Funny enough, I was just doing some research on public opinion on another hotel etiquette topic, when I came across an interesting online discussion that caught me off guard.
In this post:
The extent to which some hotel guests help housekeeping
Housekeepers are among the hardest working and lowest paid people employed at hotels, and they deserve our respect and appreciation for what they do. In the United States, I think it’s fair to at least consider tipping them, in the context of our overall tipping culture.
I always try to leave my hotel room looking reasonably decent. Like, I’ll typically put towels on the bathroom floor or in the tub, and will make sure that things that belong in the trash are in the trash, etc. However, I stumbled upon a Facebook group (while Googling something else) where someone shares how before checking out of a hotel, she puts all the trash together, strips the bed, etc., and asks if that makes it easier or more difficult for housekeeping.
To be honest, the thought of stripping a hotel bed never even crossed my mind as something that a guest would consider doing. For that matter, I would assume that hotels don’t actually want us to see the condition of the mattress protector and comforter without the covers, since it’s probably not pretty.
I was expecting for the comments section to just have people saying “yeah, I don’t do that,” but nope. There are lots of people in the comments saying they do the same thing, and hotel housekeepers saying they appreciate when guests do that.
Some people in the comments section take it even further, and take their trash with them (though I’m not sure if this is out of kindness and respect, or paranoia):
Same but I go one step further and actually remove the trash. It’s the “leave no footprint” model and is probably more important than stripping the beds, the goal being there should be nothing identifying you as the person who stayed there (yes, trash can be an identifier).
The ulterior motive for stripping hotel beds
There’s another interestingly angle to this. Some people don’t just strip the hotel bed to make the lives of housekeepers easier, but instead, to make sure that they actually change the sheets between guests. One former hotel housekeeper comments the following:
I was a hotel maid for a while, it’s nice to have the wet towels on the bathroom floor. The bedspread should be put on a chair and the rest of the bedding on the floor somewhere. I, too always strip the bed because there are some maids who don’t change the sheets.
Indeed, we know that sheets don’t get changed between guests more often than you’d hope.
Bottom line
I was today years old when I learned that some hotel guests actually strip their own beds prior to checking out. I don’t assume it’s a significant percentage of people, but it does seem to happen. This is apparently done by some both to help housekeeping, and to make sure that they actually change sheets between guests.
Am I the only one who is surprised that some guests do this, or who never even considered this?
I’m a tidy person and I very rarely leave a mess. The trash is in the trash can because that’s where I always put it. but housekeeping is included in the room rate, and I never felt bad or guilty about expecting something I paid for. If housekeeping has the time to do the annoying charging cable roll up thing, then they certainly have an extra 15 seconds to strip the bed sheets.
I pull the duvet and top sheet back to the bottom of the bed and place the pillows on top, takes no time at all, put all my rubbish in the bins and place used towels in the shower or bath.
I mean I strip the beds, largely because I'm trying to hide the...let's call it "adult-related" damage I've done to the sheets. And towels. And occasionally the comforters. I mean I'm sure they know anyway but on the off chance they ever start instituting some new "stain-charge" I'd rather try my little coverup by helping them to just dump it all in quickly with the other laundry.
I don't strip, but I pull the coverlet and topsheet down to the end of the bed and line them up so they're easy to remove (presuming they do remove them. It takes about 30 seconds of my morning, time I'd likely just be watching that terrible Marriott channel while my husband primps. It's a quick and easy thing to do to help housekeeping staff who have a lot of room to turnover. Same with...
I don't strip, but I pull the coverlet and topsheet down to the end of the bed and line them up so they're easy to remove (presuming they do remove them. It takes about 30 seconds of my morning, time I'd likely just be watching that terrible Marriott channel while my husband primps. It's a quick and easy thing to do to help housekeeping staff who have a lot of room to turnover. Same with piling the towels on the floor. Usually all on top of one of the bathsheets so they can be picked up in one fell swoop by grabbing the corners of the bottom towel.
I always strip the bed… because I bring my own sheets with me. I have skin issues and have to ensure that I sleep on sheets that use a certain detergent, so it’s easiest to bring my own.
And yes, sometimes the mattress doesn’t look amazing.
I leave the towels in a single pile on the bathroom floor. Trash is in the trashcans. I may or may not leave a $5 tip (more if multiple nights and they've done a better than average job). That's it.
Several people I know have gotten scabies from hotel beds. This was at name-brand upscale hotels. If the guest before you had scabies (which are mites that burrow under your skin and live there until you put on a pesticide cream for 12 hours to kill them), then you can easily catch them from the mattress or pillows even if the sheets were changed. Scabies is not uncommon and is estimated to affect between 100...
Several people I know have gotten scabies from hotel beds. This was at name-brand upscale hotels. If the guest before you had scabies (which are mites that burrow under your skin and live there until you put on a pesticide cream for 12 hours to kill them), then you can easily catch them from the mattress or pillows even if the sheets were changed. Scabies is not uncommon and is estimated to affect between 100 million to 300 million people every year, but a person might not even know they have them until a week or more after being infected when they start itching like crazy (due to the mites laying eggs in burrows under your skin). It's not something you can see with the naked eye (like bed bugs), and you can catch them from infected upholstery, towels, beds, etc. Ever since learning about this, whenever I check into a hotel, I always put down a vinyl fitted cover on top of whatever sheets they have on the bed, then get new sheets and a new comforter to put on top. I also put the pillows in plastic "anti-allergen" covers and then put on new pillow cases. Takes an extra 5-10 minutes and have to request housekeeping to bring a set of sheets, but better safe than sorry. Plus, most hotel mattresses and pillows have been slept on and sweated on by hundreds or thousands of people already, so it's better to avoid direct contact with them.
Nut. Job.
Don’t strip away the bed and definitely don’t tip housekeeping. Not my problem that the richest country in the world can’t figure out how to pay hard working people a living wage.
People are getting crazy. You are paying for the service. I never leave the room messy (trash is in the trash can, no vomit on the floor, etc), but I'm also not gonna do extra work someone else is being paid for.
The proletariat might well indulge in such trivia, however, I know of no one who would admit to such a practice.
Love your cosplay as an international sophisticate, ARPS.
Other than 2020, I’ve stayed 100+ nights in a hotel for the last 23 years. In that time I would say tha airfares have roughly doubled, maybe 2.5x. But hotel prices have 3-4x. Particularly since 2020 and particularly at 3.5-5* properties (whilst the point redemption values have cratered at 2-3x that pace). At the same time I have moved basically totally away from carrying cash. Please explain to me what I’m supposed to re tipping...
Other than 2020, I’ve stayed 100+ nights in a hotel for the last 23 years. In that time I would say tha airfares have roughly doubled, maybe 2.5x. But hotel prices have 3-4x. Particularly since 2020 and particularly at 3.5-5* properties (whilst the point redemption values have cratered at 2-3x that pace). At the same time I have moved basically totally away from carrying cash. Please explain to me what I’m supposed to re tipping housekeeping. I mean I 100% understand what’s going on but there’s a breaking point, no?
I don't strip the beds, but I do like to leave as tidy as possible.
A family friend works at a midrange Hyatt. She doesn't like the beds stripped because the preference (ie order from management) is not to change sheets unless visibly dirty.
I run a small guest house and it delights me when I enter a room to find the bed already stripped - a little bundle of joy. But it's barely 5% of guests who do this (and I still have to check to make sure they're not hiding any stains that need extra cleaning or might incur a penalty.)
While these people are at it, why not clean the whole room.
Yeah. Might as well vacuum the corridor, because why not.
When traveling with family, I remove the sheets to make sure no toys are lost in the bed and also to support the maid.
When traveling alone, I still make the bed before checking out and put all used towels on a pile to support the maid but also to make sure that i didn’t forget anything
I haven't done that, but I sure as hell DO check the bedspread, covers, sheets, etc to see if anything suggests they haven't been changed, before hopping in.