Few people travel as often as flight attendants, so it might be wise to heed their warnings about hotel sanitation.
TikTok creator and flight attendant @t_marie_the_fa_bartender on June 1 posted a video about what not to use in hotel rooms. The video currently has almost 12,000 views and more than 700 likes.
@t_marie_the_fa_bartender Lets talk about what not to do FA style! Im giving some tips! What else do ya’ll want to know #hotel #traveltiktok #dontdoit #flightattendant #blackflightattendants #nonrevlife #travellife #hotelsecrets ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
The creator’s first tip: Don’t use those shampoo and body wash dispensers that are installed in the shower unless they’ve been secured. The creator said they’ve heard horror stories about people putting Nair and “other crazy things” in the dispensers.
More tips from @t_marie_the_fa_bartender: Avoid Keurig coffee makers (hard to clean out) and cups not wrapped in plastic (who knows how long they’ve sat out and who’s touched them).
The camera then cuts to an ice bucket. “I’ve heard people have done the unmentionables in those, so just use the little plastic bag,” the creator said.
Don’t sit on furniture without spraying disinfectant, the creator advised, adding, “Don’t forget your Microban to spray the room down.”
One commenter asked if airport security would really let someone carry as large a can of the sanitizing spray as the creator. They replied, “Only for Flight Attendants going on a work trip.”
“By the time I’m done with wiping down all hard surfaces and spraying my alcohol bottle is almost done,” one person commented.
“I travel with a mini spray bottle and I spray everything with alcohol til damp and let it dry. All sheets and upholstery,” another wrote. The creator replied, “I’ve gone through tons of microban since starting! I need to invest in stock.”
Another viewer commented, “Get the camera detector. Insane how many cameras are hidden. They are cheap on Amazon.”
Update 2:22pm CT, June 12: When reached for comment, @t_marie_the_fa_bartender told the Daily Dot via Instagram direct message that they were inspired to create the helpful video after friends kept asking about their travels. “I was bored in my hotel room one day, and decided to record,” the flight attendant said. “Traveling can be stressful but making sure you’re safe & checking everything can be helpful to your health and loved ones back home.”
If you poke around online for hotel sanitation techniques, there are plenty of articles to reinforce your germ paranoia. Reader’s Digest recommends you clean everything in a hotel room yourself, basically—remotes, light switches, desks—especially in the pandemic.
The magazine wrote in 2020, “One study from September 2020 published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases found COVID germs on eight of 22 hotel room surfaces tested, as well as on the pillow covers, sheets, and duvets of two rooms where presymptomatic people who then tested positive stayed.”
And according to a 2023 Reader’s Digest article, ice buckets are indeed cause for particular horror, since they could contain norovirus from previous guests who used them as vomit buckets. (Ew.)
Is any lodging safe for hypochondriacs on the go? The experts at AAA in 2019 tallied up its inspectors’ ratings of the cleanest hotels. New York City, Houston, and Washington, D.C., took the top slots for cities.
For more recent hotel cleanliness content, a TikTok creator recently explained why the in-room coffee makers are a no-go.
