Viral TikTok Video Highlights Social Media’s Role in Cleanliness, Accountability

A recent viral TikTok video of a hotel room not only reveals its unclean conditions, but also highlights social media’s newer role in keeping the cleaning industry on its toes in terms of cleanliness and accountability.

According to WRBL-TV, vacationer Brooks Strickland posted a TikTok video last week of a room at the Ocean Star Hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he and his family planned to stay during their trip. Strickland’s video revealed unsanitary conditions within the room, including uncleaned toilets; mold and holes in the bathtub; water damage on the dressers, TVs, bed, and ceiling; and what appeared to be bloodstains on the sofa.

Strickland told WRBL his family immediately vacated the hotel room but was initially denied a refund. Strickland said he repeatedly tried to contact the owner for days and was ignored. Eventually, he was told the owner was out of town.

“That’s when I told [hotel management], ‘Well, look, if something doesn’t happen soon, I am going to take this video to social media,’” Strickland told WRBL.

Strickland then posted the video to TikTok, which as of Friday had nearly 14,000 likes. He said the owner contacted him one day after the video was posted, apologized, and gave him a refund for the room.

After refunding the price of the room, the owner texted Strickland multiple times, asking him to take the video down and offering to refund the entire trip. However, the owner also gave Strickland a deadline of 15 minutes to remove the video.

“It just makes it look like it’s been going on for so long that they can just pay their way out of it,” Strickland said. “I wouldn’t feel right taking it down at that point.”

Strickland said he plans on keeping the video on his TikTok account.

According to WRBL, the hotel’s management blamed the moisture from the beach. The owner was reportedly unavailable for further comment.