On a recent trip, I decided to stay one night at a Starwood hotel (I won’t name names) and a Hilton for two nights. I arrived late Friday and went out to
get food, so I did not check the room over. The next morning, when I took a
shower, I was greet by this:
Then I looked at the shower curtain and saw what looked like
someone’s bugger (sorry no picture of that one).
When getting out of the shower, I looked down by the toilet and
saw this:
A little background about me. My first job was working for the family cleaning business. On many Friday nights, I cleaned toilets at auto dealerships and showers at gyms. So, I know what it takes to clean bathrooms. When a bathroom has mold, it means that it has not been cleaned in quite some time. Mold does not grow overnight. It is the result of someone not doing a thorough job cleaning over a period of time.
As I stated, I was only staying one night at this hotel, so I was not going to make a
fuss about it. If I was staying another night, I would have asked management
to send housekeeping to clean the bathroom or asked for a new room.
There was a comment card in the room and I filled it out because I wanted to praise the woman who checked me in. She was welcoming, funny and told me about a great late night diner. On the card, it asked if I was disappointed about anything during my stay, so I casually mentioned the uncleanness of the bathroom but I did not put my room number or name on it.
As I was checking out, the receptionist checking me out asked how
my stay was. I mentioned that the bathroom was a little dirty. She apologized profusely and asked for more details. I explained about the mold in the shower and by the toilet. She told me that she would take care of it immediately and handed me my bill. As I was walking out the front door, the on-duty manager came running toward me and wanted to apologize on behalf of the hotel. She mentioned she was crediting me 4000 Starwood points. I thanked her for the gesture and told her I just wanted to make sure the bathroom got a good cleaning.
I have stayed at some skeezy hotels with some rooms and bathrooms that would have made you sick; however, this is the first time I have ever said anything to management.
Some of you might ask why I took pictures if it was no big deal. After seeing the shower, I knew I wanted to write about it and a picture is worth a 1000 words. But thinking about it now, I shouldn't have taken pictures, as now I am remind of how gross this place was.
If you were in my situation would you have said anything? Would you have made a bigger deal out of it?
