I recently stayed in a hotel that seems to have not exchanged used drinking glasses and coffee mugs for freshly washed ones. Gross!!! I’d heard my peers in the hospitality world suggest that was a common practice but I’d never been aware of it personally. Until last week.
The reason we even started pondering it was because the first water glass my husband picked up reeked of cleaning chemical smells. So we checked more glasses and found three more with the same smell to a greater or lesser extent.
We posted a warning to the others in our group to be careful. Later we heard stories of a smeared blue paste (toothpaste? cleaning paste?) in a glass, towel lint in several glasses, and lipstick on yet another.
I mentioned our discovery to several hotel staff with a seemingly indifferent reaction. So we examined several housekeeping carts and found them to be void of glasses. If they do replace the glasses I wonder where the fresh ones would come from, or how they would get to the rooms.
Let me suggest when you stay in hotels to double check the cleanliness of your water glass.
We change drinking glasses on a daily basis regardless of whether or not they have been used. (Some guests will use a glass and then restore it to it’s original place).
Our glasses sit on decorative paper doilies on top of small silver trays.
Since we stock a variety of glasses, an observant guest will notice that the style of their glasses change from day to day. This is actually a deliberate policy that is intended to show our more observant guests that we switch out their glasses.
Glasses are also inspected after washing. Chipped, cracked, or discolored glasses are discarded.
When we first started doing this I used some rather pretty glasses from the Martha Stewart line. These glasses have for the most part been replaced with glasses from hotel suppliers.
The problem with many glasses intended for residental use is that they have tapered sides with narrow tops. Glasses like these are actually quite fragile. Glasses from hotel supply companies tend to be thicker and more durable.
Inn at Elizabethville B&B