New York, NY — September 12, 2016 – The thought of sleeping in a hotel bed with dirty sheets is completely gross, but that’s exactly the dirty secret INSIDE EDITION exposes when we checked in at certain hotels. In an investigation airing on Tuesday, INSIDE EDITION puts hotels to the test – the program came up with a unique way to find out whether you may be sleeping on dirty sheets – and the results might make you think twice before getting under the covers.
The program booked rooms at nine different hotels and each time sprayed a harmless and washable fluorescent paint onto the bed sheet, using a stencil that reads, “I Slept Here.” The paint is invisible to the naked eye – you can only see what’s on the sheets by turning on a ultra-violet light.
At The Candlewood Inn & Suites in Manhattan, INSIDE EDITION checked out leaving the dirty sheets with the invisible message. But were the sheets changed? The next day, INSIDE EDITION booked the exact same room – but under a different name. When we examined the sheets under the UV light, shockingly, the same message – ‘I Slept Here’ – appeared. The sheets hadn’t been changed between guests.
When INSIDE EDITION asked the manager why the sheets weren’t changed, she replied, “I expect them to be changed every day, and that is a policy of our property.”
Was this just a simple mistake or a common occurrence – a dirty secret widespread in the hotel industry?
At a La Quinta Inn & Suites not far from Central Park, INSIDE EDITION again sprayed ‘I Slept Here’ on the bed sheets. When they returned the next day under a new reservation, INSIDE EDITION again found that the sheets were not changed.
When INSIDE EDITION asked to speak with the manager, he arrived to the room with a maid. She claimed she cleaned the sheets, but when the program showed them the ‘I Slept Here’ message from the previous day, they both apologized.
The manager said, “I mean, there’re no words for me to say. We expect the housekeepers to change the sheets.”
At a Residence Inn by Marriott, a hotel rated one diamond by the AAA, INSIDE EDITION spray painted the word, ‘Yuck,’ on the top of the sheet and ‘I Slept Here’ on the bottom sheet. Sure enough, when they checked in to the same room under a different name the following day, the UV lights revealed the words ‘Yuck’ and ‘I Slept Here’ still there – the sheets had not been changed.
The manager didn’t want to speak with INSIDE EDITION at first, but then stated, “We make it a custom to change every check out room sheet. However, I do not know what happened in this situation.” The Marriott Corporation apologized for what happened.
All of the hotels where INSIDE EDITION found dirty sheets stated that they take this issue seriously and took immediate action to ensure this does not recur, all saying they take great pride in the high standards of cleanliness throughout their hotels.
All in all, INSIDE EDITION checked into nine different hotel rooms, and three did not change the sheets.
For INSIDE EDITION’s full report, tune in on Tuesday, September 13. Check local listings for stations and times at www.insideedition.com.
Editor's Note: Kudos to the hotels that passed the sheet test.
