Are hotel housekeepers sexually accosted by guests very often? Jacob Tomsky provides the answer:
Sadly, yes. And more often than you’d think. It’s not an everyday occurrence but it happens enough to make this question all too familiar: “Mr. Tomsky, can you give the new girl Room 3501 until next Tuesday? That man is back, the one who loves to let his robe fall open every time I try to clean.” So, yes, we assign the room to the new girl.
But not before hotel managers roll up to the room, flanked by security guards, to request that the guest vacate during cleaning, or at least promise to remain fully clothed or risk expulsion. Often it need not be discussed in detail: those guests who can’t seem to tie their robe properly usually know exactly what they’re guilty of. Typically, an unsolicited phone call from management inquiring if the service in their room is up-to-standard, and offering to send a manager to supervise the next cleaning, improves their behavior. I remember one exhibitionist guest, in New Orleans, cutting me off before I could get down to business:
“Sir, this is Jacob, the housekeeping manager — ”
“O.K., fine, O.K.!” And he hung up. That was that.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t really surprise me. Honestly, though — and I suppose I’m just being naive here — I’m surprised hotels don’t have a no-tolerance policy for this kind of stuff: do it once and you’re thrown out and blacklisted forever. What’s the justification for extending even the slightest forbearance toward this kind of behavior?
UPDATE: Money, of course. Eric Hines tweets the answer: “Because luxury hotels would go out of business if they blacklisted every rich guy unaccustomed to women saying no.”
UPDATE 2: Then again, maybe not. Though in the context of a hotel, I suspect it’s easier to distinguish real sexual harrassment from the accidental kind than Megan suggests.
