Housekeepers struggle as US hotels ditch daily room cleaning
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Housekeepers-struggle-as-US-hotels-ditch-daily-17199766.HONOLULU (AP) — After guests checked out of a corner room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort on Waikiki beach, housekeeper Luz Espejo collected enough trash, some strewn under beds, to stuff seven large garbage bags
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Like many other hotels across the United States, the Hilton Hawaiian Village has done away with daily housekeeping service, making what was already one of the toughest jobs in the hospitality industry even more grueling.
Industry insiders say the move away from daily cleaning, which gained traction during the pandemic, is driven by customer preferences. But others say it has more to do with profit and has allowed hotels to cut the number of housekeepers at a time when many of the mostly immigrant women who take those jobs are still reeling from lost work during coronavirus shutdowns.
Many housekeepers still employed say their hours have been cut and they are being asked to do far more work in that time.
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Before the pandemic there were 670 housekeepers working at Espejo’s resort. More than two years later, 150 of them haven’t been hired back or are on-call status, spending each day from 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. waiting for a phone call saying there’s work for them. The number not hired back or on call stood at 300 just a few weeks ago.
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Ben McLeod, of Bend, Oregon, and his family didn’t request housekeeping during a four-night stay at the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort on Hawaii’s Big Island in March.
“My wife and I just have never really understood why there would be daily housekeeping ... when that’s not the case at home and it’s wasteful,” he said.
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Unionized hotel workers are trying get the message out that turning down daily room cleaning is hurting housekeepers and threatening jobs.
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... I have stayed in hotels many times in my life. I kind of get how it works. Check out time is usually something like 11 a.m. and that's when the rooms are free to be cleaned and made ready for the next incoming guests.
So the employees have approximately 3 hours to get a large portion of the hotel ready. If the room isn't too bad, they just change the sheets, put in fresh towels, wipe down the toilet, tub and sink, run the vacuum, and the room is ready. But when the guest hasn't had anything cleaned in several days they and go out leaving the room trashed, those rooms cannot be ready in a short time. That's not the workers' fault, but they're being penalized for it.
Now there are hotel requirements for disinfecting rooms and bathrooms that they never had to do before Covid, in addition to the normal cleaning and straightening up. Hotels need to hire more employees, and cross-train them to do other jobs so they can keep busy for the full shift, after the rooms have been power-cleaned.
