Hotel Housekeeping Disaster Edit
Dirty Drinking Glasses

Earlier this month the Chicago Sun Times ran a story titled “Hold the Ice: What’s in your glass might surprise you”.

The article revealed failed results of an ‘ice cube test’ from 49 fast-food and casual-dining restaurants and hotel bars in the city. The Chicago Sun-Times found that more than one in every five samples contained high levels of bacteria.

Today I discovered a hidden camera video story exposing some awful housekeeping techniques in Chicago at an Embassy Suites property, a Holiday Inn, and a local Sheraton. Housekeeping room attendants were seen using dirty face towels to dry glasses that were sanitized with Windex, and handled with gloves that just came out of the toilet.

This is terrible press for any hospitality operator, but if proper (sanitary) cleaning procedures are formalized, trained and re-iterated, this should never happen in a reputable establishment.

Unfortunately, some operators aren’t so diligent in their procedures. While its true that room attendants are doing more work in guestrooms than ever before, but glassware sanitation isn’t the place to cut corners. 

The hotels in the video might easily have exposed their guests to harmful viruses and bacteria. For their effort, they got to star in this hard-hitting video blog: