Thank Your Housekeeper for Your Clean Hotel Room
From the lobby to the guest rooms, guests’ first impressions of a hotel’s cleanliness are lasting, and these first impressions are often reflected in their online reviews. While the hospitality industry is constantly changing, the responsibility of housekeeping for the first and lasting impressions of a hotel’s standard of cleanliness and, often, the responsiveness of its staff, remains steadfast. Often invisible, the efforts of the housekeepers who shoulder these responsibilities may go unappreciated by those who are unaware. That's why we like to share our appreciation during International Housekeepers Week.
Since 1981, the second full week of September (September 14-20, 2025) has been designated International Housekeepers & Environmental Services Week. Officially sponsored by the International Executive Housekeepers Association (IEHA), this is a week dedicated to recognizing the efforts of cleaning employees who have one of the toughest jobs in a building but also one of the most important. As hotels work to hire, retain, and support these critical employees, we we want to recognize their day-to-day activities.
What Do Housekeepers Actually Do?
You’ve arrived back at your hotel room after a busy day of meetings or sightseeing. Your wet towels have been removed and the bedclothes straightened. You know that means the housekeeper has come and gone. What aren’t you seeing?
In the 26–36 minutes allotted for each room, the housekeeper has attended to the bathroom, the bedroom, and any adjacent living room, patio, or balcony. From cleaning the tub or shower and replacing the towels in the bathroom to changing sheets and removing dishes and trash in the bedroom, a lot has happened. As you know from your own home, cleaning is a lot of work. It’s even trickier for housekeepers who are working in someone else’s living space.
Prior to the pandemic, guests expected their hotel rooms to be cleaned daily. That was one of the delights of a stay away from home, returning at the end of the day to a hotel room in which the bed had been made, the towels replaced, and the room refreshed. However, since the return to travel following the pandemic, many hotels have made daily service only upon request and guests have declined such service. That change has not made the work of hotel housekeepers easier. On the contrary, it cost jobs and left those housekeepers who remained responsible for cleaning rooms that had gone uncleaned for days. This issue, as well as staffing shortages, and a desire for higher wages led more than 10,000 unionized workers to strike last Labor Day weekend, in a number of major cities throughout the United States.
Cleaning hotel rooms is not as simple as guests, even tidy ones, might think. Making certain the room is clean and ready for the next guest goes beyond changing the bedding to include everything from ensuring lights and electronics are working to disinfecting, vacuuming, and straightening. Housekeepers must complete these many repetitive tasks safely and efficiently. Every housekeeper accumulates their own set of tricks and tips to get the job done.
This does not eliminate the risks to which housekeepers are exposed. An article in the LA Times in 2014 reported, “They have the highest injury rates in the hospitality industry.” In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had, prior to Covid-19, “identified four categories of hazards that affect hotel housekeepers: Ergonomic hazards that result in musculoskeletal injuries were the biggest contributor to injury. That was followed by slips and falls, exposure to chemicals that can lead to respiratory problems and infectious diseases that lurk in biological wastes as well as blood-borne pathogens.” This final hazard came to the fore in 2020.
Who Are Hotel Housekeepers?
Close to 90% of housekeepers are women, overwhelmingly women of color. Many are the breadwinners for their families. One of the reasons offered by the union for striking last year was “to secure family-sustaining compensation for service workers on par with more traditionally male-dominated industries,” according to an article on ABC News.
How Do Hotels Celebrate Housekeepers?
In more than two decades providing hotels around the world with bedding and bath products, we’ve been lucky to partner with amazing professional housekeepers. Together, we’ve created beautiful guest rooms to provide hotel guests with great sleep and memorable experiences during their stays. They are invaluable to us, to the hotels in which they work, and to the guests for whom they provide service.
During this week, hotels officially recognize housekeepers who invisibly perform the tasks that keep our favorite hotels running smoothly. Hotels celebrate their housekeeping teams’ successes with prizes, monthly drawings to win luxury bedding items, or programs to support housekeepers’ health and wellness. This year, we have donated our robes and eyeglass cases to our hotel partners that are taking the time and making the effort to recognize their housekeepers and environmental services workers with celebrations, raffles, and gifts.
How Can You Show Your Appreciation to Your Housekeeper?
Housekeepers make the difference between an average stay and one that results in a great night’s sleep. In a guest room, the housekeeper’s presence can be felt in everything from the cleanliness of the bathroom to the positioning of the pillows on the bed. Like porters who assist with luggage or valets who arrange transportation, housekeepers work hard to satisfy guests’ needs. The housekeeper is typically the first employee to whom a guest will reach out when in need of assistance. However, unlike porters and valets, travelers are often unsure whether it is appropriate to tip housekeepers, in what amount they should tip, and how the tip should be left.
Experts recommend the amount be determined by the experience including: the length of stay, the degree to which the room is used, and overall satisfaction. “Depending on the level of services and the price of accommodations you're staying in, you should tip between $1-10 per night," according to tripsavvy.com.
In light of cleaning protocols following the pandemic, travel experts recommend leaving $5 per day, believing it’s “a small price to pay for extra safety and comfort.” Travel + Leisure includes failing to leave a tip for the housekeeper as one of the top ten mistakes to avoid when staying at a hotel. They advise, “Leaving gratuity for the housekeeping staff at a hotel should be second nature as well. If you've forgotten to tip housekeeping daily during your stay, the best thing to do is leave a tip in the room before you check out.”
Guests should be sure to leave a note with the tip so that the housekeepers know the money is meant for them. Housekeepers work hard and often alone so tipping is appreciated. If you feel your housekeeper has gone above and beyond during your next hotel stay, take a moment to write a review or to let the hotel management know.
We wish all housekeepers a great night's sleep!
-The Team at down etc
Read more:
5 Tips for Tipping Your Hotel Housekeeper
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Originally published September 9, 2024
Cover Photo by cottonbro studio
