Advice Goddess Blog
« Previous | Home | Next »

Don't Ever Drink From Hotel Glasses
Unless they're single-use plastic cups.


Posted by aalkon at December 8, 2007 7:06 AM

Comments

It would be great if every surface you ever touched --especially the ones you paid for-- were lovingly washed with soap and hot water, but...

Wrong planet. This is one consequence of hiring essentially illiterate Guatemalans to clean your sleeping chambers... and paying them $5 per hour, and harassing them about not working fast enough.

Truth is, people who stay in hotels aren't dropping like flies because stuff isn't clean. You can worry about this every day until you get old and die, or you can just get old and die without worrying too much. If you must live in fear, it's probably more productive to be afraid of a Cho-type person showing up in your workplace with a submachine gun.

Posted by: Crid at December 8, 2007 11:35 AM

It's more the Ugh! factor. We have a friend who worked as a hotel maid through college in Sweden, and the stories she told us would make you never want to stay in a hotel again. There seems to a primordial need for many people to mark their territories (in this case the room) with whatever comes out of their bodies.

I'm not a squeamish guy, but when I get to a hotel the first thing I do is chuck the blanket and spreadspread off to the corner. Now I will wash the glasses out as well before I use them.

Posted by: eric at December 8, 2007 1:57 PM

it's probably more productive to be afraid of a Cho-type person showing up in your workplace with a submachine gun.

I'm working too hard today. My first thought was "Margaret"?

Bring a water bottle and don't lick your fingers and then work the remote.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at December 8, 2007 3:38 PM

Yuckers! Thanks for that, Amy.

Posted by: Norm at December 9, 2007 3:24 PM

Is it really that hard to put dishes through a dishwasher?

Posted by: Scott at December 10, 2007 2:24 AM

Note the absence, in hotel rooms, of dishwashers. I thought they'd bring you new glasses and take the old ones. Apparently, they do not. Or not always. Or not often.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at December 10, 2007 6:11 AM

You know they're doing exactly what management tells them to do--it's not as though they're on salary.

Posted by: DTA at December 10, 2007 7:16 AM

Some basics aren't as common sense as they should be- since moving to Nashville I have been appalled by the fact that most establishments do not have a dishwasher in their bars (and sometimes dishrooms) but instead rely on harried bartenders to hand wash dishes. This turns into a glorified swish in soapy water and a dunk in a sanitizing solution- the water can be sitting out for a full shift at a time getting cold and in my decade plus career in the food service I have yet to come across a sanitizer that does not require at least 30 seconds of soaking to be effective. This is exemplified by my roommate who works in one such restaurant and does not know how to properly wash dishes- so much so that I do not allow her to wash our dishes at the house. (Her cleaning rights have been restricted because once while drying the dishes I was washing- and right in front of me- she reached down the front of her pants to scratch and then went right on wiping the clean dishes. I was stunned speechless and needless to say once she left I went through and washed everything over again.) On the other hand, I wash dishes in food service and when forced to wash by hand I always, always, always make sure that 1) the water is almost too hot to reach into, 2) the dishes soak in the sanitizing solution at least as long as the directions require and 3) I change the water as often as possible. I also yell at those who do not wash properly and will go back and rewash if needed.

Posted by: Bertha at December 10, 2007 7:56 PM

You got that backward Amy, don't lick your fingers AFTER using the remote. In all reality, if stuff like this makes you squeamish, stay uninformed or you'll end up in a bubble with a bottle of disinfectant in each hand.

Posted by: Aardvark at December 11, 2007 3:02 PM

Leave a comment