When staying out do you clean up first? I always bring a container of disinfectant wipes. I hesitate to tell you everything I clean. But you guys already know I am a neurtotic freak so here goes:

I remove the bedspread as they are washed infrequently and everybody has hotel sex on them
Clean the remote for obvious reasons
The headboard and the surfaces of the nightstands and desk/tables
Doorknobs, light switches, telephone, toilet flusher handle, heating/AC control panel and vents.

Am I the only one?

__________________
The political system is broke and it's a joke.

Okay now you are freaking me out! I don't clean when I get to a hotel room - I enjoy being pampered/king size bed, etc.

Nah, I don't clean either. I don't sleep on the bedspread....but I'll sit on it clothed...lol I figure there's plenty of germs out there in real life that I come in contact with on a daily basis. I work at an Elem school...it's a germy paradise here!

I see folks that clean off the shopping cart handles too. I never worry about it. I figure those are the same folks that hover over toilet seats too and leave "spray" for the next person..........usually me!

I don't clean the room, but I do follow a few rules.

I don't (and won't allow my girls) to take a bath in a hotel bathtub. We only take showers - even when they were wet slippery babies - I'd take them in the shower with me one at a time, clean them and hand them off to DH to dry and get dressed while I finished my shower!

I won't go barefoot in the hotel room -I always take a pair of old slippers or flip flops. I put a bath towel on the floor in the bathroom and stand on it while getting ready.

After seeing the video of the maids not cleaning the glasses, we will no longer be using them.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

That was horrible wasn't it - I will never again drink out of a "glass" glass. Other than that, I also don't go barefoot or take a bath.

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Mary

Always remove the spreads from the beds first thing and either have someone pick them up or fold and put in a corner. Never go barefoot on the floors, always have a slipper or something on.
We were staying in a tiny room in Keys, SD and called for someone to come take the spreads away as there wasn't room to stow them. The manager came and acted like he didn't know why I wouldn't keep the spreads on the beds.

To poster kathydanford.......you honestly think a hotel room and everything in it is clean? Don't you watch Oprah and Primetime? You would never look at staying in a hotel room as being pampered if you saw the disgusting ways the rooms and everything in them including the linens are not clean.

No I don't watch Oprah or Primetime. I guess I just assume the housekeeping staff CLEAN the rooms - that is what they get paid for isn't it? I'm freaking out now.

I use to work in hotels let me tell you some secrets.

Bedspreads only are washed once every 6 months to a year. Do you know how many pee stains and blood stains I have seen?? EWW

I worked in a hotel that uses the toilet brush to clean the bathtub, sink and bathroom walls along with the toilet and you used the same brush in EACH room When I questioned about it they said the cleaning solution was strong enough to kill everything, I thought whatever!! Ick!!

Coffee Pots only got wiped out and cleaned with Windex. Sometimes people warmed up chili in the coffee pots and ate it.

Ashtrays the same.

Some people will not change sheets if they don't "look" too bad,

Sometimes they won't dust to get done faster.


I inspect a room before we stay in it, I pull back the covers take off bedspread and check bathroom for hair and bed.

Yes that is what they get paid for BUT some of the cleaning methods that are taught to them are disgusting and some don't do half of what they are told.

I am so happy that we travel in our own motorhome!

I freaked when I saw the show about the Bed Bugs in motels. They said do not ever set anything on the floor!

Now I see that some people put the bedspread on the floor. What kind of stuff is on it when they stick it back on the bed???

I recently heard that you NEVER ever should use the coffee pot!! I heard that everything but coffee goes in them!

When my sister did a lot of traveling for her job, once in West Virginia she got a horrible case of bed bugs!! She said when she sat on the bed she immediately felt like things were crawling on her. And sure enough, she started getting these little bug bites all over her. When she got back home, she went to our family doctor who confirmed it was bed bugs. She wrote the manager at the hotel (I can't remember if it was a Ramada or Mariott) and he denied they had any problems. I don't think she ever pursued it. Of course, she's not me and I sure would have!! I tried to get her to go further with it, but she said it was 'too much trouble'.

I always take a can of Lysol and spray the bedspreads and the bathrooms and always wear socks, never barefoot, in the room.

What is the difference between hotel sex and regular sex?

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel, too.

I just don't fret about stuff like that very much.

One of the girls I work with says hotel sex is always better than at home!

Me three. I just don't sweat these things. There's germs everywhere....

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

I'll agree, there's germs everywhere. However, in the cold, flu and stomach bug season (right now) I do extra handwashing and I will wipe off the shopping cart handle.
As for the bedspread that's rarely laundered, that's just gross and disgusting and I do not want to come into contact with it.

Actually, the handles on the stepper and elliptical at the gym probably gross me out the most. I always head right to the rest room for a soapy, not handwash after workouts.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Well hotel sex is fancier right? I don't know vacation sex, hotel sex is more exciting maybe because for that one night or two days or one week you have no resposibilities. I am not sure maybe the different bed and room. And sometimes we plan hotel sex but instead we just have restaurant dinner, bar drinks and hotel tv and go to sleep LOL.

And some people have nasty sex in a hotel. My friend who used to clean rooms has some horror stories about bloody rooms complete with "liver clumps" and all. Poop in the bed and empty bottles of lube on the nightstand. Empty drug bags and used paraphenalia, broken underwear, are just some of the goodies not to mention vibrators, butt plugs and some things that she did not know what they were.

I am much less afraid of the germs in a school than in a motel room. I doubt that there is much sperm and menstrual matter splattered around the classrooms like there is in a hotel room. Sorry to be gross LOL.

__________________
The political system is broke and it's a joke.

Yeah, but we have poop and throw up flying around on a regular basis.....LOL

I am with you. I get pretty grossed out in Hotels. DH gives me a hard time for packing my own coffee maker etc Thank God for clorox wipes. Also, the more you pay does not mean a cleaner room. Ugh, my skin is crawling at the thought.

I am sorry, but what is a liver clump?

A big lump that comes out during your period. Sorry for being gross.

__________________
The political system is broke and it's a joke.

My God, I had never thought about half of that crap, and wish I hadn't now. I knew the bedspreads were nasty and to avoid them, and I don't take a bath in the bathtub. But it never occured to me to worry about the carpet and stuff, nor the coffee pot. I have always enjoyed hotel rooms! And yes, hotel sex is better! Something about out of your usual or something. Never heard of the liver thing either, yuck!!!!

Do some of you try to get into the kitchens of the restaurants you eat at to wash the food service items they will use for you? Make the prep folks wash their hands before they prepare your food? Make sure your steak isn't accidently dropped on the floor and then grilled?

Inspect factories where pre-packaged food is assembled?

Wash your hands before eating when out after you've touched countless "things" along the way in your day?

Watch how some health care "professionals" come in the room with gloves on, do charting, move the trash can, adjust the equipment and then want to examine you?

While it pays to be careful and observant, the list could go on of what anyone is exposed to, not just in hotel rooms!

The new "in thing" about the shopping carts and all the stores being so great with having the wipes available is, well, nice. But I chuckle at all the other things being "contaminated" and not being wiped!!!!

dl

Amen! Stop worrying about stuff like this. Be moderately careful and wash your hands. Live your life!

I have to go with debblast on this one. I think you could make yourself crazy thinking about what's clean and not clean.
I consider myself a clean person but I really don't worry about germs all that much. I wash my hands and try to keep them away from my face as much as possible.

For years my job included heavy cash handling and I have to tell ya, money has to be one of the nastiest things we handle on a daily basis. You don't even want to know all the places I have seen money pulled from on a persons body.

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

This is a very timely topic for me. This past weekend I was staying in what I thought was a reputable chain hotel in a major city. Well, as I was getting ready to go to bed I noticed small red bugs crawling on my pillow.Of course, we made a big stink with the management and ended up getting switched to a new room. The hotel also gave us our room for free. When we talked to the manager he said that the bed linens were clean and had been changed. My response: there is hair on the pillow so there is no way the pillows were changed. Anyway, needless to say, I had a pretty bad sleep, even in the new room.

a friend of ours was traveling with her hubby and 2 small kids and stayed at a very well known hotel for 4 days and all of them had scabies. I have always taken my own sheets and sprayed the mattress with lysol before I put the sheets on. the bedspread goes into the closet.

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I'm not sure what the poster had in mind, but, I remember one time DH and I were staying at a hotel with the kids......OMG, the noise (moaning, groaning, and then screaming) coming from the room above it.....I'm thinking that might have been "hotel sex". I'm telling you, I had to turn on the TV to drown out the noise, and it was 1am.

As for me, I used to be concerned with this, after watching some thing on Oprah.....Then, I just didn't sweat it. We don't walk bare foot on the hotel carpet, and use throw away cups there. If anything looks clearly not cleaned, I call House Keeping, and get it taken care of.

As for shopping carts, if there is a container of wipes nearby, I'll use one on the handle. If not, oh well.....I was more concerned with this when the kids were riding in the seat of the cart.

At my gym there are containers of disinfectant wipes near most every machine, and you are required to wipe them down after you use them. I wipe them before AND after, just to be sure.

I think all this use of anti-bacterial this and that has done more harm than good.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

OMG......I was scrolling up from the bottom of this thread, and came to this.....if you read just THIS, and not know the context....LMAO....just struck me as funny, and reminded me of neighbors we had in Hawaii......they LITERALLY had poop flying around. Thanks for the chuckle.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Is it just me or does anyone else think this way?

People have become to germaphobic these days. Not that washing your hands and being mindful of germs is a bad thing but I think we take it to extreme nowadays. I think with all this antibacterial stuff and not allowing our bodies to be exposed to normal everyday germs we are creating a society (for lack of a better word) of people who can't ward off common everyday things. I understand worrying about catching something but I also understand that the body has natural defenses against a lot of these things and by not allowing our bodies to build up these defenses we are actually making ourselves more susceptible to things. We are also causing things to mutate and become resistant to the cures. But that is just my opinion.

This is coming from someone who has OCD and cleans something over and over or lets a spec of fuzz on the carpet bug her to death.

When I go to a hotel I usually inspect the room for cleanliness and disrepair. I am funky about this. If the room doesn't appear clean or has items that have not been repaired I won’t stay in the hotel at all.

All of this reminds me why I LOVE our motorhome!
We are going to California (from KY) next week and DH does not want to take the RV.
He is afraid of weather and the price of gas.
I am upset, but since he does most of the driving and I could never back the thing out of the driveway, I guess we will have to go by van.
I am going to pack a can of those wipes and strip off the bedspreads tho!
If we have any gross encounters, I will post them when we get home!

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Square dancing is friendship set to music!

BTW...as an aside, you can check out the places you are going to stay along with "real people" reviews at :

Reviews of vacations, hotels, resorts, vacation and travel packages - TripAdvisor

I totally agree - when I first had my first baby, I was pretty germ-a-phobic. But as I heard more and more about how there are good germs and when you body is not exposed to some germs, it does not learn how to fight as well. We quit buying anti-bacterial soap a long time ago and I have loosened up a lot. I still teach my kids proper handwashing using soap and water and hygeine, but some things I don't worrry about.

As for the hotels, DH travels a lot and has gotten Athlete's foot several times, so us girls do not sit down in the tubs and we do not go barefoot. I just recently saw the report about the glasses and don't plan to use them anymore (though DH just rolls his eyes and calls me an alarmist). He says he's not worrying about all that stuff because he's in them too often.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

People walk around in motels with their clothes off. They have hairs and skin falling off them not to mention discharges, secretions, blood, urine, poop. In other situraions the people are not walking around naked and dripping. They hopefully don't stick their hand in their pants and scratch like a person walking around a motel does and they don't lose their pubic hairs around like naked people in a motel do.

And I always wipe the cart handle because people are sick and nasty and I don't want their nastiness in my eyes or mouth.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

Maybe if you are that germaphobic you might want to consider not traveling. I mean...what do you do in a dressing room in a store? Some people don't wear underwear at all. People lose pubic hair in bathrooms too. I mean..you could make yourself crazy over this.

When my mother was in another city in a hospital, we stayed at a nearby hotel. As we got ready to check out I stopped and changed my daughter's diaper and accidently got some poop on the bed. I pulled the sheets back so the spot would show for the maid and then left. Well it turned out I was able to stay a few more days and I went back to the same motel and got the same room. Yep! The same sheets were on the freshly made bed. I called the front desk and complained and I was given a new room and a discount. when I got to the new room I had them send the maid with fresh sheets and had her change the bed right in front of me.

I enjoy traveling and it's not that big a deal for me to wipe things down in the room. I should not have to but then I should not have to lock my front door either.And in a hotel people are acting like it's their home. They are laying around naked scratching and stuff. I doubt people in a dressing room hang around on the bench for two hours doing it or rubbung themselves at least not where I try on clothes. LOL People are dirty and nasty and many workers do not do their job. I don't want someone's flesh eating virus or their flu.

I thought this would be an interesting topic to discuss but I am not going to let other peoples' nastiness keep me from living.

And I am not bothered by dirt. When I am outside camping or playing I have no trouble at all.

What about the rest of you?

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

Don't ever drink from the glasses in hotel rooms. Our local TV station put hidden cameras in different hotel rooms and they saw the housekeeper rinse out the glasses, spray them with some kind of cleaner and use a sponge to clean them. She wiped the glasses off with a used towel. Then she used the same sponge to wipe the toilet. The housekeeper at the other hotel rinsed off the glasses and didn't even remove the lipstick mark that the TV station put there on purpose. This is really gross! I believe that this happens in most hotel rooms. You never see them collect the glasses anywhere on their carts. I'm freaked out by all the gross things that were mentioned. I'll have to bring Lysol with me to spray everything. The TV remote is supposed to be covered with bacteria too.

heheh looked up hubby's hotel, someone complained about the construction even though there wasnt anyone actually building that weekend. um yeah there's construction their adding a water park to the hotel there's going to be some. Elves dont pop out at night and it's magically built!

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Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com

My other favorites
www.paperbackswap.com
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Please dont' think I'm picking on you personally annadrose, but I'm just really curious what you do in other public situations, lke public bathrooms or changing rooms in stores. We are all losing hair (pubic and otherwise) and skin on a regular basis. People cough and sneeze openly all over.

And people DO walk around in places like grocery stores and other places and scratch themselves (and I'm talking men and women here) and then turn around and touch the things in the grocery store on the shelves....fruit etc. I've seen it personally.

I understand you are concerned with the hotel room thing, but there is so much stuff you DON'T see that happens in your regular day that you probably don't wanna know about. I guess what I'm saying is, for all the cleaning you would do in that hotel room, you are probably coming in contact with worse stuff during your regular day, and don't even know about it.

I wrestle with OCD tendencies in myself (not speaking for you, anna, speaking for myself)...

I really have had to try to come to terms with it all and use this trait about myself in a positive manner because I really can't bear to go through life with so much anxiety about things that are out of my control! It hit home when I was called a "control freak" by someone who didn't know me very well and it was TRUE -- yikes, I don't want to be that way! I have children and a dear patient husband... they don't need a mom/wife like that.

That said, no, I don't clean anything in motels. Sometimes I have to turn a blind eye.

But ... to tell you the truth ... we now make an attempt to stay at Motel 6 because I've noticed that their rooms (newer ones especially) always smell like bleach, LOL, have crisp white sheets that can be bleached, etc. This after a long road trip in which we stayed at two different luxury motels before we made an emergency stop (flat tire, blowout!) for the last night on the way home.

So yes, I do share a little bit with your anxiety I just try really hard to temper it -- which can be a chore and I don't like to do chores on vacation!!!

I love my RV as others have stated...I cleaned it, and all of my stuff is there. Never wake up with a sore back, and no problem heating up chili (or anything else for that matter. We camp in ours but mostly take trips and use it as a hotel. There are rv parks everywhere, at the ocean (some you can actually stay directly on the ocean), other tourist type areas (like Gettysburg or Grand Canyon etc). Its cheaper, and there is WAY more for the kids to do, usually a game room, pool, hot tub, planned activites and sometimes a full time activities director for the children. Some have restaurants, so you can buy pizza, subs or fried chicken dinners right on site if you dont want to cook (plus its fun to stop at the local seafood restaurants or take out shacks). We got a new one last year, and have been doing this for about 7 years. I wouldnt go any other way...
Plus, the stuff you have,
we keep good nylon kites in there for the beach, life jackets stored under a seat (we sometimes take a rowboat if there are fishing opportunities,). For the past two years, we have been staying in a waterfront site on Thousand Islands, and the same family has been staying in the cabin next door. They take our boys jetskiing and tubing all around the lagoon. Good thing we had those life vests, otherwise we would have missed an awesome opportunity.
I cant imagine any other way.
Also, RV has aa queen bedroom, and bunk beds for the boys, and a full bath...who can beat that (plus the above mentioned trip cost $17 a night, for waterfront)
I should do a commercial for the RV industry

Ummm.....wait a minute....you forgot to factor in the cost of the RV in your per night charge. I think it might not compare quite as favorably as your commercial portrays.

My husband has tried to use the same logic on me for a big honking truck for the purpose of hauling plywood (2x per year). I didn't buy that one either!

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

As long as I never come across anything like this
Urban Legends Reference Pages: The Body Under the Bed

I'm ok with hotels.
I don't use the bedspreads tho, or pillows. But I don't ever use any pillow that isn't mine, not even my own kids, other people's sleep drool is not where I want my face to be!

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Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking

It really depends. We bought our RV for $20,000. Our payments are $200 a month. We use it about 4 to 6 nights a month, year around. With seven kids we have to have two hotel rooms even if they dont all come with us. You figure that up and the RV is a savings plus we have our own bed anywhere we go. I love RVing!

We have a travel trailer also. We consider the payments "entertainment expense" because it's so much fun and serious family time. You also save a lot on food because you cook most of your own versus going out. We haven't gotten to use ours the last couple years as much as we want because the girls are at that age where they are always busy, but we'll get back to using it all the time again. In the meantime, we continue to make the payments...

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

We also look at travel trailers. DH has a pickup and I have a small SUV so pulling it would be no problem. We would love to just be able to pull up in front of Mom's house or at the beach or in the mountains or wherever.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

CJS, we bought out first used tt (25 footer with full bath), twelve years old for three thousand dollars. We used it for about six or seven years, and sold it for three thousand dollars (we originally got a good deal, and maintained it well). With this three thousand, I added another sixthousand to get a repo'ed 2 year old TT last summer. It's a 2005 Fleetwood Wilderness Yukon Ultralite 29 footer...weight is 4150, and we tow it with our dodge. so we still have no payment, and the 9,000 we have spent for the past 8 years, plus what we will have going forward makes it well worth it. We have been everywhere from Disney (Ft Wilderness, we pd 49 for a campsite off season), to Canada (parks in Niagara and 1000 islands, and Montreal,) Cape Cod, Williamsburg, Great Smokey Mtns National Park, Williamsburg VA etc
We take an average of four large vacations per year, with numerous "little trips" in between, to places like the Adirondaks, Gettysburg, Lancaster, Cape May to name a few. We live in PA. I pay anywhere from 15 dollars a night to 50, depending on private or state park, or what amenities the parks have (we go to on one with a freee water park, but it costs 50 a night to stay there).
Also, food costs are cut way down, and people who say they like to eat out and do no cooking and cleaning on vacation havent tried it. I usually make stuff like taco meat and such for easy lunches, and we can afford to eat dinner out. there is not much clean up as you can use paper plates, and even if you mess up the whole trailer, it does not take lcong to clean it up. Gas mileage is not increased significantly, because we have an ultralight, which is the only reason we got a new camper.
Just wanted you all to have the facts

edited to add...here is a website I visit often, they have chat forums for everything from tent camping to people that actually live out of their rv's....I get lots of good advice from these people, including ideas of where to visit, if my trailer was a good deal, or a storage idea or something...
www.rv.net/forums

we have thought about an RV but the one my DH likes is over $20K and we would not use it enough to make it cost effective...especially with gas prices but I appreciate the info on them

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

You can get really nice ones for a lot less than $20K. We bought ours new for $14K at the RV show. It has a small, but full bath, microwave, CD/stereo player/gas stove/oven/fridge/freezer/pantry/queen bed with matress warmer/bunk beds for the kids, etc., etc.

We started in a tent, moved to a pop up, moved to this and eventually want a C-Class - one of the small driveable ones.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

the difference between hotel sex and regular sex??? My friend would tell you regular sex is with your wife(or dh),hotel sex is usually with someone else's wife..(or dh) lol

ROTFLMAO

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Due to length this thread willnow be closed

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