Hotel rooms are like bowling shoes: we hope they’re clean enough and we try not to think about the people who were inside them before us. Everyone, at some point in their life, has or will have to stay in a hotel room. Whether you’re an elite businessman or just someone looking for a warm bed to stay in, hotel rooms are a necessary piece of every first-world town in the world. There are some things, though that hotel rooms like to keep under wraps. Publicity is the life-blood of the hotel industry. Good publicity means that more people will visit, and possibly pay more for their stay. Bad publicity can mean the end of a hotel all together. There have been multiple news reports exposing hotels for their bad conduct and hygiene, but this is something that hotels in general look to avoid. Just because we don’t hear about it, though, doesn’t mean sketchy things don’t happen behind the scenes. Hotels want to keep anything that can be considered “bad” from the outside world, in order to rent more rooms out to customers. Be careful where you book, though, because a lot of hotels may be guilty of some of the more disgusting and reprehensible acts on this list. Do your research or you may find yourself bug bombing your apartment because you picked up bed bugs. Bed Bugs This one is similar to the “Hotels are Gross” point on the list, but it has become a problem all on its own. A popular hotel’s reputation can be devastated by the revelation that some rooms have contracted bed bugs, so it’s in the hotel’s best interest to keep these issues in-house and you might not hear about it. The bed bug problem isn’t always the hotel’s fault, as the bed bugs usually get there on the back of a customer, but it’s unsettling to find out that the room you stayed in last night was the same that had a bedbug problem three weeks ago. Bed bugs have become such a problem in the hotel industry that there are entire websites dedicated to reporting cases of bedbugs in a hotel. Sure, that bargain hotel room on Groupon may save you a couple of dollars, but it’s nothing compared to having your house bug-bombed, or sending the little critters to every apartment in your building. People “Do It” Of course people “do it” in hotel rooms. That’s not news to anybody. What might freak you out a bit is the fact that the staff might be “doing it” in a room and not telling anybody about it. Think about it: if you’ve ever worked with a significant other then you know the sexual tension can be overwhelming. Now imagine that there were multiple private rooms with beds at your work that you can discreetly use anytime you want. That’s almost too tempting to pass up. Of course, since the staff is not meant to be “doing it” while they’re working, they usually wouldn’t tell the cleaning staff what they’ve done. This leaves dirty sheets on the bed for you to cuddle up and sleep on the very same night. Yuck. Take The Free Stuff Hotels expect their guests to use or take all of the toiletries they provide. While this is sometimes just a couple bars of soap and shampoo, the cleaning staff will throw away any unused toiletries and replace them for the next guest. I have to say, with all of the gross stuff I’ve been reading in regards to hotels, this is a good fact to hear. Obviously, if you make a ton of money and aren’t worried about free toiletries then you can continue to disregard them, but for those broke 20-somethings like me, a free bar of soap could be the difference between a shower and an “ehh I’ll just stay inside all day.” It’s not something that’s going to change anyone’s life, but an emergency hotel-bottle of shampoo is never a bad thing to have in your apartment. Don’t Drink The Water The water itself is probably fine, but it’s the glasses that are the problem here. You’d expect the hotel maids to clean the glasses out with soap (AKA cleaning them) before the next guest arrives, but it appears that some maids just rinse them out and leave the flu virus for the next guest to find. Fox News did a bit of guerrilla journalism in 2007, and used hidden cameras to see how the maids clean up after a hotel stay. While being observed, these maids didn’t clean out the glasses in the rooms they serviced. This report was from a decade ago (which is WILD that 2007 was ten years ago), but this type of practice is just the thing that I could see hotels not changing. Sure, some people got a bit peeved when they saw the report, but I doubt it was enough to change anything. Just to be on the safe side, I’d drink bottled water while I’m sleeping away People Die In Hotels Well, people die everywhere; but people die in hotels a lot more often than you might think. Of course, death is bad for business in the hotel industry, so the bodies of the deceased are carted off as discreetly as possible. The ambulance comes to pick them up sometimes, but other times hotels have been known to sneak their deceased patrons out of a back exit. They clean and sanitize the room, as should be expected, but the turn-around time is much quicker than you may like. They usually have those rooms open for rent within the week, and the staff is prevented from telling potential customers about the death and which room a person died in. Apart from the fact that this is pretty disgusting, this is a pretty obvious reason why so many hotels have such a ghost problem. Hotel Rooms Are Gross Even in those fancy 5-star hotels, not everything is as clean as you might expect. Hotels will clean the sheets for new visitors, but when it comes to the linens, they might not clean them for weeks or even months at a time. A good way to ensure that you have clean linens is to request them when you book, but there’s no guarantee that the people on the other side of the phone care enough to make sure it’s done. Apart from that, there are a lot of items in a hotel room that don’t ever really get clean. It should be no surprise to learn that people’s hands are disgusting. Therefore, the often-touched items in the room sometimes have as many germs at the bathroom toilet seat. Items such as light switches and remote controls are infested with bacteria, so make sure you keep that Purell handy. Source
