We currently live in an era when news media is seen to be insanely biased at times and at others at least factually biased since in many ways it depends on who funds the source, what kind of news they choose to report, and what their overall agenda is. Inside Edition might benefit from a crash course on what goes on in hotels since to be fair, a lot of hotel rooms only receive a light turn now and again if numbers are down and fewer guests are seen to frequent the rooms. This is perhaps one of the few things that really bothers me concerning this episode as having worked in a few different hotels, there is typically little to no need to do more than a light turn, if anything, for a room that is not occupied. There is also the idea that Inside Edition could be pulling a bait and switch on the audience, but this is a serious accusation in light of the pandemic and what it would mean to a hotel’s reputation should they decline to clean a room from top to bottom. Often, housekeeping will cover a room from every angle, change the sheets, the pillowcases, the bedding if needs be, and wipe everything thoroughly before moving on to the next room. This is standard for many hotels but unfortunately, not all hotels are possessed of the same quality standards.
One major problem is that people don’t know what to believe at this time thanks to increased media bias when it comes to their reporting techniques. Let’s be fair and realistic, a lot of hotels have a bad reputation when it comes to cleanliness that they’re given before anyone bothers to check the validity of such a claim. Staying in hotels is an uncomfortable proposition for many people since they don’t want to think of who slept in a bed before them, or touched anything before them, especially with the continuation of COVID-19. But the paranoia spread by the news media in cases such as this means a possibility of fewer guests, a damaged reputation, and far less income for those hotels that are affected by these stories. It is true, hotels that are lax in their cleaning practices are in fact risking the health of their guests and should be called out in accordance with the necessary cleaning protocols that are needed to ensure that every last guest is given a room that has been cleaned from top to bottom and is perfectly safe for a night or two. With any stay longer than a night it feels as though a hotel should offer a mandatory turndown service that will ensure that the room will be wiped down and that the sheets will be changed. It is a bit of an added hardship for hotel employees that might already be overworked if their establishment is in fact still accepting guests, but it is necessary to keep people safe.
With that being stated, it would be disastrous for any hotel that was found on the wrong end of such a broadcast no matter their reputation, since people are genuinely worried about the COVID-19 virus and are less than willing to take chances when it comes to staying in a hotel room that hasn’t been thoroughly cleaned. The downside, unfortunately, is that not every hotel has the same high standards that the show is looking for and, as it happens, some rarely ever clean their rooms on a regular basis, unless of course they’re used, in which case there is no excuse for not cleaning everything as thoroughly as possible. The only possible excuses for rooms not being cleaned in a timely manner comes when there is a massive number of rooms in a hotel and not enough staff to clean them all since a good to expert housekeeper can clean up to 20 to 30 rooms in a day, but will work a much longer shift in order to accomplish this. That of course is what is typically required as there might be trips to the linen closet to consider, a lunch break, mandated breaks at certain times in the day that are required of all businesses, and other matters that might come up from time to time. The average housekeeper will be able to start and finish upwards of 15 rooms per day, provided the rooms are not overly large and have not been misused in any way that requires more extensive cleaning. In the defense of Inside Edition, these rooms were not terribly big and did not require a great deal of cleaning. In the defense of the hotels, however, there is always the idea that staff members are scarce due to limited available hours, which means that if not enough people are scheduled to work then it doesn’t take as many rooms to overwhelm a small crew during a regular day.
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