I do a little bit. I leave the bed as is, but try to put all garbage in the trash can.

I try to clean the blood up, and the larger, identifiable body parts. ;)

No I don't. Unless I have, ahem, entertained. ;)

Force of habit. I throw all my bottles in recycling and pile towels in bathtub. Lately I've been turning all of the lights off too.

I always do.

If I travel with my wife, she does spend ten minutes every morning before leaving the room to put everything where it needs to be. So, yes, she does it also on the day we are checking out and now I know what I'm supposed to do when I'm travelling alone. But you should have seen how she got distressed when a maid in a hotel in Hong Kong took her New Yorker. She kept repeating: "I left it in a nice pile". As we travel to conferences where we know other people staying in the same hotel, we have been shocked when passing in front of their rooms at the state of disorder in their rooms. Kind of losing respect for them.

She leaves a tip for the maid every day (I tend to only leave one on the day of checkout) and has been embraced by maids who wanted to thank her in Edinburgh, Athens, Torino and Bonn. So, is it not customary to leave tips in Europe?

A few years ago, I had a trade show at a major convention hotel in Nashville. One of our new company sales people also attended, and we both had rooms at that hotel.

I was checking out on Monday, and my colleague was leaving on Tuesday. On Monday morning, I asked if I could leave my luggage in her room, as it was right down the hall from my room, and I of course would pick it up when I was to leave that evening. She agreed, and I told her I'd drop by her room in a few minutes, and drop off my luggage.

It was about 8 am, and I brought my luggage to her room, and upon entry, I was stunned to see her room was cleaned and the bed already made up. I made a comment to her that I was surprised to see that housekeeping was on duty so early in the morning, and she replied that she had cleaned, straightened up and made the bed by herself! She made a comment that she didn't want the maid to think she was a slob, so she made up her room, and always does this when she travels!

I was speechless, and didn't say anything further. As she was staying one more night, I hope that she at least didn't make the bed up again before she checked out, so that linens could be replaced, or advised the maid of her actions.

It certainly crossed my mind that perhaps she spent the night elsewhere, but highly unlikely. She was a very sweet but strange lady. After that trip, she left the company.

Yes, I don't want to make the housekeeper's job hard and I like to keep my own things organized.

+1

I don't live in a pigsty at home, why would I be comfortable in one in a hotel?

Plus, I usually travel with my kid, and I don't want him thinking that leaving a mess behind for others to clean is acceptable behavior. It's generally his job to tidy both beds, checking for stray books because we both read in bed, and put all the towels in one place while checking for stray combs, shampoo, etc. while I do the re-packing.

I don't clean or "tidy up" or anything special, I simply don't leave a mess in my room.

After I shower and put myself together each morning, I do leave the dirty towels and washcloths in a single pile in the bathroom. Call it a courtesy to those who replace them each day, but it's also a matter of how I live - I never throw towels on the floor, at home or traveling.

When I produce trash in the room, I put it in the trash can. I don't leave trash sitting around on beds, furniture, or the floor ANYWHERE I go, why should a hotel room be different?

I sometimes move stuff around in the room - the TV remote, IMHO, belongs on the bedside table where it is most often used, not on top of the TV, and I will sometimes move luggage stands around or push coffee makers aside so I can plug in my various chargers, and the books of hotel services that are commonly on desks or tables MUST move, because that's where my laptop goes. I generally don't put these things back, but I don't lose them, break them, steal them, or leave them in the middle of the floor, either.

I don't make the bed, and when I use extra pillows, I leave them on the bed., After about 3 days, housekeeping gets the picture - I sleep with extra pillows - and leaves them in place instead of putting them back on the other bed or in the closet. That's as messy as it gets.

The way I see it, housekeeping has certain jobs that I pay them to do with my room rate - make the bed, provide fresh linens and take away the soiled linens, and empty the trash. When a room is turned over, I expect the bathroom to be cleaned and the floor to be vacuumed in addition to the other items. Anything more than that is an extra; I know they'll handle it, but I think it's rude to expect more than I pay for, so I don't.

I don't tip housekeeping. I figure, A) I'm paying for those basic services in my room rate, and B) I'm a reasonably neat and tidy guest whose room only takes a few minutes to process each day. My tip to them, you might say, is that I leave a room they can process in half the normal time and with very little effort.

I don't make the bed but I do clean up everything else, including putting all garbage/recycling in proper place and wiping out the shower with my used towel. I leave the bed neat but unmade, with all the extra pillows and stuff on the bed.

That is in a hotel, which is what all are alluding to here.

However, I sometimes stay in by-owner rentals (good if I am driving and want to bring my dog and no dog-friendly hotels or just want that homey feeling if staying for a longer period of time) such as VRBO-type rentals. I know the owners pay for a cleaning service so I wanted to save them some money. I often rented from one person in a place I would go to regularly for week at a time for work. When I would leave, I thought I was being so nice by washing all the sheets and towels, remaking the bed and cleaning the place to death. .I told her this once and she said that she pays her cleaning service the same price regardless of what they need to do so why do I bother? Made sense to me as the cleaning service just swoops in, takes the old linens, replaces them with new and cleans the whole unit. She pays the same fee whether it takes 5 minutes or half an hour so I wasn't saving her any money, as I had thought I was. I now own my own vacation rental and tell my guests the same thing - I am paying for this cleaning whether you clean the room or not so let the cleaners do it but please leave it reasonably tidy.

And a related note, when I do travel with my dog, in hotels or rentals, I cover every surface with towels or blankets I have brought and clean very well when I leave as well as Febreze (or similar) the carpet. I always want to be allowed back with my big, hairy Golden Retriever who swims every day so I am as considerate as possible so they won't regret allowing pets.

^^^ :D

I also leave a tip every day, because the person cleaning during the week may not be the same person cleaning when you check out........

I tidy up each day, making sure all towels and things are in one place, all trash is in the can and any personal stuff put away or locked in the safe.

I do the same when I leave, just a general tidy to make sure I haven't left anything behind.

Yep, I do the same as many here - trash in can, recycling sorted if that's an option, towels in pile and remote back where it goes. I do not, however, make the bed since it's just going to get torn apart anyway when housekeeping arrives.

Daily tip. It looks to me to be darned hard / tedious / thankless work and I suspect they get paid very little. I don't think twice about tipping when person brings my car or gets me a cab - why should tipping housekeeper be different?

Popping the towels in the tub and the rubbish in the bin isn't tidying up to me, it is just 'normal'! I don't make the bed or anything like that, but I guess I do basically tidy up after myself - when I leave the hotel room, my stuff is in my bag, the hotel's stuff is largey where it began (there may be some additional glasses by the bedside table, and in tropical countries I leave additional sunscreen and bug spray that I am not dragging home with me, with a note for the maid to take if they want - a lot of resorts the staff really appreciate bug spray apparently). I also leave a tip daily.