Hotels
Hotels Add ‘Panic Buttons’ to Protect Housekeepers From Guests
- Public policy raises standards for management to address abuse
- ‘They feel they have a right to the lady who cleans the room’
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
One guest at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle opened his door naked and urged housekeeper Ely Dar to come in. Another offered her money in exchange for a massage. A guest once told her she was beautiful, then grabbed her in a hug from behind and called after her when she ran away.
In 17 years as a hotel housekeeper, Dar has been propositioned and pursued, and leered at by guests too many times to count. A 60-year-old immigrant from the Philippines, she’s worked at the same Seattle hotel for most of her time in the U.S. because the pay and health benefits beat the alternatives. But she goes to work each day worried about what a customer might try to do: “I don’t trust any of the guests,” she said.