeepers have struggled even more. Millions have been laid off and remain laid off even as demand has slowly returned to U.S. hotels.
When housekeepers do work, they are forced to do perform several days of cleaning within the same amount of time, even though additional trash and germs have mounted up. The result, they claim, is riskier conditions for housekeepers and lower wages overall.
A New Reality?
I wrestle with this issue. First, I find hotels totally disingenuous when they talk about “saving the environment” or “protecting your health” by declining housekeeping. Quite the contrary, I believe that this is predominantly about cost-cutting. I understand that hotels are in survival-mode right now, so this isn’t so much a condemnation as much as a reflection of reality.
But second, and this is the difficult part, I don’t want daily housekeeping either. It’s not that I’m really afraid of contracting the virus. It’s also not that I don’t like to have the bed made or fresh towels. Rather, it’s that I’ve often already declined daily housekeeping over the years. It takes me a few seconds to make the bed myself and I can always request fresh towels or water. I just prefer the privacy of being left alone.
Now imagine someone who is more sensitive. They reason that housekeepers are going from room to room interacting with guests and their germs. Masks primarily protect against spreading your germs to others and guests don’t wear masks in their rooms, so housekeepers are exposed.
Can you blame guests for not wanting daily housekeeping?
CONCLUSION
We have the trifecta of people like me who like privacy, other guests who worry about housekeeping on health grounds, and then hotels who are looking to cost-cut as much as possible. The result is sadly bad news for hotel housekeepers. They truly face a new reality. In any case, I do hope housekeepers are not expected to clean a room that has not been cleaned in five days in the same amount of time they would a room that has only been occupied one day.
What are your thoughts on daily housekeeping at hotels?
It is always my preference to have daily housekeeping. I like fresh towels, fresh bed linens, and the room tidied up during my stay, CoVID-19 has not changed that preference.
Long before these pandemic days, I usually requested once per week housekeeping when I was staying at a hotel more than seven days. When the stay was one to seven days, I would mention upon checking in that my room did not require service during the stay, and then I would ask for supplies as (or if) needed from the front desk or from housekeepers I encountered while coming and going. Once I inhabit a room, I don’t like to move my stuff to give housekeepers better access and anyway I tend to clean and tidy up as I go, so the current crisis hasn’t changed my preferences.
Oops, silly me, I spelled my own name wrong above hahaha – sorry!
When traveling alone, which is 90% of the time, I have never used housekeeping for 1-3 night stays. I keep a tidy room, do not like people in my room, and I avoid the inevitable of always coming back late afternoon and the housekeeper is there cleaning. I think, as Matthew has stated, these are combined forces at work in that people have changed regarding housekeeping, hotels are discouraging it, and Covid has now sped up the gradual shift.
Another takeaway from that NYT’s article is that housekeepers make $26 an hour in some markets? And here I have been leaving tips at the end of a longer stay where I had service just a few times! I always thought their pay factored in for tips…clearly not!
I prefer daily maid service and room refreshing. To me there is no difference between a cleaner and a housekeeper. They are the same. To reduce or eliminate service would make the trip less desirable. I also like the amenities, toothbrush, shampoo, comb, etc. If hotels drop these services, might as well stay at an Air B&B.
$26 an hour is likely not a living wage in some markets, just saying, and how many of us would want to scrub toilets for a living? I pay my cleaner $20 an hour.
We travelled in July at to a high end resort in a pricey area, Upon check in, we were asked if every three days for housekeeping was ok. I requested daily housekeeping and it was provided. I am both concerned for the labor market and spoiled enough that I want to enjoy the perks of fresh linens and clean towels daily.
I prefer daily service. Always have. Being stuck in my room every night to eat dinner rather than in a restaurant is all the more reason I like returning to the room to see the bed made and room cleaned.
Loss of free breakfast, no upgrades, no room service, and no onsite dining also has caused me to be less loyal to Hilton. My status seems worthless.
This week, I was in San Diego where the property has decided to remove in-room coffee makers. I told them I won’t be returning. What next?
If I am traveling alone on business and am staying more than one night, I would prefer no service, just leave extra towels, an extra bar of soap, and an extra bottle of shampoo. (I prefer individual shampoo, not wall mounted ones).
If not traveling alone, sometimes there’s too much of a mess that a housekeeper is needed.
If I’m traveling alone, I don’t care, though I detest this “we’re doing this for YOUR safety” claptrap when it’s really hygiene theater in the name of cost cutting.
On the other hand, when traveling with my kid, no housekeeping is a problem. We stayed at a place in Alaska that only cleaned the room on check-out. With a 4-year old, the room just got nasty and really needed a refresh. I would like the option of daily maid service (or at least every other day) in that case.
My usual travels the past few years have been out on Tuesday, back on Friday. No need for housekeeping for essentially a 3 night stay. Don’t want anyone in my room while I’m out. I wash my own sheets once a week so no need for daily sheet refreshing. Nothing to do with Covid.
Housekeeping historically hasn’t been a sanitizing event in hotels. To believe that things have magically changed might be viewed magical thinking.
Daily housekeeping is necessary, because hotels aren’t houses or apartment buildings. If somebody stays for a week and the trash isn’t being emptied daily, there will be a rodent or insect problem in the hotel, especially in a filthy and dysfunctional city like New York. If a guest wants to empty his or her trash, there are no trash chutes available to guests in most hallways, so they would be forced to jam their trash into some tiny hallway trash can, which would also likely attract rodents or insects.
In two, notably upscale hotels, in Turkey last week I was given the option of what I wanted at check in. I like daily housekeeping, so I opted in, and in fact at the Regus in Çesme, I opted in to an evening refresh as well and loved it.
This is the way to go, as it makes everyone happy up front. I suspect some people might actually request less housekeeping that might have normally not left their DND sign on the door. Hotels will Inevitably also save money, but the folks like me (apparently a minority) will still receive full service.
To the point made by @MeanMeosh, I agree 100%. It’s insulting to tell me it’s for my health and safety.
I expect daily housekeeping. I am paying a big nightly premium to stay in a hotel (versus being at home) and part of that is for daily housekeeping. I refuse to accept changes to the way hotels have always operated.
I definitely want daily cleaning when I’m staying more than one day. No I don’t want to have to go pick up supplies and towels!! I’m paying for this service!! Plus garbage piles up! This is a garbage excuse because of covid my ass! Increase profits is more like it !!!
I agree completely with James, who wrote: “Daily housekeeping is necessary… If somebody stays for a week and the trash isn’t being emptied daily, there will be a rodent or insect problem in the hotel.” I stayed in a hotel room for two nights and ate a vegan breakfast and dinner in my room both nights. I bagged my perishable trash, expecting it to be removed by housekeeping. It never was during my stay. There were no hallway trash cans. I wasn’t about to take a guest elevator, carrying a bag of waste, six floors down and thru the main reception area to find some place to dump it.