I know this may sound strange to some people, but whenever I travel, there is one small item I usually have with me: Hypo – a brand of household bleach.
Not because I don’t trust hotels. It is because, after more than a decade of inspecting and visiting over 1,000 hotel toilets, I have learnt that what a hotel says it does and what actually happens on the floor can sometimes be two different things.
A recent Facebook post by one Chukwurah Onyekachi brought this issue back to mind. A guest reportedly discovered human waste in a bucket inside a hotel bathroom. I will not dwell on the details, but the post raises a very important question:
How seriously are we really taking hygiene and sanitation in our hotel rooms?
We talk a lot about hotel rooms being clean, but cleanliness and hygiene are not always the same thing. A room can be beautifully made, the bed neatly dressed, the bathroom sparkling and everything looking perfect. But what happens to the things we don’t immediately see?
How properly was the bathroom cleaned? Was the toilet properly disinfected? What about the shower area, bathroom bucket and other frequently touched surfaces? Infact does the hotel management provide provide proper and sufficient cleaning chemicals.
An SOP is only as good as the person implementing it. And this brings me to an area I have often expressed concern about (in-room glassware and other guest amenities).
Most hotel housekeeping SOPs allow room stewards to wash in-room glasses and cups in the wash-hand basin in the guest bathroom. In itself, this may not necessarily be a problem if the proper procedure is followed.
But here is where my concern lies. Before washing those glasses, has the basin itself been properly cleaned and sanitised? What has that basin been used for? What surfaces has the room steward just been cleaning? What cleaning cloth or sponge is being used? And are we really certain that the procedure is being followed every time?
In my experience, the problem is often not the SOP. It is the gap between the SOP and what happens in practice. This is why I have always suggested that hotels should seriously rethink the practice of making room stewards responsible for washing and replacing items such as tea cups, water glasses, tea spoons and other reusable in-room serviceware.
My preference is for F&B to take responsibility for the washing, sanitising and replenishment of these items.
Why?
Because housekeeping staff are moving through rooms, touching different surfaces and handling different materials as part of their work. The same hands and cleaning processes should not then be used to handle items that a guest will put directly into their mouth. And these days, proper supervision is rare.
Cross-contamination and the transfer of germs through surface contact should no longer be treated as a minor housekeeping issue.
If, for operational reasons, a hotel decides that Housekeeping must continue to manage these items, then I believe there should at least be a designated staff member specifically responsible for washing, sanitising and replenishing them-not the room steward who is cleaning the guest room and bathroom.
This is not about making housekeeping look bad. It is about designing better systems. Good hotels have good systems. But even good systems can fail when people become careless, rushed or complacent. That is why supervision, inspection and accountability remain so important.
Housekeeping is not simply about making a room look beautiful. It is one of the most important lines of defence in protecting the health, safety and experience of the guest.
And perhaps, as guests, we also need to be a little more conscious. Before settling into a hotel room, take a few minutes to look around. If something doesn’t look right, speak up and ask for it to be corrected.
Because in hospitality, what the guest sees is important. But what the guest doesn’t see may be even more important.
Chibuikem Diala, FITPN, MTHC, ARPA
Managing Partner, Hotel Human Capital Strategy |
Founder, HHC Middle-Level Managers’ Workshop (helping to bridge the gap between being a detailed hotel supervisor and becoming an effective hotel leader).
hotelhumancapital@gmail.com
September 27, 2026