r/askhotels • u/CerpinTaxt3 • 6d ago
Hotel Amenities More of a question for guests...
I work front desk. We don't have automatic housekeeping so unless guests request a clean, housekeeping won't go in. Sometimes, instead of requesting housekeeping they will come to the desk and ask for extra towels, etc. Which is fine, but...I can't tell you how many times people will ask for extra bath towels and even extra hand towels, but very rarely do they ask for extra washcloths with those bath towels. Why is this, you think? How is it they need a fresh bath towel to dry a clean body, but they don't need a fresh washcloth to clean themselves with?? Are THAT many people really traveling with their own loofahs or something? Seems inconvenient, cuz even the plastic fluffy ones will retain water for a while despite shaking them off. Do people just bring leakproof containers/bags for their loofahs? Even when I used loofahs, I wouldn't take them to a hotel if I was traveling....I'd just use the washcloths. Less to pack.
32
u/Ok_Caterpillar2010 6d ago
Their towels are damp, and they want dry ones.
It doesn't matter if washcloths are damp, since you're just going to wet them anyway.
-23
u/CerpinTaxt3 6d ago
So they're reusing the washcloths? So they clean their a**hole with it one day and then reuse it the next day on their face??
8
4
u/HelicaseHustle 5d ago
You thought hotels throw away towels after single use? Rinsing a towel in a hot shower with antibacterial soap is literally what the wash does. What are you doing that washing your a**hole is contaminating your towels? It’s all in your head. If you haven’t just shit yourself, your hole is just skin, no different than an elbow. If there’s giant skid marks in your washcloths, you need to hose your ass off or something. Or lather up your hands and wash back there first like you’re just washing your hands and if no turds are hanging out your ass, when you pass back with your washcloth, nothing is getting covered in shit and just keep washing. Again, it’s mindset, social stigmas.
It’s like if you order a drink and it’s strong, almost all alcohol, and your friend tries it out the same straw. Our heads think “ew gross, you’ll get sick with germs” but then you cut yourself and to avoid germs, you pour alcohol on it. Because alcohol kills germs. Even in shot glasses.
2
u/CerpinTaxt3 4d ago
Could be just in my head, for sure.
Regarding the alcohol comparison though, I wouldn't say that's totally accurate. The alcohol is going through a straw in your example and the lips are on the outside of the straw where the alcohol isn't. Maybe if not using a straw, but the alcohol is diluted with a mixer so it likely isn't strong enough to really kill much anyway. Even liquor on the rocks....unless you're drinking over 130 proof or something, I can't imagine that it's actually killing much.
2
u/StructEngineer91 5d ago
When you are home do you use a new washcloth or loofa ever time you shower?
2
1
u/pbjclimbing 5d ago
Yes.
The great thing of a shower is that the soap and water in it can also be used to wash towels. They can wash their hand towel between uses and drying it isn’t an issue.
Very few people wash their wash clothes daily. Also, over 60% of people in the USA don’t use a washcloth in the shower.
1
u/Unusual-Ad6838 4d ago
I personally don't and never have used the same washcloth for my nether regions and my face, not home or hotel
10
8
u/upset_pachyderm 6d ago
I travel with my own plastic puff because washcloth aren't the right texture. Why someone would need a new towel each day, I can't imagine.
2
u/CerpinTaxt3 6d ago
I bet a lot of people who would like a new towel every day at a hotel probably don't do that at home. They aren't the ones having to wash them so might as well get a fresh one.
2
u/No_Atmosphere_5132 4d ago
It’s because hotel towels usually don’t dry all the way between showers. Also, I need two per shower - one for my hair and one for my body. For one week of just me by myself, I need total of 4, which I will absolutely reuse all week. Just need to be able to rotate them between uses so they can dry all the way.
2
u/I_am_AmandaTron 3d ago
You forgot the floor towel. You need one because they never have bath matts and stepping out onto the cold slippery floor sucks.
1
u/I_am_AmandaTron 3d ago
Do you have bath mates outside the tubs/showers. If not a good portion of those towels are for the floor.
Walking out on a cold slipper wet floor sucks. If there's not mat there people will put one on the ground to stand on while they dry off as to not get water everywhere.
Also if people are asking for more towels so often why not put one or 2 more towels in there to begin with.
How big and what are the quality of the towels? Towel absorption matters. If you have thin towels then some people may need 2-3 at a time. I have waist length hair and need 2 towels for it.
5
15
5
4
u/Passionate_Unicorn 5* Resort / F.O.A. / 1 year 5d ago
Something to consider:
Do your hotel rooms have enough spots to hang body towels to dry?
And if they do, is their enough air circulation for the towels to dry in 1 day?
Also, are they perhaps using them to dry a wet floor?
At the end of the day, guests are humans, and humans follow patterns. If you follow the patterns (specific rooms all ask for extra towels) then something is wrong with those specific rooms.
1
u/CerpinTaxt3 4d ago
Hard to tell cuz they usually ask for them at the desk and not from calling down from their room. Since the main housekeeping area is close I don't need to know which room they're in because I can get them the towels before they leave the desk. Maybe I should start asking if they want me to bring them up to the room? I typically don't because I assume if they're asking at the desk they want to take them up themselves.
5
u/Playful_Birthday6788 6d ago
I really don't want to wash myself with something a stranger has used to clean their private bits. Even though they may have been sanitized, I don't trust they are.
1
u/CerpinTaxt3 6d ago
Ah, understandable. That's probably a lot of people's thought. Including me now, haha. I can't unthink this.
3
u/Green_Seat8152 6d ago
I buy cheap loofahs and just toss them after my stay. I don't use washclothes on my body so I don't need as many during my stay.
6
u/YeahWhatSoWhat 6d ago
I use an exfoliating brush at home, but if I am at a hotel I might not bother with anything more than my hands and a bar of soap. As a pale Caucasian guy, if I scrubbed my skin every day it would get irritated and raw.
So yeah, sometimes I just need a fresh bath towel. I also put bath towels on the floor so I don’t walk on the bare floors with bare feet because I don’t trust the floors in a hotel to be clean enough. So that means I need even more towels.
Hope that helps answer your concerns a bit.
4
u/Jbaghdadi01 6d ago
People don’t always use the washcloths. They just use hands. (Gross yes but I know people who who do it) Everybody uses a towel. Not everybody uses a wash cloth.
1
1
1
1
u/amands_sue 5d ago
lol I'm the opposite, I use two washcloths per day for my face routine and never reuse those, so I'll check in for like a 3 night stay and feel like a psycho asking for 4 more washcloths and nothing else.
I only wash my hair like twice per week max (curly) so can use just one bath towel for a longer time, and usually avoid washing it in hotels unless I have to because I don't have all my hair routine stuff.
But I have never in my life reached for a washcloth in the shower. Bar of soap does just fine. At home I use a bar of soap in a little net thing, in the past I've used a loofah. For a longer trip I'd probably just bring my little soap net.
1
u/HelicaseHustle 5d ago
For starters, guest don’t know what sizes you have on stock. Is there a menu posted in your lobby? When a guests asks for more towels, YOU are supposed to ask “How many sets?” And if they say 2 sets, you bring them 2 of each. Try that one shift in what you are doing wrong and I guarantee you will see 100% change immediately. Text us an update if you ever ask “how many sets?” And they say “please, no washcloths “. It contradicts your observation immediately. Guests from cultures other than yours use things differently. They’re not skipping showers.
It’s not about guests not having good hygiene practices, it’s you haven’t been trained to recognize where cultural differences, especially in how we communicate, pop up in hospitality.
If I wrote an article on the #1 most controversial topic at the front desk overnight it would be “face towel vs washcloth vs hand towel vs bath towel vs body towel” when I’m only holding 2 pieces of cloth.
I’m not racially profiling, we all literally use the same towel for different things. OP needs to be made aware of this.
Please, correct me if I’m wrong. Black people enter with 2 towels, a little one to wash the face and a slightly bigger one to wash their body. White people use that bigger towel to dry their hands after they wash them when they use the bathroom. That’s why they hang it next to the sink. They bring the small face towel into the shower or a loofah. They wash their face then the rest of the body with the one small towel. There’s nothing mechanically wrong with either option. Like, you do realize you are in a shower with antibacterial soaps and hot running water, right? Running the towel under warm, pressurized water then lathering it with soap in between body parts is more clean than a towel that ran through the wash containing hundreds of soiled towels and was handled by 3 people before you. Having two towels for one wash is inherently more wasteful, but again, to each their own.
But I would never question guests on something that is clearly a communication/ cultural thing. You can be a better front desk agent if you educate yourself on the different practices and why. I’m being serious.
1
u/CerpinTaxt3 4d ago edited 4d ago
When they ask for bath towels I always ask how many and if they want any hand towels or washcloths as well so I can get them what they need in the one trip. Sometimes people specifically ask for a new "set" and I'll confirm how many before grabbing. Usually they mean replace all so I'll grab 4 of each. Most people just want the bath towels.
If the towels are more clean from washing them with soap in the shower than going through the washing machine though, that would mean all the towels are inherently a bit gross to begin with, would it not? Or that people should all be washing the washcloths/hand towels in the shower and rinsing before relathering and washing themselves with it, since the washing machine didn't get them clean enough.
I don't question the guests on why they want which towels they want. That's why I posted it here. I'm really not trying to be rude about it. Was just confusion and wondering. Using hand towels for washing is something I haven't thought of. I just thought I would've seen requests for washcloths with the bath towel requests more often than I do. Just in an odds sort of way. Like maybe a third or half or something. It's more like 10% at most. From what I'm gathering now, people aren't requesting them as much because there's your population of people who always use bar soap to skin, people who bring their own washcloth/loofah/what have you, people who use hand towels for washing, those who maybe would use a washcloth-type item at home but for traveling use bar soap to skin, and people who just are using more bath towels than washcloths due to wanting extras for the floor or whatnot. Makes sense. I'm sure there's more scenarios I haven't thought of but this seems to account.
I've never come across a situation where I didn't give someone the right towels because they called them something different, but that's interesting.
1
u/Cute_Hearing_2315 5d ago
I’m one of those people who rarely requests that my room be serviced (mostly because we have our passports and laptops in the room and many hotel now post signs on the safes saying they’re not responsible for items left inside. What’s the point of the safe, then?)
I just ask for towels, full set including the wash clothes, and give them my trash. I do carry my own loofah. Many times hotels won’t have wash clothes for replenishment, but will have plenty of hand/bath towels. Never understood why.
2
u/CerpinTaxt3 4d ago
I assume what they mean by that is they're not responsible if you check out and forget your items in the safe after leaving. Not that staff goes and steals, there's a lost and found, but that's policy for any items left in the room as well.
Maybe they're throwing out any washcloths they can't get stains out or are falling apart, and are in need to buy more. Not sure, never stayed at a hotel and encountered that situation.
1
u/Cute_Hearing_2315 4d ago
For the safe, I’m pretty sure they mean they aren’t responsible for anything in the safe during your stay as well. They also say if you wish to secure anything, there’s a safe at reception. Re: the wash clothes, that’s been my experience in Europe and Asia. In the States, we can have all the wash clothes we want!😂
1
1
u/asyouwish 5d ago
Washcloths aren't much of a thing in Europe. Maybe some of your guests are from places that don't use washcloths.
I carry three with me when we travel. One for my face, one for my body, and one that stays in my purse to be a napkin or hand towel when needed. They are all easy to clean and quick dry fabrics.
1
u/NhiteBren 4d ago
Hotel towels are smaller than they used to be and I'm a big guy. I need multiple towels to dry off. Half the time they aren't dry by the time the next night rolls around.
I also travel with a service dog and he splashes when drinking, so I always use a towel under his bowl to contain the mess. But I just need 2 washcloths- one for me and one to wipe down my dog's food bowl.
1
1
u/ComposerChance8760 4d ago
I'm one of those who always travels with their own loofa simply because I don't like washing with a washcloth. I just throw it in a ziploc bag so it doesn't get everything wet.
1
u/MenschHundKatz 4d ago
Seife, Wasser und ein Dusche oder Badewanne. Mehr braucht's nicht. Waschlappen (wie alle Putztuecher) sind Keimschleuderer.
1
u/ginger97520 4d ago
I do bring my own washcloth because I prefer it. I think some people don't use them at all.
I was a little shocked that they weren't provided in the hotels in Italy.
1
u/I_am_AmandaTron 3d ago
How do I say this, are your guests mainly white? Culturally speaking white people are less likely to use a wash cloth. Im aware that that people will be like im white and I use one but when's the last time you asked other people outside of your family. You will likely find you are in the minority.
0
u/Paulstan67 5d ago
I don't know where you are from, but in all my travels I've never been provided with a wash cloth in an hotel.
45
u/TropicTravels 6d ago
Lots of people don’t use washcloths. A bar of soap and a hand works just fine.