I am a housekeeper at a 4 star hotel, not a career job for me as it's my way of saving up for school for the next year. But I work with a few ladies who have made a career out of this job who have been working tirelessly for 20+ years.

I understand that hotels are a relaxing place for you, and that it isn't your job to clean up your room when you're about to leave. But please do not leave the room looking as if 40 people stayed there and then just walk out without giving a shit about the work needed to be done to clean it up.

The amount of times I've walked into a room with furniture moved around, or actual garbage all over the floor instead of in the multiple garbage cans given to you. I recently cleaned a hotel room that had 4 high school girls staying for what I assume was a soccer tournament, and I swear it was like looking for chocolate eggs on Easter morning only instead of chocolate it was fucking water bottles (which were mostly full/unopened!!).

I'd flip a blanket over to start clearing off the sheets and a water bottle would go flying across the room. I'd be vacuuming under the sink and a water bottle would be in the very corner of the wall. What the hell?

We don't ask you to strip the beds or dust the furniture when you leave, that would be crazy. But please be aware that real human beings have to clean up whatever mess you leave behind, and at least at my hotel, we are given upwards of 15 rooms each per day with only 30 minutes to clean each room. If one room takes an hour to clean, that throws off our entire day. Working more hours is always nice, but being on your feet constantly moving and crouching and carrying towels and sheets up 3 flights of stairs, at around the 6 hour mark your body really starts to scream to give it a break, but if you have 5 rooms left you have to keep going because it's either you do it, or you leave and dump them on the other maids. So when you're exhausted and have 2 rooms left, and you open the door and see that the room has been torn to shit, it takes a lot to not break down and just toss your cart down the stairwell and walk out.

Tldl: When staying at a hotel, try to leave it as close to clean as you can. Don't move furniture around, don't dump garbage all over the floor, don't open every single sugar packet for fun. Real people have to clean that, people who are on their feet 8 hours a day who have to keep a schedule so they can go home to their families after cleaning up your shit and pubes.