Surprising secrets hotel staff aren't telling you
Hotel insider exclusive

Some housekeepers have to clean rooms in less than 10 minutes

Housekeepers learn what corners to cut

Avoid the cups and glasses at all costs

You’ll always have fresh sheets though

But the sofa is never cleaned

Your housekeeper may be hungover

With young staff more cost-effective for hotels, you may not have the most house-proud housekeeper. Charlie admits she was often hungover when she first started out so “wouldn’t try that hard”. However, in smaller hotels and inns she says the head housekeeper checked rooms to make sure nothing had been missed. “But at [the chain] it wasn’t very thorough at all,” says Charlie. “The older women would be but a lot of the time it was younger staff and they’d come in hungover and wouldn't really bother."
Housekeepers sometimes have a sneaky drink in your room

The toilet is a litmus test

You’re never far away from a rat

The best guests are the tidy, friendly ones

The worst are the smelly, messy ones

Rude guests are par for the course though

...especially VIP ones

Your past behaviour follows you

But restaurant staff love fussy customers

When it comes to food, there’s a right way to complain

While customer complaints were taken seriously, Tanya says the bigger the fuss a customer would make, the less seriously their complaint would be taken. “Most restaurants will replace a meal, refund it, or give you free drinks or desserts if you’re not happy or there’s been a hair in your food. But as soon as you start asking for things, then it can be a bit of a red flag. Simply make a polite complaint to the general manager and often they will offer you something as compensation,” she advises.
Fib to get perks

Or just blame the heating

Guests are light-fingered

In Charlie’s experience, “if it’s not nailed down it’ll be nicked”. From catching guests pilfering extra teabags and coffee sachets from her trolley to towels and pillows going missing, she’s seen it all. “Cups, teabags, soap… We even had a shower curtain stolen and they really weren’t pretty,” she says. However, she says big hotel chains don’t care about towels going missing. Although, she’d get annoyed when guests pinched things from her trolley. “They could have just asked and I would have given it to them," she says.
Hotel staff love a gossip

Staff can spot affairs a mile off

Tanya can remember countless examples of guests coming in with their mistresses or sometimes several. While staff would maintain an air of discretion and non-judgement, they’d gossip about it off-duty. But they’re all at it too. “Lots of things like that also go on with staff. [Affairs] are very prevalent in the hospitality industry – whether it’s customers or the staff,” says Tanya.
Hotel guests aren’t guaranteed a table

If you’re staying in a hotel with a destination restaurant, it always pays to pre-book a table. Contrary to what you might think, there isn’t always a quota of tables reserved for hotel guests. “We would always try to fit them in but because we were very busy and had a lot of regular customers, it was still first come first served,” says Tanya. If you didn’t book in advance, her advice would be to tip the concierge. “When they had big tips from guests, they would come down begging us to fit their guests in,” she says.
Being friendly opens many doors – and queue jumping

As does tipping the right people…

“Money does talk and tipping definitely helps,” says Tanya, who was once given £100 ($125) by a customer for a table. “If the restaurant manager knew he was going to get £50 ($63) from a customer, then they would go over my head and sit them down even if that table was booked. It was very frustrating,” she says. Housekeeping definitely appreciate tips but leave it on the bed or in the room rather than giving it to reception, otherwise it'll "disappear", warns Charlie.
Read more: What you can and can’t steal from planes, hotels and cruise ships
Front-of-house are judging how you look

Ever wondered why you never bag the prime table when you’re dining in a high-end hotel restaurant? Perhaps it’s time for a shopping spree. “When I first started as a regular receptionist, my manager would tell me if someone is dressed nicely to sit them in the best area. I didn’t agree with it but in certain places, if you’re dressed well then it will get you a better table,” says Tanya.
Read more: Secrets the travel industry doesn't want you to know
Receptionists vs housekeeping

As with most workplaces, there is plenty of political power play going on behind the scenes. Charlie says housekeepers were very much seen as “the bottom rung” but sometimes receptionists had to muck in with the cleaning. “If a room needed to be ready for a certain guest at a certain time and the housekeepers were busy, then the receptionist would be expected to quickly go and do that room and check that guest in. They hated that and saw it as really beneath them.”
Read more: The strangest things that have happened on cruises
Comments
Be the first to comment
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature