April 14, 2026, 1:21 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
The customer is king, and so is the guest in a hotel. But this shouldn’t just mean that the staff is attentive to their needs. A certain level of consideration and decency is also expected from the so-called “kings.” However, reality often looks different: Many hotel guests behave disrespectfully, leaving rooms that require significantly more work for the cleaning staff than necessary—and sometimes with unpleasant surprises. TRAVELBOOK spoke with insiders from the hospitality industry and gathered habits that should no longer have a place in practice.
Behavior of Hotel Guests That Particularly Annoys Cleaning Staff
Admittedly, during vacations or city trips, experiences outside the hotel room usually take precedence over things like neatly storing one’s clothes. But there’s a world of difference between a little mess and the battlefields some hotel guests leave behind, as TRAVELBOOK learns from insider circles.
A cleaning staff member at an international hotel chain, who wishes to remain anonymous, reports from her daily work—and it’s not always pleasant. While she understands that guests don’t leave their rooms spotless, “Creating that condition is part of our job,” she says. However, some behaviors simply lack a basic level of respect.
Creating Extreme Chaos in the Room
As our insider assures, there is consensus in her profession that one of the most annoying behaviors of hotel guests is creating a big mess and dirt in the room. When surfaces are cluttered, cleaning staff must first sort things out. But sorting, organizing, or storing items is not part of their duties. They are trained to clean the rooms.
“In general, very dirty rooms that take a lot of time are particularly problematic for hotel cleaning staff.” This is confirmed by Jonas Schnabel, managing director of Hotel Fiorentina in Frankfurt am Main, in response to TRAVELBOOK’s inquiry. The employees work “like machines, but are often paid per room, especially when external companies are used. This can mean that cleaning staff earn as much or as little for an hour’s work as they do for a job scheduled for 30 minutes.”
Not Allowing the Room to Be Cleaned
Another behavior disliked by cleaning staff is when hotel guests don’t allow their room to be cleaned, for the reason just mentioned. If cleaning staff are paid per room, as hotelier Schnabel described, they miss out on income in this case.
What can accompany this is described on the website of the union “Unite Here,” which represents workers in the hotel, restaurant, casino, and airport catering industries. According to them, cleaning skipped over several days often leads to the rooms being even dirtier, and thus logically even more labor-intensive to restore.
Leaving Valuables Lying Around
Almost more challenging than scattered clothing are valuables left openly in the room from the perspective of cleaning staff. They often put employees in a tricky situation: It’s often unclear whether these items were intentionally placed there. If cleaning staff move them or place them in a seemingly safer location, it can lead to misunderstandings later—in the worst case, even to a suspicion of theft.
Briefly touching on the other end of the spectrum: scattered trash. Hotel guests should dispose of it themselves, cleaning staff advise. Otherwise, it’s up to them to decide what is actually trash and what isn’t. And especially with things like packaging, receipts, or bottles, it’s not always clear. The general rule is that staff should not dispose of items on their own. In case of doubt, “trash” remains, and the room can appear untidy. If guests then complain about it, it’s naturally unfair to the hard-working cleaning staff.
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Questionable Use of Towels
For many hotel guests, towels seem to be more than just towels. This is repeatedly evident in their behavior, as the anonymous cleaning staff member explains. They are often repurposed, such as for removing makeup, or used as cleaning rags for shoes or the floor. The result can be stubborn stains that require more elaborate procedures to remove, causing additional costs. Often, the stains can’t be completely removed. Such textiles then have to be sorted out and replaced earlier.
Additionally, wet towels are often left on the bed—a particularly annoying oversight. “A wet mattress is inconvenient,” the insider explains. It then has to dry for a while, and the bed can only be made later. But room cleaning is precisely planned and timed. “Such things can quickly disrupt the workday, and in the worst case, a cleaning staff member may have to stay longer.”
Not Disposing of “Delicate” Items Yourself
It’s almost unimaginable. But the following behavior apparently occurs more often: Hotel guests repeatedly leave the toilet unflushed and uncleaned. The general manager of a hotel in Karlsruhe, who wishes to remain unnamed, is aware of this from conversations with the crew.
And that’s not all. Cleaning staff sometimes encounter unpleasant remnants in their daily work—including used condoms, hygiene products, or bodily fluids in the bed or other areas of the room. These are things that the staff ultimately has to dispose of, and for many, they clearly cross the line of what is acceptable.