Hotel rooms in New York are poorly cleaned (and is it any better in the Netherlands?)
Romantic weekend away? Or enjoying a long holiday, wonderful! Well, wonderful… A video from Inside Edition has turned us into true homebodies. Because it turns out that the beds in expensive hotels are not always changed. Yuck!
The Inside Edition investigators head to three fancy hotels in New York armed with invisible spray and gel: the Hyatt Hotel, the Hampton Inn and Trump International Hotel. The conclusion: the bed sheets are not changed, the pillowcases are not replaced and the rooms are not thoroughly cleaned either. Germophobia creeps over you while watching the video…
Invisible spray
The invisible spray is used to mark pillowcases and sheets with a logo. The towels receive the same treatment. The remote control, air conditioning and coffee station are then marked with gel. The spray and gel are invisible to the naked eye, but can be seen under a UV lamp. The investigators then leave the room looking as though it has been used: the bed is untidy, towels are on the floor, well, you know the drill.
The next day, they book the same room under a different name. Using the lamp, they check whether different sheets have been put on the bed, whether the remote control has been wiped and whether the pillowcases have been replaced. And what do you think? In all three hotels: nothing. The towels have been changed, and in one hotel a clean bottom sheet has been put on the bed, but that’s it. When asked for a response, the hotel managements decline to comment. Bear in mind: one hotel room costs 600 dollars a night, so these are not cheap hostels.
Never walk across that carpet barefoot
This is nothing new to travel journalist Harrison Jacobs. He spends around three hundred nights a year in hotel rooms and Airbnbs and writes about them for Business Insider. He has a handy tip for determining whether your room has been cleaned properly or with a slapdash approach: check the kettle. ‘A kettle and coffee maker are constantly full of water and condensation. A paradise for bacteria, mould and rust. If they are not cleaned regularly with vinegar, they quickly become filthy.’
They are usually not cleaned, because there is no time for it. If Jacobs sees rust or mould in the kettle, he checks out again immediately or stays for just one night. In any case, his advice is: never walk around the room barefoot, avoid the decorative cushions like the plague, wipe the remote control clean with a cloth straight away and remove the bedspread: those areas are genuinely never cleaned thoroughly.
Lift the mattress
Cleaning expert Jaap Niezen revealed to Nu.nl how he checks whether his hotel room has been cleaned properly. ‘If there’s a box spring, lift the mattress. If you’re lucky, there’s a wallet underneath; if you’re unlucky, a filled condom.’ He also checks for cobwebs along the ceiling, dust under the beds and along the skirting boards. He cleans the toilet seat himself extra thoroughly whenever he stays somewhere, because according to him, it is the dirtiest place in a hotel room. And he does not let himself be distracted by a pleasant fresh scent: ‘I can make the filthiest room smell like pine cones. The stronger the smell, the more suspicious you should be.’
Read also:
- Cockroaches, bedbugs, disgusting bathroom: these hotel rooms are horrifying
- 30 people you would rather not invite to Thanksgiving
- After this, you’ll never eat scrambled eggs in a hotel again
