Some Hotels Aren’t Changing Their Sheets
Jennifer Billock September 12, 2016
An undercover investigation found that some hotels don’t change the bed sheets between customer visits.
Thanks to Inside Edition, we all may be sleeping a little cleaner from here on out. The news outlet recently conducted an undercover investigation into whether hotels actually change the sheets between guests—and ended up with some disturbing findings.
At a Residence Inn by Marriott in New York City, the only published part of the investigation so far, the team spray-painted “I slept here” with washable fluorescent paint on the bottom bed sheet. The paint was invisible to the eye so hotel staff wouldn’t see it while cleaning the room—it’s only visible when a fluorescent light is shone on it. The team checked out and used a different name to book the same room for the next night.
When they arrived for the second night, the spray-painted words were still visible on the sheets, showing that not only were they not changed, they also weren’t washed.
Inside Edition’s Ann Mercogliano was disgusted and told the manager so, asking “Why weren’t those sheets changed?”
At first the manager didn’t want to discuss the findings, but eventually told Mercogliano, “We make it a custom to change every checked out room sheet. However I do not know what happened in this situation.”
The Marriott Corporation apologized for the incident, saying the room is now being inspected so that this issue doesn’t happen again.
The Inside Edition team booked stays at nine different hotels for the same experiment. The full results of the investigation will be published on Tuesday.
[Photo: Kiwi Collection]
There's a reason why Marriott hotels are a good stock to buy, they know how to squeeze savings. Am staying at one of their hotels now, and marked the sheet with ball point mark, it's ok they didn't change the sheets after one day, though the Sheraton nearby not only changed them daily, but the beds at Sheraton are much more comfortable and sheets, crisp, finer quality.
I have always been unsure how well cleaned Residence Inn rooms are. Unlike most hotels, many Residence Inns do not have the regular housekeeping cart, the just walk up with a bucket of cleaning sprays and tools. I was traveling with a neat freak that rarely stayed in hotels. This person neatly made up the bed and folded the towels. The Residence Inn manager assumed that the room was unused (I believe this often happens with corporate stays at long term stay hotels) so they gave away the room to another guest without changing the sheets or towels, which had been used, and the new guest barged in while the prior one was eating dinner in the room, surprised since they were booked for two more days. Did the TV show actually use the bed, other than marking it? Did they make up the bed? I would expect that the same thing happened, where the room look unused, so the cleaning staff left it. I make a mess but leave a large tip, so they know I was there and when I checked out.
I'm sure this is more common than people suspect. If not actual hotel policy, it's from sheer laziness of house cleaning staff and lazy oversight from room managers.
Hotels don't change the sheets or towels you know to save the "Environment". I guess they are just taking it a step further.
F'in disgusting. The GM should be fired at that hotel location as I am sure they are aware and instructed housekeeping to save money. I'd love to find out about the rest of the locations that cut corners by doing crap like this.