When Leaving a Hotel Room, Everyone’s Supposed to Follow 7 Etiquette Rules

The most enthusiastic travelers spend, on average, 88 nights in hotels every year, according to statistics. And hotels around the world do their best to make their rooms a home away from home for their guests. However, many people don’t realize that paying for a hotel room doesn’t mean using it without taking extra care.

1. Don’t fold dirty towels.

Hotel workers say that the right way to deal with used towels is to gather them up in a pretty specific place, like a bathtub or bathroom floor, making it easy for them to pick them up for cleaning. Don’t fold them on a shelf because it will be confusing to know if they were actually used or not.

2. Don’t make up the bed.

It would be polite to do some basic cleaning before checking out of your hotel room. For example, you can pick your hair out of the drain and clean up any bodily fluids from different surfaces. It may surprise you, but some people don’t even flush the toilet after using it! However, there’s absolutely no need to make up the bed because the hotel’s housekeepers will have to take it apart anyway.

3. Leave tips.

Tips are very appreciated in the service industry since their salaries are usually low, but on top of that, the work they do is quite hard. So it’s important not to forget to thank people who’ve provided you with a comfortable stay with a tip. Just remember: different people may clean up your room every day, so you may want to consider leaving tips not only at the end of your stay. Experienced travelers advise that if it’s not the last day of your stay, leave a note along with tips so that the housekeepers can be sure their coworkers get the money as well.

4. Gather your garbage.

Don’t leave your garbage everywhere but rather, in a rubbish bin. It will take a really long time for housekeepers to gather all the used bottles and boxes from around the room. If you have a lot of it, you can ask for a plastic bag to put everything in, which is what many travelers do.

5. Open the windows to allow fresh air in.

Housekeepers have to clean up rooms very quickly in order for other guests to be able to check-in and it’s not always easy to ventilate the space. You’ll do them a real favor by leaving the windows open to freshen the air in the room, hotel managers say. In the warm months of the year, you can even turn on the air conditioning.

6. Arrange all the furniture and accessories as they were upon arrival.

You need to put the TV remote control on the TV stand, cutlery on the table, and chairs in their place, travelers suggest. A housekeeper has about 20-30 minutes to make the room look perfect, so arranging such things will really make their work easier.

7. Don’t use anything you don’t really need.

If you travel alone and get a room with 2 beds, don’t use both of them. You can get along pretty well with just one bed, thus not creating more work for housekeepers. This also refers to everything else that can stay untouched.

What things do you do before leaving a hotel room? Share your answers with us!