Hotel Housekeepers Rally for Restored Daily Room Cleanings

About two dozen housekeeping and service staff from the Hilton Hotel in downtown Hartford, Connecticut rallied outside the building last week calling on hotel management to restore daily guest room cleanings, which they say will restore union jobs, the Hartford Courant reports.

The protest was one of several led by hospitality labor union Unite Here that occurred across 30 cities on Thursday. Hilton housekeeping workers, who are represented by Unite Here, say they’ve remained unemployed or underemployed despite hotel capacity inching back toward pre-pandemic levels.

“We see guests paying similar prices to those they paid before the pandemic, but the service is reduced, fewer workers work, and those who do work harder for the same pay,” said Josh Stanley, secretary and treasurer of Unite Here Local 217.

Hilton ended automatic daily housekeeping at all non-luxury hotel brands during the pandemic and made the policy permanent this summer. Now guest rooms are cleaned every five days during longer stays and upon guest checkout. Union representatives contend that the end of daily housekeeping is an effort to reduce customer expectations while reducing labor costs.

Guests still have the option of receiving daily cleaning upon request. However, they may have to wait longer for service as housekeeping staff at the 392-room hotel in Hartford has decreased from 46 people to 32, according to union representatives.

Housekeeper Desire Franqui said her weekly hours have decreased from 40 to eight. Her one weekly shift is busier than before as she’s gone from being responsible for the daily cleaning of 15 rooms to checkout cleanings of 13 rooms, which take longer to complete. In the absence of daily cleaning, Franqui and other staff said they also receive rooms in much worse condition. They described walking into rooms with filthy toilets, dirty linens, and food garbage left behind by guests unable to use the closed hotel restaurant.