After guests checked out of a corner room at the hotel, Luz Espejo collected enough trash to fill seven garbage bags.
She stripped the linens from the beds, wiped dust off furniture and scrubbed the toilet and bathtub. She got on her hands and knees to pick up the confetti that the vacuum failed to pick up.
It was already one of the toughest jobs in the hotel industry when the Hilton Hawaiian Village eliminated daily housekeeping service.
The move away from daily cleaning is driven by customer preferences according to industry insiders. It has more to do with profit and has allowed hotels to cut the number of workers at a time when many of the immigrant women who take those jobs are still reeling from the coronaviruses.
Many workers say their hours have been cut and they are being asked to do more work.
Espejo, a 60-year-old originally from the Philippines who has cleaned rooms at the world's largest hotel for 18 years, was laid off during the H1N1 epidemic. We can't finish cleaning our rooms.
There were 670 people working at the Hilton Hawaiian Village before the Pandemic. More than two years later, 150 of them have not been hired back or are on-call status. A few weeks ago, the number not hired back or on call stood at 300.
D. Taylor, president of Unite Here, a union representing hotel workers, said that this is all about more money in the owners pocket by putting a greater workload on the frontline workers.
When hotels started experimenting with less frequent cleaning in the name of sustainable, it became more widespread when they started promoting social distancing and other safety protocols, and sometimes only after staying a certain number of days. Guests were told to leave trash outside their door and to call the front desk for clean towels.
As safety restrictions fade and demand increases, many hotels are keeping their new cleaning policies in place.
A representative from the company was not available for an interview about the policies at any of the company's properties. Representatives for several major hotel chains, including Marriott and Caesars Entertainment, either declined to be interviewed or did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association, a trade group whose members include hotel brands, owners and management companies, said it was the demands of guests, not hotel profits, that guided decisions about pandemic housekeeper services.
He said that a lot of guests don't want people in their room.
He said that the standard of most hotel guests wanting daily cleaning was changed by the Pandemic.
Depending on the type of hotel, luxury hotels tend to provide daily housekeeping unless guests opt out, according to Rogers.
Ben and his family stayed at the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort on Hawaii's Big Island in March.
He said that his wife and he have never really understood why there would be daily housekeeping.
He said he expects his kids to tidy up.
He said that he doesn't need someone else to make his bed because he is a type A.
Hotel workers are trying to get the message out that turning down daily room cleaning is bad for workers.
Martha Bonilla, who has worked at the Caesars Atlantic City Hotel and Casino in New Jersey for 10 years, said she wants guests to ask for daily cleaning because it makes her job easier. Some guests at hotels in N.J. turn it down because they don't like daily cleaning.
Bonilla, originally from the Dominican Republic, is a single mother of a 6-year-old daughter.
The ones who threw confetti in Hawaii left behind filthy rooms, and it isn't the only partying guests that leave behind filthy rooms. Even with typical use, rooms that are left dirty for days are hard to restore to their former glory.
Elvia Angulo is the main earner in her family. She worked two or three days a month for the first year. The number of people working each shift has been reduced from 25 to 12 because the rooms are no longer cleaned daily.
Angulo, who is from Mexico, said that he now has his five days back and his salary is the same. You have five days of scum in the bathroom if you don't clean a room for five days. It is scum over scum.
Many workers are not getting enough hours to be eligible for benefits.
The benefits at her job used to make her really enjoy it. Since returning to work after being laid off, she has not qualified for health insurance.
She said that she wanted to wait and see if her hours change at the hotel.
She said there are not many other job options with hours that are convenient for having two children in school.
The Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu, where many hotel workers live, is where politicians are picking up on the issue.
Almost every time I talk to people at their doors, I meet someone who works in a hotel and then we talk about how they are being treated and what is happening.
Legislators introduced a resolution requesting Hawaii hotels to immediately rehire or recall employees who were laid off or placed on leave because of the swine flu.
If that isn't enough, he would be open to more aggressive measures like those taken in other places. Emergency legislation was passed in Washington, D.C. in April that requires hotels to serve rooms daily unless guests opt out.
The rules mean more hours for a woman who has worked at the Washington Hilton for 22 years. She wants her husband to have health insurance.
She does not want to find a new job.
There was snow in Phoenix.
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