What kind of hotel guest are you?

Hence.....the exact reason I inspect a room before I occupy it. I know what to look for.

I am relieved to hear the blankets, etc. are cleaned weekly. That's got to be a huge amount of laundry!

My friend and coworker, Cindy, was also called in to help with housekeeping today. (Her 'normal' job is restaurant manager, but she's m.o.d. this weekend.....poor thing.....)

Anyway, the one thing she commented on all day was the amount of laundry that gets done.

let's see. i was on a trip last week. 3 motel nights, 3 different motels.

i took the bedspread off. folded it up and put it on the luggage rack. loosened all the sheets and blankets, put the polar fleece blanket i brought along underneath the top sheet. used all of their pillows plus mine. used my towels and their face cloths. used their soap and my hair gunk (actually, i used the conditioner piffka gave me last autumn! thanks, piffka ). Took the little package of kleenex with me. Put all the newspapers in the trash. Pulled the top sheet and blanket to the foot of the bed before i checked out. turned out the lights before i left. Left a tip.

Hi Beth! I take a down pillow with me when I have room and sometimes a soft blanket... but towels? You brought your own towels?? Glad you liked the hair stuff -- it was from the Empire Hotel, NYC. I usually use whatever the hotel provides and figure it is OK to take the samples with me (so I can give them to Beth!).

We stayed at a gorgeous place in Spain that was very luxe but had an interesting arrangement. The plastic card key to get into the room also had to be inserted and left in a little box on the wall. When the key was in that box, the electricity was turned on. When we left the room and took the key with us, all the electricity turned off. Seemed like a clever arrangement. No way you could leave any lights on... and get back into the room.

piffka, i'm not really happy unless i have 3 bath sheets after my shower. not too many motels/hotels/inns can accommodate that. If i'm tight for packing space i'll take 2 bath sheets and use them as blanket back-ups/neck rolls as well (i'll take an empty neck roll cover along in that case) - i dry them over the heater in the room (all those years on the road for work paid off for learning little tricks). The bath sheets can also be used if i've got an opportunity to use a pool or beach. Those little hotel towels don't make much of a cover-up, and i don't want to get sand in someone else's towels - though some hotels are great about offering others.

when we were in tucson, i had 2 bath sheets with me, and asked the front desk for 2 extra towels every day!

Oh, I remember talking about this! Bath sheets -- LOL, three of 'em? I forget, was it one for each shoulder and one for your hair? That would be a lot extra to pack. Sounds cozy though, even though I'm an air-drier myself. I have started packing my "Turbie-Twists" for my hair. They're so darn handy, I'm glad I bought them. They're the only thing I've ever bought from a TV ad.

The only thing I can't stand is a pillow with the smell of cigarette smoke. It nauseates, and I have the most difficult time trying to fall asleep. c.i.

I think that I am a decent hotel guest. Never do anything nasty to the sheets, put all garbage in the pails before I leave, turn out all the lights, etc. I would never dream of stripping the beds, though. That IS the job of the housekeeper.

poffka, I think the plastic key card for the lights is a great idea, even though it took me a while to figure out. The hotel I was in in Hungary was the same, and the lights in the corridor went out after thirty seconds of turning them on! That gave me a start on the stairs my first day.

Methinks the Europeans hold energy savings in higher regards than us in the US.

Thanks, Sealpoet. The key and the light thing was hard to explain! You are right, too, they must hold energy savings to a much higher standard than we do. I also remember lights in the hall that would only stay on for a few seconds. It was startling.

CI -- I can't imagine trying to sleep with a pillow smelling of cigarettes <ick> or anything else. I'd rather use a rolled up towel. I'm sure in your travels that you've seen (and smelled) just about everything.

Thanks for all the responses guys! I'm off to another fun-filled day in the laundry room. Wish me luck!

Rae, You have my wishes for the best of luck.
Pifka, Most hotels ask customers if they wish a smoking or non-smoking room. Some don't, and that's when I'm relegated to the stink and suffering. If I'm staying for more than one night, I'll ask for another room. c.i.

c.i., I have to admit, the odd time we get a hotel, it's non-smoking all the way....I couldn't stand being in a smoking room, and your story regarding smoke-infested pillows just makes me ill...lol. Mrs. cav smokes, but not in the house.

Ohmygawd, I am soooooooo pooped!

I think our executive housekeeper is going to request that I become the 'laundry lady' to our gm Tuesday morning! Hey, if you're gonna do a job, ya might as well do it right!

Re: non-smoking rooms. My heart really does go out to folks who don't smoke and end up in rooms that smell of cigarettes. In the industries' defense.....have to say that we can't stop people from smoking in non-smoking rooms. Even if the renter is a non-smoker, he/she may have company that smokes, and the guest will allow it in their room.

It's not always our fault!

Even though I smoke, I know that the commercial deoderizers don't work when it comes to cigarette smoke. The fix is temporary, at best. No fix at all to a non-smoker.

Rae, I've used commercial/hospital strength incontinence room deoderizors, sprayed them directly on the pillow, and they still don't work. ;( c.i.

c.i., just wondering, incontinence, does that mean you are in Europe? Stop me if you've heard that one...

Yep, c.i., cigarette smoke doesn't disappear with commercial cover-ups either.

cav, Your sense of humour has me ROFLMAO. c.i.

I'm a pretty decent guest, though I don't strip beds, either. Dirty towels on the shower curtain bar, or whatever and trash in the waste baskets, and I do not bother front desk just because they are there. This a.m., I was remarkably patient when a routine checkout took the better part of 30 minutes. Seems someone had checked my room out by mistake and the computer was reluctant to check me out again. Will carefully examine the next credit card statement on the off chance my card gets billed twice.

I don't bring my own towels, and I don't take theirs. Normally, I do bring my own pillow and soap in a plastic soap dish. Hotel soap has gotten unspeakably generic over the years.

Don't count on the blankets being laundered with such frequency, Rae. Just didn't happen at the hotels I have worked in. We even had an occasional verified guest complaint of dirty linen. Didn't happen often, but it did happen.