As the title says. I'm currently working in housekeeping for a hospital. I've been there 4 years, but am looking to get away from the dangers to my health. I just keep catching sickness after sickness. Even with wearing a mask and using the proper PPE gear. Nothing serious, just random viruses not covid related. It's a massive workload and I handle the entire third floor by myself most days. I was curious if the workload in other facilities would be lighter or less stressful. I know there's a big difference in medical sanitizing and normal cleaning. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

Title.

I wear gloves of course, but apparently a lot of friction is still making its way to my hands. The sides of each finger get blisters (thankfully not painful) that usually pop later on in the same shift. The very top knuckle, right next to the nail, is the same.

I've been at this for two years so it seems like there should've been time for callouses to form. That certainly happened with the vacuum-cleaner-pushing and spray-bottle-pumping zones on each hand (though if I look closely I can still see blisters waaaaaayyyyy underneath the thickened skin, same with my feet).

The situation is seriously ridiculous! I've got all these thin, pink patches where the blister scraps have just eroded away, and if those blister up I suspect it'll be a bad time. I try to put bandaids and tape on them but the sweat has those slipping around pretty quick. I don't know if it's possible to tunnel through your whole epidermis this way and I'd rather not find out!

My gloves fit fine, they're the same brand and size and material we've been using for most of this year and this situation just came up in late October. Speed has become more of a priority lately, but obviously I can't just slow down.

Has anybody else had this issue? Can it be fixed????? Help me I beg of you!

EDIT: Additional info which I really should've thought of the first time -- I use disposable nitrile gloves, one pair per room, and take them off as soon as I'm done with the chemicals / sanitization process (after which there's a bit of time where I make the bed and hang shower curtains and such without gloves, since that linen is all clean anyway and it gives my skin a chance to breathe)

Hi all! I'm a PhD researcher at the University of Surrey in the UK conducting a study about the effect that hotel housekeeping platforms that automatically "manage" housekeepers (e.g. Knowcross, Hotsos, hub OS, HKeeper, HelloShift Housekeeping, Flexkeeping, and similar) have on employee well-being. I am seeking to conduct 45-60 minute phone/online video interviews with Housekeeping Cleaners, Maids, Attendants, Supervisors, and Managers located anywhere in the world.

My goal is to document how your work experience has changed as a result of the implementation of these platforms. If you or anyone in your network have worked with such platforms and are interested in participating, email b.jianu@surrey.ac.uk with your role & platform that you have experience working with. Each participant will receive £25 Amazon voucher.

Thank you!

Hello! I'm a product design student and for my senior thesis, I want to redesign the hotel cart!

So I have a question for you hotel housekeepers!

What do you hate about these carts? If you could change anything about them what would it be? Do you wish they were smaller? Bigger? Could fit more products/better organization? Do you think they're annoying to use? Is it hard to put the vacuum on them? Do you wish it was easier? What do you like about them? Do you prefer that they stay in the hallway or come into the room with you?

I want the full scoop on these carts! Tell me about your experience with them, please!

I worked in housekeeping in a hotel for months up until this past week. I’m now 35 weeks pregnant. I was scheduled to work 5+ days a week, with 20+ rooms to myself. I came into work recently, because I was on the schedule, and I could barely walk, I couldn’t bend my back & my ankles were HUGELY swollen. I had been in L&D the night before to stop contractions. We didn’t have many rooms, but 5 house keepers in house. Everyone was almost begging my manager to send me home, as we had too many housekeepers for the amount of rooms. Now, I’m HUGE at this point in pregnancy. I can’t bend too far forward in general. We (my manager and I) discussed a couple weeks ago that she didn’t want me cleaning bathtubs, so I was to have another housekeeper come clean my bathtubs. No biggie, I was fine with that. Well, the day before I quit I had went to find another HK to help with a bathtub. Said manager stopped us in the hall and asked what we were doing “socializing on the clock”. We explained that she was going to clean a bathtub for me and would go right back to her rooms. She yelled at me and said that if I can’t do my job, I need to quit so that she can hire someone whose “willing” to work. I explained that it wasn’t that I wasn’t willing to work, rather that’s one small task that I myself struggle with accomplishing. She didn’t care. She continued yelling at me. Now, I’ve always hated being yelled at, so I spent the rest of my shift crying while cleaning my rooms... I got home from work, still crying. My boyfriend became extremely upset as I told him what had happened. We decided that it’s in the best interest of our child that I just be done, as it’s a lot of emotional trouble as well as physical. So I gave my manager her wish, and I went in and handed in my scrubs and quit. She seemed sympathetic, said she understood, was sad to see me go, and for me to come talk to her after I was released from maternity leave.

Fast forward to today, another HK at said hotel was talking to this manager, while recording the conversation to send to me. She asked if I would be back after baby. The manager told her that I was lazy & a crybaby so she would never consider hiring me back.

I’m glad I quit. I feel like I dodged a bullet. I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to convince myself to work in housekeeping again.

Sorry if I got the wrong sub here, but I thought it might be a good place to ask a pro housekeeping question:

I recently decided to make my bed at home a little fancy like a hotel bed since I'll be spending so much time in it. I got nice white sheets, bedspreads, and two types of pillow. It's awesome, but how do I keep it awesome? It takes forever to make the bed, and when I bleach the linens the stains don't disappear and the fabric is less soft. Plus, if I get anything on the bedspread or pillow they're hard to wash.

Once I was in a hotel with my little sister who was sick and threw up all over the bed and (white) carpet. In the morning I cleaned up as best as I could and took her to breakfast. I went upstairs 10 minutes later with a $50 bill and sincere apology for the housekeeper, only to find that she had finished cleaning already and the room was perfect.

I don't understand how it takes me half an hour to make my bed but a pro can totally blitz a room in a few minutes! Are you guys wizards? Is there a secret housekeeping school to learn the tricks? Or do hotels just buy new blankets when they get gross?

Note: I asked for the housekeeper at front desk after the vomit incident and she was really surprised to get a tip - said it was no big deal as she cleans messier rooms all the time. Impressed as I am at her skills, it's terrible that so many guests trash the room and don't even think of the person who cleans it.

I'm a hotel housekeeper with 3+ years of experience. Our hotel is still open, I haven't been laid off, it's just me and another housekeeper lady, that's it for the whole department. I'm not getting enough hours (averaging 16-18 hours a week) and I'm looking for a new job.

I applied in several local hospitals as a hospital housekeeper/EVS and have a couple interviews lined up. I know it's not the most ideal time to work in a hospital but I need a full time job with stable hours and while I LOVE the hotel scene who knows how long this coronavirus pandemic lasts.

What should I expect? Anyone has worked as a hospital housekeeper before?

Thank you! 😊

If any of you are working in a hotel, how has the recent coronavirus pandemic affect your hotel business? My hours have been cut and Ive only worked 2 days this week...

Back in the day, I worked in housekeeping at a luxury boutique hotel in a pretty swanky suburb of Seattle. In college, I was a part time turndown attendant, a year after graduating, I returned to the hotel as a housekeeping supervisor. Because I was a supervisor, I was privy to all the trashed rooms and juicy stories. (And yes, luxury properties still have crazy stories.)

Anyway, one day, I get called up to a room because the housekeepers and houseman had no idea what to do with a room. I walk in and see splotches of white schmutz all over the walls, the flat screen TV, the upholstery, the carpet, the glass in the picture frames, the ceiling, the headboards... I'm just as flummoxed as my coworkers, staring with my mouth open as my brain tried to calculate what the heck I was looking at and how the heck we were going to clean it.

What was it? MARSHMALLOWS.

Some rich parents had let their teenage daughter and her bffs stay the night in the room for her birthday. The girl and her friends had brought marshmallow guns with them and shot sugary gelatin all over the frickin' room. We called up the front desk, and they billed the guests for trashing the room. The parents were horrified by their kid's behavior, and it took several housekeepers most of the day to clean up the mess. I think we kept finding stuff after that day, and it was so annoying. Who treats a $200/night room like that? (Answer: too many.)

Did they think I was going to steal it or is this just a normal procedure when someone checks in?

I do housek at an assisted living and I like it for the most part. I mean I do get Tired from cleaning 8 rms but yah the cleaning the whole building on Sunday.

So I have Thursday and Saturday off.

I like it because I still get to help the elderly. But I feel like people look down at us.

I’ve been in and out of college pretty much my whole 20s I’m 28 now.

And I just don’t know if college is for me. But I don’t want people to loom down on me because I don’t have a degree in something.

Tbh I would like to just get married have kids and be a housewife lol.

I dunno... I’m happy where I’m at. But I may never go back to college...

We had a guest take our big trash can out of the ice vending room on the top floor. They shoved all the sheets, duvet, bible, among other things in the trash can and take out to thier truck. They ended up being charged 500$ for everything, and they actually paid all of it.

We had another guest not be able to pay for her second night with points and stole our luggage cart. She got like 4 miles away from the hotel before the cops found her.

We had a body builder weight in at our hotel. The last night they all stayed one room had broken the toilet. The story was that some couple was drunk and the girl pushed her boyfriend into the toilet and it broke. The whole tank was busted and there was water everywhere. They did end up paying for the new toilet.

I have a housekeeping service come into my home every other week. It has been their policy that if I skip a week for whatever reason, I will be charged and extra $60 the next time, because of the "extra" cleaning that they need to do. Even if they can make it the following week, there is an additional fee. Fair enough.

On Dec 30, the owner informs me late that that they will not be coming the next day, which was Dec 31st. I texted back okay. I really wanted them to come since we had family over for the holidays, but I thought no big deal.

So the next time they came to clean, I wrote out a check for the regular amount and left it on the counter. I got a text from the owner the next day saying that a needed to add $60 next time, as we skipped a week. I replied that it was not my choice to skip, but hers. She stated it was a holiday, to which I said no, New Year's Eve day is not a legal holiday but that she chose to take the day off.

I gave the analogy of a store stock person-- every day, the store receives deliveries from vendors that need to be put on the shelfs. Each day the stock person completes the job. One day, the stock person takes a day off to which his employer says okay. But upon returning to the job, the stock person has 2 days of work to complete his task, and now asks to be paid 1.5 times his salary in order to complete his job.

The owner said whatever, and we left it as that. Am I nuts here? I just don't understand paying MORE for a service when they chose to take the day off.

I'm sort of asking for a friend, or rather a bunch of friends from another subred, as well as myself.

The questions concern nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting).

We were discussing travel considerations, especially staying in hotels, and identified several issues or questions and finally decided to just ask the experts so to speak.

Q1. Are all (US) hotel beds now routinely protected with a waterproof mattress cover?

I'm pretty sure all the ones I've seen were with single exception. If not, are your hotels equipped to protect them this way if the guest calls ahead?

Traveling with and laundering a mattress cover often isn't practical, but the vast majority of us would be horrified by the prospect of ruining a mattress.

Q2. Disposal of protective products.

Many of us carry such items out and put them in dumpsters or whatever at motels but in hotels this often isn't practical. Our consensus is that bagging and sealing them separately and leaving them for housekeeping is reasonable. The question is, when you encounter such a small, dense bag, do you generally sort of know what's it it, or do you handle enough garbage that you just don't even think about it? (Some of us are pretty sensitive and secretive about it.)

As a follow on question, are we over thinking it by bagging and sealing these things separately or would just leaving them in the regular trash be perfectly ok?

Q3. If the worst should happen, a severe leak or unprotected accident in bed, what is the protocol?

Our consensus seems to be to strip and roll the wet bedding so that it's able to be handled without encountering the wet parts, and leave the bundle on a hard floor or in the bathtub to minimize transfer.
Is this best practice?

How would you prefer a guest handle that situation?

Would requesting a large trash bag and bagging the bedding be better or worse from your POV?

We also seem to agree that in the event this happens a tip is definately in order. What is a generally appropriate tip for housekeeping? In general, any feed back you might offer would be greatly appreciated.

Q4. Frequency.

Do you as housekeeping staff encounter this problem often? Is finding used protection and or wet sheets a common occurrence, rare? Is it something staff discuss among themselves when encountered or is it generally unremarkable?

Q5. Worst practices.

What are the worst practices you've encountered from guests regarding this?

What would you tell guests to never do again?

Q6. What would you want a guest with this problem to know from a house keeping perspective. What advice might you give?

Thanks in advance to all who reply. Please feel free to add any thoughts of your own or to ask any questions you might have. I will do my best to answer. Your input will (hopefully) allow some of us to rest easier when staying away from home, thank you.

I'm just curious, usually when I stay at a hotel I'll go to a local store to buy beer/wine depending on who I'm with rather than pay mini bar prices. When I leave I may have a few beers left over so I'll leave them in the fridge (along with a tip). Is this just basically a pain for housekeeping or is it appreciated?

I travel a lot for work, and mainly stay with 2 major chains. Both chains have green programs, where you don't get HK service for that day. Are these beneficial or harmful to the HK staff? Do they help you, take money from your pocket, or neither? It sounds good on paper, but if it's just a ploy to pay less for HK staff, then I don't want to play along.

So I am a hotel AGM for a select service hotel (major brand). Our hotel is in the top 15% of the brand worldwide and we have a very hard-working housekeeping staff. Most of my staff has been with us for at least 8-10 years and some are newer, but come with alot of experience.

Lately, we have been having an issue with gossip and team members speaking badly about each other. Namely, we have two employees that work in laundry that have been with the property for a very long time. They like to criticize everything we do (even though we constantly show them appreciation, do monthly lunches, incentive programs, and birthday celebrations) and they also gossip to each other when they see someone not going above and beyond in their job. Lately, these comments have been heard by a couple of housekeepers through the laundry shoot and they've been getting very upset by these ladies. To add fuel to the fire, I am on a final write-up with my Executive Housekeeper because she has been gossiping as well about the housekeepers personal lives. I am probably going to end up firing her by next week if she continues.

Also, we have had a few organizational issues with our storage rooms and supply orders being correct due to neglect from my Exec, but these issues have gotten better. During our stand-up morning meeting yesterday I explained to my staff that gossip and rumors are not tolerated at all and that we are a team and should all act like it. I also explained that no one should be speaking ill of any team members or management and if someone is making your job difficult, come to me because I have open door policy and am more than happy to address any issue that makes their job hard. After this very honest meeting, I bought donuts for the whole staff and delivered it to them. I want them to know that I am on their side in all of this, and to stick it out through the drama. I am also getting with HR about the two ladies causing most of the drama.

But I am curious if anyone else has had to deal with this in your housekeeping department? Any other pieces of advice would be greatly appreciated. It makes it difficult to want to come to work each day and deal with this, but hopefully I can eliminate the gossip and drama once and for all and we can all have a nice work environment to come to each day.

I start my new job as a housekeeper in a week. What do I need to know or start practicing now?

Do any of your hotels have any good incentive programs for housekeeping? For front of house, it’s easy - base it off revenue, etc.. but what about housekeeping?

I've been at my property for 3 years, since they opened and I'm honestly done with housekeeping and cleaning up after people. It's such a hard thankless job. I dont want to leave the hotel I work for but I'm starting to think I will have to in order to make more money and move up in a company. I think since the turn over rate is high in general for this job, I feel stuck. I would like to move to front desk or food and beverage but the opportunities to get out of the housekeeping department are essentially non existent. My manager will try/bullshit any excuse to not have someone leave her department. Does anyone else feel stuck with this job?

Everything I have found online talks about seeing bites on you, or how to treat the bed bug issue yourself (ach! No! We call professionals if we have any suspicions), or it’s just a minute or so video showing what they look like.

Does anyone know of a video/booklet that, sure, shows what they look like, tell tale signs of their presence, but also some more information about their history, whether or not their dangerous (I know they’re not, just creepy), and have it feel a little more educational than a few pictures?

I will be staying in a nice hotel on New Year’s Eve and would like to leave it as clean as possible for the housekeeper the next morning. Also, what is considered an acceptable tip?

I work in housekeeping ,and It’s has been horrible since I started in January,she’s named called me and serval other employees ,she leaves just to go get her hair and nails done whenever she pleases ,she has a lot of favorites and makes sure they’re known. Myself and a couple other employees have tried to bring this up to our General manager and all we got told was ,give her a chance she’s probably having a bad day which In no means should be an excuse. Today really got me though,she’s hiring a lot more girls and keeps making dogs how one of them is my replacement which doesn’t bother me ,but it’s the fact that she says it out loud in front of my coworkers. Can anybody give me any advice on what to do? I’ve already gotten a new job as a housekeeper for much higher pay and better hours but I can’t start until the end of November

Today is Sunday, which at our location is mass check out day. It’s a crazy busy day. All of your ladies are working hard, our supervisors are exhausted. We come across this note from a guest.

“I’m so glad the people in 165 have checked out. It is 6:30 in the fucking morning and they are on round 7 of ‘let’s see who can last longest’. Her vagina has to be broken at this point.”

It’s the little things.

I’m an event manager and my company frequently contracts large groups at 4 and 5 Star properties (RC, JW, 4 Seasons, Mandarin, Fairmont, Omni, etc). As a part of our hotel master, the group will pay a tip, say, $5 per night per room, on the hotel master. (Sometimes for doorman and bell services too)

How does that make it to you? Do you know it being done or do you think you’re being stiffed?