In a viral TikTok video, a former hotel worker, Lusea (@Lusea), says hotels often cut corners when it comes to cleaning rooms. Lusea shares that she worked at a major un-named chain hotel when she was younger and alleges that hotels don’t wash comforters.
“Staying at a hotel is one of the nastiest things you can do. I don’t care how ritzy it is. Corners will be cut,” she alleges. She then shares a list of reasons why hotels are the “nastiest.”
“Duvet covers and comforters are never washed. Unless there is visible contamination, stain, or something on it. It does not get washed,” she says.
She says that even the things that do get clean are often are done in questionable ways. “The glasses or glassware in that hotel room… gets washed in the bathroom sink of that room with a rag and whatever cleaner or soap you have there, and then put back,” she says.
“The towels that are in the hotel room that are used by people staying in the hotel room are what we used to clean the shower, the bathtub, and the bathroom, and then send them down to the laundry. The towels you are using to shower with double as cleaning rags,” Lusea claims.
“The garbage in the hotel room—the bag is not taken out and thrown away. The garbage is taken and dumped into a bigger garbage trolly and left in there. Unless it’s wet or something is stuck on it, the bag is left there, and that is the tip of the iceberg,” she continues.
The reason hotel rooms aren’t always properly cleaned
Yet, she argued that the reason why cleaning in hotel rooms is sub-par is because cleaning staff are working within real-time restraints.
“You have to do it quickly. Get in, get it clean, and get out. You are on a time constraint, so corners are cut. The cleaning staff will cut corners in every way that they can to meet their time markers because they have to,” she says.
@_lusea If I have to stay in one now theres so much I avoid. #hotel #hotels #hotelroom #exposed #exposedfyp #cleaning #cleaningtiktok #travel #traveltiktok #traveltok #traveltips #traveling #companysecrets #secret #fup #fyp ♬ original sound – lusea
Other hotel workers respond
The viral video has 764,000 views with thousands of comments. That video has sparked much discourse between current and past hotel employees debating if Lusea’s accusations are correct.
One viewer shared, “[At] Hilton we change beds. They do not care about you not having enough time. You get it done right or no job for you.” Another hotel employee chimed in, “I’m a housekeeper and we wash everything and change everything. Our rooms are checked and we get wrote up if it’s not done right.”
However, a different hotel worker agreed with Lusea. They shared a similar experience. “They NEVER wash their comforters or sheets. Only pillowcases. We also could ONLY spend 30mins cleaning 20 rooms each within 8hrs. UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS,” they shared.
Is your hotel room clean?
So it really comes down to the hotel itself and what pressures said hotel puts on its workers.
There are a few ways you can check if the hotel room you are staying in is clean. A hotel manager said in travel blog Adventures All Around that your first step should be checking reviews left by other guests before booking your hotel if cleanliness is that important to you. You can usually filter the reviews by keywords like “clean” and “room,” too.
Once you’re in your room, the hotel manager recommends you to ask for new pillowcases as “these are commonly overlooked.” The manager also warns against using the bedspread. Also, the pillows in the closet, if there are any, are “more likely to be freshly washed than the ones on the bed,” so those will probably be safer to use, too.
Furthermore, Reader’s Digest spoke with a Harvard University public health specialist who recommends against sitting directly on sofas in hotel rooms.
The Daily Dot reached out to Lusea via email for comment.
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