Video Exposes Unsanitary Cleaning Practices in Major Hotels

Image: Maid cleaning a hotel room. (Photo via yacobchuk / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Image: Maid cleaning a hotel room. (Photo via yacobchuk / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Alex Temblador
by Alex Temblador
Last updated: 10:07 AM ET, Sat November 17, 2018

A viral video recently released in China might make you rethink drinking from a bathroom glass in your hotel.

The footage was created from hidden cameras in hotel rooms and has captured hotel cleaning crews "cleaning" guest rooms in the most unsanitary of ways.

Not only does the video show the hotel cleaning employees using dirty towels or their uniform to wipe glasses and cutlery, but viewers will be shocked to see them using the same cloth to clean the toilet and the sink. After wiping down the showers, the same sponges were even used to clean glasses and mugs in the hotel rooms.

What makes this video more appalling is that it captures the unsanitary cleaning practices of 14 luxury hotels in China, including the Waldorf Astoria in Shanghai, the Sheraton in Guiyang, The Shangri-La Hotel in Fuzhou, and Park Hyatt in Beijing.

While many of these hotels have apologized and will review their cleaning procedures, the Park Hyatt in Beijing claims their portion of the video was an "isolated incident."

The 12-minute video, which was posted by activist blogger, Huazong, on Weibo (a Chinese version of Twitter), has also caught the attention of the Beijing tourism authorities who have notified the Beijing health commission about doing health inspections of the four major hotels featured in the video.

They will also follow up with the hotels to be sure they adjust their cleaning procedures.

USA Today reported that Huazong has called the hotel cleaning practices a longstanding and widespread issue, a claim he knows well as he has spent 2,000 nights in 147 hotels in just six years.

This isn't the first time Chinese hotels' cleaning practices have been exposed. Last year, another video showed Chinese hotel cleaning crews using toilet brushes to clean glasses.


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