No, I'm totally pissed off beyond one’s wildest dreams. You've been to my house Rose, even the grout to our tile is scrubbed with a brush regularly and our animals are bathed monthly. There may be clutter around here and dog snot on the patio doors but my basement and garage floors are swept out and bleached regularly. I'm just a glorified housewife these days and I assumed people who cleaned professionally would be more diligent and conscientious than me. I expected those hotels to be cleaner than my home and evidently they're cesspools for disease.
Here are some of my thoughts and I sort of hesitate to share them. I live in a county where there are over 30 documented cases of leprosy where once there was only one not to mention all of the antibiotic resistant TB or cases of Hepatitis C walking around. Granted, we do have a disproportionately high number of illegal aliens and migrant workers where I live. Many of whom refuse to seek medical attention because they're too afraid of being deported… it's a sad reality but people like me only get called once or maybe twice a month to drive someone to a free clinic or to the county hospital. Bottom line, there are a lot of people out there with infectious diseases walking around untreated and I suspect these numbers are higher in border states.
We're staying in a "decent" hotel here real soon for about 10 days and we're staying at another "decent" in a different state in March for about 10 days again and I told my husband to cancel our reservations and switch to a Hotel 6 place for both trips even before Ron-NY commented above. And I do sincerely thank you for your comments Ron and you too swamprad and goldenrose. My husband told me the Hotel 6 place may have single use glasses but said that at $80-$90 a night he highly doubted if they were dry cleaning or laundering their bedspreads with any regularity and that the odds of any carpeting in the rooms being professionally cleaned other than when there was a noticeable spill were highly unlikely and even then it was probably only spot cleaning. He has a valid point given cost containment practices which most assuredly are in place at more affordable hotels. I called both hotels this morning and gave them our reservation numbers and instructed them to make sure all pillows were in protective covers and that all bedspreads/coverlets were to be removed before we checked in. And this is now what I will do anytime we go on vacation. If we’re cold, we can turn up the heat in the room or call for room service to bring us more blankets.
I am not a whacko clean freak. We don't use anti bacterial soaps around here, I don't run around with a can of Lysol spraying door knobs, kids run around like animals getting filthy dirty outside all the time, they swim in lakes and ponds, our pets sleep in bed with us, I routinely volunteer in places where there are some particularly nasty staphs going around and I will cheerfully drive people who can’t afford public transportation or who don’t drive to free clinics when called to do so and I gladly wait to drive them back home again. Granted, I do leave the car windows cracked since I'm never told why they are going to see a doctor. I do ask that everyone here at home sneeze or cough into their elbows, bathe daily using soap (yup, caught one kid not using shampoo on his hair for a few weeks because of having gotten soap in his eyes the last time he used shampoo), brush teeth, wash hands a lot, and wear clean clothing everyday (sniff tests of underwear are unacceptable around here when kids are too lazy to open up a drawer to get a clean pair).
I am not afraid of AIDS, bed lice, or body lice; big deal. I am afraid of what I don’t know or understand and feel violated over this drinking glass/bedspread/coverlet/pillow deal. There are work arounds that I could have practiced if I had only known. Not allowing anyone to use the glasses in our rooms and not allowing anyone to eat any fruit from the baskets comes to mind as being two very simple things I could have been doing all along- instead my whole family has been exposed to Lord only knows what. I'm just a Mom doing the best I can. Being enlightened about these hotel rooms has made me want to cry.
Is there anything else anyone can add to this hotel deal that I should be aware of? I'd really prefer to be informed. Sort of like the way the schools send notes home when kids have anything infectious from head lice to strep throat to TB or meningitis. If we at least know what to be on the look out for, we tend to catch health conditions before they spin out of control.
Editing because husband said it is a very small world out there and that this board is open to non-subscribers. Didn't realize that.
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