Don't forget to pack the plastic drinking glasses...
 

We had the fortune (or misfortune) to observe a maid cleaning our room in London last month. I was shocked to see her clean the drinking glasses with the same rag she had just used to clean the bathroom (including toilet). I had never really thought much about this before but after observing this I assume this probably happens at many hotels. Needless to say we immediately purchased plastic drinking cups and will do so on every trip in the future.

I've discovered lots of other uses for plastic drinking glasses -- among other things, put two together to make a good container for bringing back somewhat fragile things like seashells or small tchatchkes. Or did Boulder refer to those silly collapsible "camping" cups that seem to collapse as soon as I put something in them?

1. I really didn't want to read that.<BR>2. However, the bleach is probably more danger than the germs.<BR>3. Run them under the tap.<BR>4. Read &quot;Down and Out in London and Paris&quot; and you will not eat in a restaurant either.

While we're at it, I NEVER use those in-room coffee makers. God knows what's been used to clean those things.

No, I wasn't referring to those useless hard plastic collapsible drinking glasses. I meant a package of disposable cheap plastic cups. Usually will just pick up at nearby grocery store or deli rather than pack in luggage.

From now on, I will wash those glasses and the ice bucket first before using them. I think I shall bring lysol wipes or lysol sprays for the toilet too and clean it before I sit on it. Thanks for the tip.

Is this a troll posting?? In all my years of traveling the world, I have never been to a hotel where the maid would clean a room while a guest was inside. But, in the case that you are telling the truth, I have to question the hotel you were staying in. Remember, you get what you pay for. This would never happen if you were staying at Claridges, the Connaught, or the Savoy.

ThinGorjus:<BR>This is certainly not a troll posting. We were in the room as my wife was sick and we asked housekeeping to clean our bathroom and change the bedding. I gave the maid a $30 tip for her trouble. While there she also &quot;cleaned&quot; the drink glasses. This was a 4 star hotel. If you really think that your 5 star hotel maids truly understand the concept of cross-contamination,then by all means keep believing it.

Gosh - this is awakening. <BR><BR>Is it so darn hard for hotels to run those through their Hobart dishwasher? I mean sweet lord! <BR><BR>I'm with the poster above - I'm bringing lysol wipes from now on.

Darvey, I think this is even creepier than your turn down service :) LOL!!

I've always felt that sometimes it's better not to know too much. I don't particularly want to see how the housekeeper is cleaning my room, nor do I want to see what's going on in the restaurant kitchen. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

It is better not to think about this stuff, however...I was staying with family at a posh hotel. My niece got sick. They had her puking in the ice bucket. Guess those liners are there for a reason.

I saw this on my cruise last week:<BR>1. Woman sticking her hands in the buckets of lemon to use with tea, digs hand in bucket, chooses one and leaves.<BR>2. Walk around the other side to the next lemon container and see a guy doing the same thing. Don't use lemons the rest of the trip.<BR>3. During lunch I go to get some freshly sliced fruit as the server is slicing it. The lady in front of me accidentally drops her cantelope on the ground. She hands it back to the server and says sorry. The server takes it back after it has fallen on the floor with her gloved hands and throws it aside. She continues to cut the fruit with the same gloves. Now all the fruit has the same germs as eating off the floor.<BR>Now I understand how the Norwalk virus spreads so quickly on cruise ships. <BR>When eating at a 5 star restaurant in Las Vegas I watched the chef chug wine from the bottle and then pour it into the recipe he was making. I think if people actually knew what they were being served no one would ever eat out again ; )

Hmmn. Guess I'll start traveling with a sleeve of solo cups.

We always turn the bedspread down to the end of the bed. This permits a clear view of the blanket. I have, many times, asked to have a clean blanket brought to the room if it looks dirty. There have been times we have seen dried body fluid on the blanket!

One summer when I was a teenager I had a chambermaid job for a summer. I was shocked to see that the other chambermaids rinsed the glasses then dried them with the dirty towels collected for the laundry. Then they covered them with a paper wrap that had the word &quot;sanitized&quot; printed across it! Another surprise was that we were expected to clean the toilets without a toilet brush. Glasses dried with dirty towels, hands that have been in toilets - no thanks. It may not be done everywhere but I will still never, ever use the glasses in hotel rooms. <BR><BR>It wasn't all that uncommon, ThinGorjus, for people to stay in their rooms while they were being cleaned.

Does anyone know how often bedspreads are changed in hotels?<BR><BR>To me, it seems logical that it would be between each guest's stay. However, I have NEVER seen a maid with those in her dirty laundry. Not ever.<BR>Does anyone know for sure?<BR><BR>My husband and I stay in business class hotels most of the time, but my curiosity spans to all ends of the hotel spectrum.

You all are 'way too obsessed with germs, no wonder you all get sick when you travel.<BR><BR>Leave the wipes, antibacterial soaps, fears at home . . . do wash your hands often and then forget about it and have a good time.<BR><BR>

Amen Sandy_b. Bedspreads are changed as needed Quinty, but not after every guest. Think how many guests are in for one or two night stays only. Do you really think those things need dry cleaning every one or two days?! Please. <BR><BR>There is good reason for never seeing one in a maid cart, too. That's not how they leave the rooms unless you want the maids running down to the laundry after each room...think how bulky they are unless you are staying in Motel 6 or the like with their dorm-style spreads. The Housemen take spreads and blankets out in big carts. We have white duvet covers in our rooms so you know not much time elapses between cleanings--sometimes after a one night stay, sometimes not, but they have to be immaculate and are.<BR><BR>By the way...for the past 10 years I've lived in a hotel, housekeeping cleans our suite, and I can't recall when I was sick last, not even a cold, so things can't be too darned bad!! :LOL

<BR>OK OliveOyl, now you have me curious! How do you manage to get to live in a hotel for 10 years?? That used to be a dream of mine :) .. when younger and single, I stayed with a friend who worked for entertainers in Las Vegas. She lived at Ceasars Palace for months at a time. So, I got to tag along. That got me hooked on wake up calls and breakfast in bed..I have always thought it would be such a pleasure to live in a hotel. Do you love it?

&quot;Cleaning&quot; the bed covers can, believe it or not, be overdone! We stayed in a very upscale B&amp;B in Cambridge that prided itself on its Laura Ashley/Martha Stewart and then some style. When we checked in a bit early, they said our room had just been done, so we went up and found that the big, puffy, chintz duvet cover was a tad damp. Cool! we thought, it's just been washed! <BR><BR>But the next afternoon, we came back for a nap right after the room had been cleaned and the duvet cover was so wet that sitting on it left me with an embarrassing and unpleasant wet spot on my seat -- had to pull it off and drape it over a chair (to avoid mildew) in order to nap, but later complained to the manager, asking what had left it so wet. A spill? Re-washing? A leak in the ceiling?<BR><BR>He explained that when the maids made the beds, they spread the duvet out and then sprayed it with water and smoothed it to remove wrinkles. I suppose that's supposed to be a &quot;nice touch,&quot; but I hate to think of that happening day after day after day to the same feather duvet -- mold, mildew, etc. etc. etc.

Oh I have a good story to add. While having dinner with the president (of a fortune 1000 company) and his wife, compay was a client of mine, at one of the best restaurants in NYC, one of those you have to have reservations for weeks in advance.<BR><BR>Well, we were having a nice conversation and out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge water bug walking up the wall, close to the kitchen. I motioned to our server and pointed in the direction of the bug, he was almost rude as he did not understand what the problem was and I didn't want to make a huge fuss.<BR><BR>As he was walking into the kitchen, he was now eyeball to eyeball with the bug and leapt about 6 feet. Now there are about 5 servers doing a version of the mexican hat dance on the bug.<BR><BR>Since dinner cost me almost $400, you'd think they would have done something. I called the next day and they offered me a dinner on them for my next visit. Ohhhhh, I don't think so.........

I think we have found a few more uses for clear plastic sheeting and duct tape...

The lesson I glean from all this is not that one should arm oneself with palstic cups, antibac wipes, etc., but rather that the human body can withstand a lot of germs. I am glad of this, and beyond that, I try not to think about this subject at all.

I know this is off topic and I apologize for this but ThinGorjus' reply irked me to no end.<BR><BR>Ever since registration I have been so happy to not see posts like 'troll-this' and 'troll-that'. 'Ha, ha, I spotted a troll'<BR><BR>To me there is nothing as irratating as the Troll Detectives making this disclosures.<BR><BR>I have been in my room many times while the housekeeping staff has been cleaning. Nothing unusual if you don't mind.<BR><BR>MM<BR>

But not as irritating as misspelling the word irritating.<BR><BR>Sorry

Dan's comment re: coffee makers reminds me of the scene from one of the Austin Powers movies...&quot;Hmmm....Tastes a bit nutty&quot;.

I agree that many of the posts here are disgusting, and that I personally canot imagine how stupid one would have to be to do the things mentioned here.<BR><BR>However...<BR><BR>How many times have any of you gotten sick after staying at a hotel? Maybe once or twice, if that. And chances are it wasn't from the faulty cleaning of the housekeeping staff. My point is, you can't freak out and obsess over the cleanliness of every foreign place you encounter. Ever heard of Howard Hughes?<BR><BR>Anyone that has ever worked in food service knows how gross the kitchen areas of most restaurants are. I've almost never met anyone that will eat a restaurant where they work or used to work.<BR><BR>I'm not a slob, and I take normal measures to ensure cleanliness and sanitation. But, I'm not going to let the thought of germs or dirt being everywhere control my next vacation.<BR><BR>And I also won't fly on the Spruce Goose!

NYGirl--My husband runs the hotel. :&gt; We fell into living in by accident. I honestly didn't want to at first, but when we were transferred out of Dallas in the early 90's the real estate market was terrible, and we were going to lose major $$ had we sold our house then. This was the same year our youngest child started college and we'd already talked about downsizing our next house. So, suddenly no kids, terrible market for selling our own house, plus we were going to a hotel (Savannah) with a live-in arrangement, equalled leasing our Dallas house and living in until conditions improved in the Dallas market to sell and buy elsewhere. Here we are, two cities and 10 years later, the Dallas house sold, and we are still living in. And...they are going to have to dynamite me out. LOL It is tremendous. Have all the perks of the hotel so if I don't feel like cooking, or forgot to take something out of the freezer, or just get home late, there is room service, plus the hotel has 3 great restaurants. After having owned 5 houses, we really, really, really appreciate being able to call engineering when something goes wrong in the &quot;house&quot;! And the hotel is on the water, which we obviously couldn't do on our own. We've got it furnished with our own furniture, so it truly is home, and this hotel has a casita (like villas) arrangement, so I'm not always traipsing past the front desk in my workout/boating/bumming around clothes. Staff absolutely leaves DH alone when he leaves the office. When he's home, he's home, though he'll get beeped in emergencies, it is no more frequently than he would at a house, and now if need be, he can just run the 1/4 mile back to the tower. No commuting (unless you consider walking down a boardwalk through mangroves commuting :&gt;)<BR><BR>Downside...I wouldn't do it if the kids were still with us, the occasional rowdy guests coming back to the casita area late, and...our money has been in the stock market, not the real estate market. :&lt; Now...the biggest downside is that some day we *will* have to leave and that is going to be a major adjustment! Pretty darned nice in the meantime though...highly recommended if you can figure out a way to do it! :&gt;

I use the coffeemakers, but before the very first use I run it on &quot;empty&quot; - without coffee, just running clear water through it in order to clean it out.<BR><BR>Thank you for starting this thread, Boulder!

YUCK!

Olive, there is a difference between you staying in the room all the time and using the same bedspread and one being used daily by different people. I think in these days of so many STD's, and other diseases I really don't want to cover up with a blamket/spread that I have no idea what it was used for last. Another thing I don't like to do, is get out of the shower and sit on the bed naked. This protects me and the poor person that gets the room next.(I usually sit on my own beach towel that I brought from home).<BR><BR>I always thought it would be fun to own a hotel. It would be an awful lot of work tho. (It isn't in Colorado and Jack Nicholson isn't running around in it is he? LOL)<BR><BR>As to the glasses, I have seen them run them under water and stick them back on the tray numerous times.I could do that myself, but they are usually dirty. I just wonder if they change them when I checkout or just rinse them again. That is one of the advantages of RVing, I know who the dirt belongs to...