Footage shows cleaners using dirty towels and sponges to wipe cups and sinks (video)

Four of the world’s biggest hotel chains have apologised after footage revealed cleaners’ gross behaviour in guests’ bathrooms. 

At least four major international hotel chains have apologised after a hidden camera video exposing gross cleaning practices in rooms was posted online. 

The 11-minute video taken from inside hotel rooms in China, which was uploaded on the Chinese social media site Weibo, shows cleaners using dirty towels and sponges to wipe cups and sinks. In some cases, the same towel is also used to clean the toilet.

The Shangri-La, Park Hyatt, Waldorf Astoria and Sheraton are among the hotels who have responded to the footage, the Associated Press reported.

The Shangri-La Hotel in Fuzhou said the actions in the video violated its hygiene standards, while the Park Hyatt in Beijing called it an isolated occurrence.

Dirty towels were used to clean surfaces. Picture: Huazong/WeiboSource:Supplied

The Waldorf Astoria in Shanghai and the Sheraton in Guiyang city also apologised and said they were reviewing their procedures.

An activist blogger who uses the pseudonym “Huazong” posted the video on Weibo late on Wednesday last week, local time.

It was picked up by Chinese media and had been shared 78,000 times by Thursday afternoon.

Hilton and Marriott group properties were among the 14 luxury hotels included in the video, AP reported.

Beijing tourism authorities issued a statement requiring hotels to check and rectify their practices. It also said it had asked the Beijing health commission to conduct sanitary inspections of four of the hotels named in the video.

One cleaner used their uniform to clean a cup. Picture: Huazong/WeiboSource:Supplied

Last year, a damning investigation by an independent Chinese testing team exposed dodgy hygiene standards by major hotel chains in Beijing.

The team, Lanmei Test, tested the Intercontinental, Hilton, Shangri-La, and JW Marriott and its subsidiary W Hotels in Beijing, and released a six-minute video of its results.

The video shows the team checking in to hotel rooms and stamping sheets, quilt covers, pillows, bathtubs, toilets and glasses with a fluorescent stamp that is invisible under normal lighting. In the video, they show how easily the stamp can be removed with just water or wiping. They then mess up the room to make it look like it has been used and then check-out.

The next day, the team returns with a UV light to examine the stamps. The stamp is intact on almost everything in the room.

We are stunned by their performance. The bed linen in these five hotels haven’t been changed after we checked out, one investigator said.