Cassandra

"Cleaning" the bed covers can, believe it or not, be overdone! We stayed in a very upscale B&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!

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?

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 "nice touch," but I hate to think of that happening day after day after day to the same feather duvet -- mold, mildew, etc. etc. etc.

wantsomesun

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.

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.

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.

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.........

Brian

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

E

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.

mm

I know this is off topic and I apologize for this but ThinGorjus' reply irked me to no end.

Ever since registration I have been so happy to not see posts like 'troll-this' and 'troll-that'. 'Ha, ha, I spotted a troll'

To me there is nothing as irratating as the Troll Detectives making this disclosures.

I have been in my room many times while the housekeeping staff has been cleaning. Nothing unusual if you don't mind.

MM

mm

But not as irritating as misspelling the word irritating.

Sorry

Kal

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

robertw

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.

However...

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?

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.

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.

And I also won't fly on the Spruce Goose!

OliveOyl

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 "house"! 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;)

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;

Faina

I use the coffeemakers, but before the very first use I run it on "empty" - without coffee, just running clear water through it in order to clean it out.

Thank you for starting this thread, Boulder!

nina

YUCK!

CF

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).

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)

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...